Tour of the WorldPart 2

Song China, South East Asia, Europe, the Americas

The Mongol Invasions

1000-1300

Song China

• After nearly 50 years of regional fighting after the fall of the Tang Dynasty, this new dynasty was consolidated in 976

• This brought nearly three centuries of economic prosperity for the Song with which they were able to pay off potential invaders on their borders

• In the period 1000-1300, China was far and away the most populous and wealthy state in the world

Internal economy

• Unlike the rest of Afro-Asia, China’s economic fortunes did not rely on foreign trade, but on a vibrant domestic economy

• They had enough food (thanks to advances in agriculture) to feed their massive population and had a sophisticated manufacturing sector (porcelain, silk, textiles, iron, etc.)

• Trade was more of a nuisance than something to be pursued – they could already produce everything they wanted

A money economy

• One of the things that China did lack was precious metals with which to mint coins – their development outstripped their ability to keep enough cash in circulation

• This was one of the few commodities that China needed from the outside world in order to sustain its economy

• One of their major innovations was to print and circulate paper money

Song paper money

Song coins

Printed book from Song period

Running the state

• In order to take power away from the nobility the Song developed a sophisticated civil service to manage the country

• Rigorous civil service exams based on Confucian philosophy meant that the “best and the brightest” the country could create were drafted into service

• The civil service became the country’s new elite

South East Asia

• Influenced both by the culture and economy of China and India as well as the people and goods which flowed in through Indian Ocean trade

• Island cultures accepted new cultural influences but were able to maintain their distinctive cultures

• New kingdoms emerged, fuelled by the economic prosperity brought by trade

Cultural Mosaic

• The influx of trade also brought with it the religion of Islam, which mixed with Buddhist and Hindu traditions from India

• For example, in present-day Cambodia the Kingdom of the Khmer flourished, bringing together influences from other areas of South-East Asia as well as India

Temple at Angkor Wat

Europe

• In this period Western Europe had a vibrant economy (fuelled in part by trade) and a growing sense of unity under the spiritual leadership of the Pope in Rome

• Europeans (in the west and east) reclaimed agricultural lands from the forests, providing enough food to sustain a fast-growing population

• This period is known as the High Middle Ages and is seen as the pinnacle of medieval culture

Intellectual life

• One of the great achievements of the High Middle Ages was the foundation of universities (in Paris, Oxford, and Bologna)

• These centres of learning trained people in the arts (grammar, rhetoric, dialectic), as well as in law, medicine, and theology

• The systemization of knowledge allowed them to make advances in many fields

Notre Dame Cathedral, Paris

The Crusades

• The Crusades to the Holy Land were a reflection of a dual desire: to unite Christendom against a common enemy and for kings and knights to gain fortune and glory

• This represented the first unified European attempt to conquer foreign areas

• Calls for more crusades to the Holy Land continues until the 16th century

The Americas

• Although disconnected from Afro-Eurasia, commerce and expansion were transforming the Americas as well

• In the Andes the Chimu empire came to prominence in the coastal region, and Lake Titicaca in the highlands

• Both empires were characterized by having large cities and complex irrigation systems to grow crops to feed a growing population

North and Meso America

• The hybrid Toltec empire emerged around this time in Meso-America

• They built massive cities and relied on long-distance trade to fuel their economy

• They traded with many people, stretching from the Great Lakes in the north to the Gulf of Mexico in the south

The Mongols

• The Mongols were Nomadic tribes from the Asian steppes who lived by riasing livestock and periodic raids

• Starting in 1206 under Chinggis Khan, they began to create a massive empire through conquest

• First China, then South East Asia, then Central Asia, right up to the borders with Europe all fell to advancing Mongol armies

Consequences of conquest

• While the Mongol invasions changed the hierarchy of elites in the societies they conquered, they helped to accelerate trade over a vast area of Eurasia

• The invasions also transformed social fabric of the regions they touched by bringing in new cultural influences

Conclusion

• During the period 1000-1300 many areas of the world were being drawn into relationships with each other

• The Mongol conquests made those connections more permanent and more far reaching

• Next time we will look at how the different areas filled the vacuum left by the retreat of the Mongols