Chapter 10

Chapter 10: The Worlds of Christendom-Contraction, Expansion and Division

• Christian contraction in Asia and Africa
• Islam spread driving force in contraction of Christianity
• Asian Christianity
• Within century of Muhammed's death, Christianity had disappeared in Arabia
• Islamic forces seized Jerusalem and holy sites
• Syria and Persia Christians converted voluntary 
• If they didn't they could practice their religion only if they paid a special tax 
• African Christianity
• Coastal North African largely converted to Islam
• Coptic Church survived in Egypt
• Tolerated by Muslim rulers until Crusades and Mongol threat
• Ethiopian Christianity was exception
• Rulers of Axum adopted Christianity in 4th century 
• Developed distinctive traditions in isolation
• Byzantine Christendom: Building Roman Past
• Byzantine Empire=no clear starting point 
• Continuation of Roman Empire
• Byzantine advantages over Western empire
• Wealthier and un urbanized
• More defensible capital (Constantinople)
• Shorter frontier
• Access to Black Sea
• Stronger defense 
• Byzantine State
• Arab/Islamic expansion reduced size of Byzantine state
• Territory shrank when Europeans and Turks attacked
• Byzantine Church and Christian Divergence 
• Church closely tied to state
• Emperor head of both church and state
• Orthodox Christianity influenced by all of Byzantine life
• Cultural identity 
• Common people engaged in theological disputes
• Eastern Orthodoxy increasingly defined itself to Latin Christianity 
• Sense of religious different related East/West political difference 
• Rise of Islam, Constantinople and Rome remained sole hubs of Christianity 
• Schism in 1054, mutual excommunication 
• Crusades worsened situation
• Conversion of Russia
• Prince Vladimir of Kiev
• Orthodoxy transformed state of Russia, central to Russian identity 
• Top-down conversion 
• Western Christendom: Rebuilding in the wake of Roman collapse
• Western Europe on margins of world history 
• Removed from growing world trade routes
• Geography of Europe made political unity difficult 
• Moderate climate enabled population growth
• Political Life in Western Europe
• Roman Collapse
• Large-scale centralized rule vanished
• Europe population fell by 25% due to war and disease 
• Diminution of urban life
• Survival of classical and Roman heritage
• Germanic people substantially Romanized
• High prestige of things Roman
• Several Germanic kingdoms tried to recreate Roman-style unity
• Society and the Church 
• New kingdoms
• Decentralized society 
• Local variation 
• Social hierarchies 
• Serfdom displaced slavery 
• Catholic Church was major element of stability
• Hierarchy modeled Roman Empire
• Became very rich
• Conversion of Europe's non christians 

This chapter was very eye opening to see how much religion impacted society.  Church and state went hand in hand during these times and often times people had to follow the same religious beliefs as those in political power.  Today, it is so different in the United States.  Church and state are completely separate and I can't imagine how hard it would be to be forced to practice something you truly don't believe in.

Chapter 9

Chapter 9: The Worlds of Islam

• Birth of a new religion 
• Homeland of Islam
• Emerged from marginal region
• Arabian Peninsula
• Independent clans
• Variety of gods
• Arabia was important to East West trade routes
• On edge of Byzantine and Sassanid empires
• Arabs knew practices of these empires
• Judaism, Christianity, Zoroastriaism spread among Arabs
• Messenger and the message
• Prophet of Islam was Muhammad
• Beginning revelations from Allah 610 CE
• Orphaned
• Took to withdraw and meditation 
• Revelations recorded in Quaran 
• Radically new teachings 
• Monotheistic 
• Muhammad
• Return to old pure religion of Abraham
• Submission to Allah
• Five Pillars of Islam
• Transformed Arabia
• Rapid expansion
• Large scale conversion
• Fundamental differences between birth of Islam and Christianity 
• The making of an empire
• Arab state grew 
• War, conquest, tolerance 
• Long term raiding pattern
• New political organization greater mobilization 
• Limits of Arab expansion 
• Defeated by Sassanid Empire
• Conquered most of Spain, attacked France
• Reached Indus River
• Reasons for expansion
• Economic, communal, religious 
• Tolerant of Christians and Jews

