period 3 part 2: 600ce-1450

Roman Empire

height: 117: stretched from britain to mesopotamia. relatively tolerant (except persecuted christians for being too exclusive) pax romana brought peace. urban areas thrived. centered on mediterrean.

decline:
internal:
political instability at the top around 235...issues of succession bc its not father son dynastic. chosen by predecessor or military coup. r
runaway economic inflation.
epidemic diseases decimated the population


external:
Persian Empire
Germanic Tribes: farmers of horses, sheep, cattle. made iron. traded extensively with rome, served in roman army.

Diocletian: (284-305) lets drastically save rome. divided roman empire into 2. 2 co emperors, with vice emperors. vice emperors were supposed to become the new emperors.... but civil war broke out instead.

Constantine won the civil war,,, reunited empire. moved capital from rome to istanbul/constantipole therefore close to both germanic and persian fronts. rome population declines rapidly. very hard to rconquerget

roman clash with visigoth (370s): asked for migration rights, treated poorly by authorities and rebelled, emperor killed and rome sacked in 410.

Vandals: took carthage, took sicily, sacked rome, cut off grain supply to roman empire

476 Odocaer (barbarian chief) deposes last teenage emperor

476 is the end of the western roman period

490s, ostrogoths invade italy and establish a powerful kingdom

Gaul is conquered by Franks...French....assimlated to Roman Gaul

Briton was conquered by Angles and Saxons

Emperor Justinian: took back italy, south spain, series of wars to reconquer west. annexed north africa.

next thousand years is a sad shrinkage of roman empire

GERMANIC TRIBES:adopted Roman Catholism

decline of roman west: many cities and long term trade collapse

previously, germanic tribes were pagan.

church administration took place of imperial government

BYZANTIUM EMPIRE: greek speaking, wealthier, more urbanized, bigger population.

fought persians in 6-7 century wars. arabs conquers a ton, leaving byzantine empires just balkans and anatolia

roman law is still used, strengthened by justinian's code. christianity (eastern orthodox) is really official and strong. Justinian built St Sophia Cathedral. EASTERN ORTHODOX SPLIT IN 1054

KINGDOM OF THE FRANKS: stopped the Arab invasion at battle of tours.

CHARLEMAGNE: (768-814) greatly expanded frankish territory, goal: conquer saxons & convert christianity. CROWNED HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR at 800. empire falls apart after his deaht

invaders in 9th-10th century: muslims, vikings, mugyars: nomads of central asia settle in hungary.

vikings: long ships could sail rivers and seas. plunder, get slaves, terrorize pillage raid monasteries. explore north atlantic, established settlements in Iceland and Greenland. viking settlement in northern newfoundland (11th century), last external invaders of medieval europe

RISE OF RUSSIA

slavs/slavic people: loosely related language family. sold as slaves during era of charlemagne. KIEVAN RUS: trading relationship with Byzantine. on eastern european plain, flat forest meadow river

varangians/vikings:established the first russian state. baltic and black sea linked keivan run. exported slaves, fur, honey, wax, and received luxury goods from Byzantium empire. traded down the volga river with muslims and turks

988: prince vladmir converts to orthodox christianity and so does all of russia

missionaries from byzantium worked on their writing systems: cyrillic alphabet

WESTERN EUROPEAN SOCIETY:

feudalism/vassal system, decentralized government. fief--> land that baron ruled. castles: military strongholds build by nobles. nobles symbolically support king.

knighthood increases with the invention of stirrups. chivalry: europeans knights code of honorable behavior...the cultural part of knighthood.

serfs: tied to land, Lords provide housing and protection, but receive labor and crops...legally forbidden to leave or search for work elsewhere.

more productive agriculture: 1. moldboard plow pulled by animal---> relied on draft animals, oxen or horses. 2. three field crop rotation (barley, wheat, fallow/animal grazing) 3. warmer climate (medieval warming)

Seljuk turks threaten the Byzantine Empire

1096: pope calls for crusade--> the christian holy war... lies about muslims doing bad things to christians in holy land, defend byzantine... take violence out of west.

first crusade (1096-7): committed atrocities like cannibalism. captured jereselum, slaughtered EVERYONE.

crusader states in levant: basically early colonialism. increased interaction between europe and islamic world. .. increased trade, sugar processing, asian luxury.

spanish reconquista of islamic spain

MONGOL EMPIRE

european steppe: homeland of moguls. yurt: circular round, portable tent inhabited by pastoral nomads

nomads: attack on trade of civilized peoples, no centralized government. pagans.

1200 Genghis Khan united all mongol clans

world class archers, calvary.

very strict, like legalism. ruthless cruelty. terrorized enemies in to surrender.

conquest in 3 steps: genghis-> sons-> grandsons

genghis wanted china (jin and southern song dynasty)

1215- barracked jin dynasty

1223 conquered central asia

1227- genghis dies of natural causes

1259- sons conquer russia, middle east

1237-1247 mongols conquest of kievan rus. mongols invade east europe. but the son gave up in 1242.