I grew up Catholic and went to Catholic schools my entire life.  I learned all about Catholicism and what everything meant, however I was never exposed much to other religions until my senior year of high school.  I took a World Religions course and I loved it.  I truly enjoyed learning about the other religions, and while I didn't believe in these religions, I was always able to respect their beliefs and I enjoyed educating myself on those beliefs.  I enjoyed this chapter because it took me back to that class and learning about Islam.  I enjoyed learning about the history and spread of Islam, especially because it was such a radical change and new religion for the area it was born in.

Chapter 7

Chapter 7: Commerce and Culture

• Silk Road
• One of world's most extensive and sustained networks of exchange
• Especially influential in trade
• Growth
• Inner and outer Eurasia
• Products were exchanged for agricultural products and manufactured goods
• Trading networks did better when larger states provided security 
• Goods that travelled the roads
• Mainly luxury goods for elite 
• The high cost of transport didn't allow for the movement of staple goods
• Silk symbolized Eurasian exchange system 
• China had monopoly on silk
• Others began producing silk
• Symbol of high status 
• Small volume of trade, but economic and social aspects were important 
• Cultures
• Cultural exchange more important than exchange of goods
• Buddhism
• Spread through central and east Asia
• Appealed to merchants
• Conversion voluntary 
• Transformed during spread
• Disease in Transit 
• Long distance trade meant exposure to unfamiliar diseases
• Bubonic Plague 
• Killed 1/2 European population
• Death toll in Asia as well
• Sea Roads
• Mediterranean Sea
• Venice
• Controlled trade imports from Asia
• Indian Ocean network
• World's most important until after 1500
• Environmental and cultural diversity 
• Sea transportation cheaper than land transportation
• Bulk goods
• Trade between towns not states
• Trade began in 1st civilizations 
• India=fulcrum of trade
• Encounters
• Economic and political revival of China
• Rise of Islam
• Catalyst for change in Southeast Asia and East Africa
• Political change
• Introduction of foreign ideas 
• Rice production got more involved
• Indian culture spread
• Alphabet, art, religious ideas
• Sand Roads
• Commercial beginnings in West Africa 
• North Africa manufactured 
• Sahara copper and salt deposits 
• West Africa
• Camel
• 10 days without water
• Possible to cross Sahara
• Merchants wanted gold, ivory, slaves, kola nuts from W Africa
• Sahara major trade route
• Huge caravans
• Trade encouraged more political structures 
• Larger
• Monarchies with elaborate court life
• Slavery
• Most slaves women at 1st
• Male slaves used as officials, porters, craftsmen
• Captures from further south

This was a very interesting chapter to read.  It is so amazing to me how far our world has come in terms of trade, goods, and disease prevention.  Nowadays, if you want something from China in the US, it can get here in about two days.  At the time of these roads, things like silk was exciting and exotic, now we can just go to a store and buy it.  The way the Bubonic Plague spread is also insane to me...it took the lives of so many and now something like that happening is so unlikely because we have so many measures to prevent that.  Seeing the development and what humans are capable of is very impressive.

Chapter 6

Commonalities and Variations: Africa, the Americas, and Pacific Oceania

Continental Comparisons

• Basic similarities in development of human cultures everywhere
• Human migration
• Resulting in civilizations
• Important differences between civilizations in different regions
• Americas lacked animals for domestication
• Africa imported animals
• Writing was limited in Americas to Mesoamerica
• Fewer civilizations in Americas and Africa

Civilizations of Africa

• No common cultural identity in premodern era
• Great environmental variation
• Huge continent
• Most tropical super continent
• Nile Valley Civilization
• Ruled by all powerful monarch 
• Long distance trade source of wealth and military power