1260s-70s: mongols conquer song dynasty...all of china under mongol rule.

1258- mongols conquer baghdhad, end abbasid caliphate.

1260- battle of Ayn Jalut- Mamluks vs Mongols in Syria, levant.

1274, 1281- mongols fail, twice to conquer japan due to cyclones.

1279- greatest extent of mongol empire

PAX MONGOLICA

how mongols ruled: long distance trade, silk road. "yam system" mongol pony express.

gun powder spread from east to europe.

marco polo: venetian who traveled to china and worked for kuala khan

empire was too big... divided into khanates

khanate of the great khan: capital, china, mongol, tibet... chagatai: the stans of central asia
ilkhanate: persia, mesopotamia
khanate of the golden horde: like russia

didn't care about what locals did or religion as long as tributes were paid... all but great converted to islam.

KUBLAI KHAN

1260-1294... grandson of genghis, mandate of heaven "passed to him" ... founded yuan dynasty, capital beijing. unified china

tolerated chinese culture, abandoned nomadic ways. extend canals, paved highways, tried to conquer java and vietnam.

mongols were defeated in the levant by mamluks of egypt. , never conquered japan.

YUAN DYNASTY: 1271-1368. mongol khanate, deeply sinified./ influenced by china. unified china.

Russia under "Mongol Yoke": 1240-1480. not a direct rule. required to pay tribute but left alone, like a vassal state. allowed to practice orthodox christianity.

patrol people were more chill about gender. elite mongol women had a high degree of power and influence, like genghis' favorite wife. could hunt, no veils, no foot binding.

due to the PAX MONGOLICA.

LITTLE ICE AGE

colder climate (1300-1850). decline of agricultural productivity, standard of living lowered, migration south by farmers.

BLACK DEATH (1350)

deadliest plague of Afroeurasia. spread by fleas and airborne. started east. cities declines. 1/3 of europe dead. destroyed serfdom due to peasant labor demand.

russia is head of russian orthodox church

1380: battle of kalikovo: moscow deals mongols.

silk/sand/sea roads

silk road: china to levant, overland trade. lots of luxury goods. silk and paper defused from east to europe

sea roads: indian ocean trade: intensified during islamic times, stretched to south asia, china. used dhow ships..triangle sail.

islam was really friend commercially. black slaves were imported from east africa to middle east.

an austronesian sailor spread banana to africa

the shale, coast, was islamic... city-states of zanibar, mombasa, mogadishu.... arabic blended with bantu languages creating "swahili"

got their gold from the inland kingdom of great zimbabewe. (1250-1450) indirect trade with china. stone town.

south east asia becomes more islamizcized.

guangzhou: china center of muslim diaspora.

sand roads: transsaharan start at 300 ce thanks to camels

export: gold, slaves. import salt.

west africa (mali, ghana) embrace islam.

MANSA MUSA: Mali 14yh century... made hajj, brings gold, generous, ruins egyptian economy.

timbuktu was great cultural, academic center.

women had greater freedom and influence.

mediterrean sea routes: dominated by italian states (Venice and Genoa. lots of colonies...

HANSEATIC LEAGUGE

baltic sea connects to england, allied ports for trade promotion

THE NEW WORLD:

AZTECS

mesoamerica... mexica people migrated to valley of memo city (olmec and mayan area)

INCAS

MISSISSIPPI

ANCESTORAL PUEBLO

settled on a island in a lake that now doesn't exist.

named their city Tenochtitlan in 1325

1428: forged triple alliance with 2 other city states, overthrew mainland rule, imperial expansion by aztecs

developed a massive empire centered on tenochtitlan without horses or wheels. 1.3 million people at its height. piped in drinking water. connected by causeway to mainland. spansih destroyed monuments, made it headquarters for their rule.

didn't care about customs just wanted tribute from conquered peoples. tributes were slaves or goods. local rulers stayed in power. trade flourished across aztec lands

RELIGION: prominent human sacrifice to ward off apocalypse and keep sun burning.

went to war to get fresh blood for their gods.

(1425-1533) centered on cuzco. andes of peru. 25,000 miles of mountain roads. suspension bridges. used runners to deliver messages.

quipu: traditional andean record keeping system, using knots.

mit'a system: no human sacrifice but forced labor tribute

forcibly moved conquered peoples to different environments. (heavy handed rule)

"anasazi" (600-1450) of american southwest.

lived in towns with sophisticated architecture, centered on chaco canyon (850-1150).

trade routes across all SW USA and mexico: obsidian, corn, turquoise, exotic feather, buffalo, salt, sea shells.

declined around 1200 due to lack of water/climate change.

(900-1450) corn territory along mississippi river.

Cahokia: fortified mound city (1050-1250). 20,000 population at largest. traded mica, copper, sea shells.