Mesoamerica

• Lack of interaction with other major cultures (including Americas)
• Rugged mountain terrain gave rise to micro-climates
• Extraordinary diversity of mesoamerican societies
• Maya: Writing and Warfare
• Mayan ceremonial centers
• Well known achievements
• Advanced mathematical system
• Elaborate calendars
• Most elaborate writing system in Americas
• Architecture 
• Maya economy
• Agriculture had large scale human engineering 
• City state political systems
• Frequent warfare
• Densely populated urban centers
• Rapid collapse after long term drought
• Teotihuacan: Americas' greatest city 
• Much is unknown
• City planned on a gridline pattern
• Little evidence of rulers 
• Deep influence on Mesoamerica
• Mysterious collapse
• Aztecs-"city of the gods"

Civilizations of the Andes

• Rich marine environment possessed endless supply of seabird and fish
• Most well known civilization was Incas
• Central Peruvian coast was home
• Moche: Civilization of the coast
• Flourished along 250 miles of Peru's north coast
• Agriculture based on complex irrigation system
• Relied on fishing
• Ruled by warrior-priests
• Wari and Tiwanaku: Empires of the Interior

Alternatives to Civilization

• Bantu Africa: Cultural variation
• Spread over Africa
• Wasn't a conquest
• Significant interaction 
• Advantages
• Numbers
• Diseases
• Iron
• Culture changed because of interactions with different people
• North America
• Village based societies
• Pit houses and great houses
• Establishment of permanent villages 
• Local trading networks
• Development of larger settlements
• Chaco
• Pacific Oceania
• Environmental impact of human life
• Diverse threats to Hawaii
• Pan-pacific similarities
• Religious 
• Had trade networks

I truly enjoyed reading about all the civilizations in this chapter.  I love diversity and think its a beautiful thing that so many of these civilizations co-existed and that the United States today is represented by so many of these cultures.

Chapter 5

Society and Inequality in Eurasia/North Africa

Society and the State in China

• Was more shaped by state actions than other societies
• Power came with being a state official
• Elite of Officials
• Extremely hard written examinations to select officials
• Wealthy favored (educated sons)
• Commoners could rise via education
• Landlord Class
• Small scale peasant farmers replaced by large landowners and tenant farmers
• State tried to oppose creation of large estates (not much success) 
• Peasants
• Most population in Chinese history have been peasants
• Periodic peasant rebellions
• Often expressed in religious terms
• Merchants 
• Elite disliked merchants
• Stereotyped as greedy and profiting from work of others
• Merchants often prospered anyways
• Won way to being respected by purchasing estates and educating sons

Class and Caste in India

• Caste as Varna
• Grew from interactions of culturally diverse people and development of social and economic differences between them
• Varna Theory
• Four groups formed and untouchables 
• Caste as Jati
• Social distinction based on occupations
• Blended with varna
• Clearly defined social position
• Marriage and eating could only be done with people in your Jati
• Couldn't raise social status but whole Jatis could improve social standing
• Caste functions
• Provided social security
• Made it easier for wealthy and powerful to exploit poor

Slavery and Roman Empire

• Why slavery emerged in civilizations 
• Domestication of animals provided model for human slavery
• War, patriarchy
• Patriarchal "ownership" of women
• Slavery in civilization
• Slavery=social death
• Almost all civilization had some form of slavery that varied over time
• Less common in China (convicts)
• Roman Slavery
• SLave society
• 1/3 population 
• Modest means often owned 2-3 slaves
• How people became slaves
• War prisoners
• Piracy
• Long distance trade
• Natural reproduction
• Abandoned/exposed 
• Resistance and rebellion
• Mass suicide of war prisoners
• Flights
• Occasional murder of owners
• Comparing Patriarchies
• Patriarchy generally less restrictive in the early years 
• Women active agents in histories

My reflection for this chapter could go on and on, I simply could not believe what I was reading and the fact that such horrible inequalities were happening and people really did nothing to deserve the treatment they received.  As a latina woman with hearing loss, I have faced many inequalities myself, from struggling with people refusing to be accommodating, to people believing that I would never be successful because of my background.  I am grateful that I have had the opportunity to prove those people wrong and to make my own way, and I genuinely feel for the people in this time period who had little to no chance of ever being treated like an equal.

Chapter 4

China and the Search for Order

• Mandate of Heaven
• Legalist answer
• Principle of strict rules that were clearly defined and strictly enforced
• Pessimistic view of human nature 
• Confucian Answer
• Confucius's principles
• Ideas had huge impact on China
• Body of thought
• Humans have capacity for improvement 
• Emphasized importance of history 
• Nonreligious 
• Daoist Answer 
• Associated with Laozi
• Opposite of Confucianism in many ways
• Education and striving for improvement was artificial and useless
• Way of nature, connect with nature

Cultural Traditions of Classical India

• Indian cultural development was different 
• Elites enthusiastic about divine and spiritual matters
• Hinduism-no founding father
• Spread into Southeast Asia but remained mainly associated with Indians 
• South Asian Religion
• Widely recognized sacred texts provided some common ground with Indian culture 
• The Vedas
• Samsara reincarnation 
• Buddhist Challenge 
• Developed with Hinduism 
• Central Buddhist teaching-life is suffering 
• Large elements of Hinduism present in Buddhist teaching
• Challenged Hinduism
• Hinduism as a Religion of Duty and Devotion
• Development of more popular Hinduism

Cultural Tradition of Classical Greece: Search for a Rational Order

• Didn't create enduring religious tradition
• Polytheism
• Greek way of knowing
• Flourished
• Socrates and other philosophers
• Aristotle 
• Greek Legacy 
• Continued traditional beliefs and practices 
• Rationalism spread widely 

Birth of Christianity vs Buddhism

• Founders
• Royal vs lower-class
• Spiritual seekers
• Wisdom teachers
• Jesus Jewish tradition, active for about three years, executed as criminal
• Gautama was active for over 40 years, died of old age
• Spread of new religions
• Didn't intend to create new religion
• Both transformed into gods 

It is amazing that the religions in this chapter are still heavily practiced today, with much of the same values that were practiced during that time.  It is comforting that things have been passed down for such a long time and that the basic morals that people followed and still follow are consistent, making me see the good and potential that we have.

Chapter 3

Empires and Civilizations in Collision: The Persians and the Greeks

• Civilizations didn't contact each other directly
• Greece/Persia exception because they were neighbors
• Persia
• Largest most impressive empire
• Diverse empire, large population
• Effective admin system
• Underground irrigation
• Greeks
• Population around 2-3 million
• Mountains and valleys encouraged hundreds of city states 
• A lot of participation in political life
• Collision: Greco-Persian Wars
• Ionia, Ionian Greeks revolted against Persia
• Greece won on both land and sea
• Collision: Alexander and Hellenistic Era
• Conquest of Greece
• Alexander expedition of Persia 
• Defeated Persia
• Greek becomes language of power
• Roman rule replaces Greek rule

Comparing Empires: Roman and Chinese

• Roman and Chinese had little direct contact
• Flourished 
• Similar in size
• Controlled nearly half of worlds population
• Rome
• Grew after each conquest
• Rise of empire changed Roman society 
• Pax Romana (Roman peace)
• Still best known empire
• China
• Warring states to empires
• Creation of empire regarded as restoration
• Unification by Shihuangdi 
• Ruler of Qin 
• 1st emperor
• Formed much quicker than Rome
• Depended on military force among other security
• Great Wall
• Military
• Brutality
• Burning books, execution of scholars
• Similarities
• Defined themselves in universal terms
• Invested in public works
• Claimed supernatural sanctions
• Foreign religious tradition
• Effected the environment 
• Fall
• Too large
• Too expensive
• Tax evasion
• Fell heavily on the poor
• Diseases
• Threat from Nomadic people

I find it interesting that two of the world's largest empires are still known and visited countries today.  The backbone of China and Rome formed such a long time ago and they are still living off of some of those backbones today.  It is also hard to imagine how tough life must have been living in the early empires, where there was extreme brutality and there was a constant fear of being invaded and overthrown.  Often time, one person or group was in all the power and the poor and lower classes just had to fall into that based on what they were born into.  That must have been tough and its interesting that that is still the way things work today.  Today, I am grateful that there are much more opportunities to move up in society if one desires.