Regional Civilizations - Mrs. Hulsey's...

86

Regional Civilizations

400–1500

Key EventsAs you read this chapter, look for the key events in the history of early regional

civilizations.• Muhammad and his followers spread the beliefs and practices of Islam.

• The development of trade throughout Asia, Africa, and Europe led to the exchange of goods and cultural ideas.

• In the 1100s, European monarchs began to build strong states.

The Impact TodayThe events that occurred during this time period still impact our lives today.

• More than 1 billion people around the world are Muslims who follow the teachings of the Quran, and Islam is one of the world’s leading faiths.

• The expansion of trade continues to create a global society, allowing people to exchange goods, services, and ideas throughout the world.

• The codification of Roman law, the emergence of common law, and the signing of the Magna Carta continue to influence our American legal system.

World History—Modern Times Video The Chapter 3 video,“Islamic Scientific Advances,” chronicles the many contributions of Islamicculture to our world.

300 425 550 675 800

Prayer rug

Tower mosque, Samarra, Iraq

Tang sculpture

Bishop’s crown from Axum

c. 330King Ezana ofAxum convertsto Christianity

618Tangdynastybegins inChina

635The Quran is compiled

852GreatMosque of Samarracompleted

87

Heiji Scroll (detail) This scroll depicts one of the first samurai battles, the Heiji Insurrection of 1159.

HISTORY

Chapter OverviewVisit the Glencoe WorldHistory—ModernTimes Web site at

and click on Chapter 3–Chapter Overview topreview chapter information.

wh.mt.glencoe.com925 1050 1175 1300 1425

Leopard from Benin

A returning crusader

Medieval knight

1000sMovable type improvesprinting

c. 1050Feudalism spreadsthroughoutwestern Europe

1096Crusadesbegin

c. 1300Artists in Ifeand Beninproducebronzesculptures

1453ByzantineEmpire ends

88

n 1274, the Mongol emperor of China, Kublai Khan,demanded that the Japanese pay tribute to China or face

invasion. When the Japanese refused, the khan sent a force of30,000 warriors to teach the Japanese a lesson. Bad weatherforced the emperor’s forces to retreat, however.

Not until 1281 was the Great Khan prepared to try again.This time he sent a force of two fleets, consisting of 4,400ships carrying almost 150,000 warriors. The Japaneseappeared to be doomed. The emperor ordered prayers to beoffered everywhere in Japan.

Then, on August 15, just as the khan’s forces were prepar-ing to land, the sky darkened. For two days, massivetyphoons struck, uprooting trees and raising waves that bat-tered the Mongol fleet and killed tens of thousands. OneKorean observer wrote, “The bodies of men and broken tim-bers of the vessels were heaped together in a solid mass sothat a person could walk across from one point of land toanother on the mass of wreckage.” Those warriors who madeit to shore were cut down by the Japanese defenders.

To the Japanese, this victory over the Mongols was a signof supernatural aid. They called the storm a “divine wind,” orkamikaze, and became convinced that they would always beprotected from foreign invasion.

IJapan Faces Kublai Khan

Why It MattersThis great confrontation betweenthe ancient and well-establishedcivilization of China and the newly-emerged Japanese state was a turn-ing point in Asia during this period.Chinese civilization continued tobuild on the achievements of previ-ous dynasties, making it one of thegreatest civilizations in the world.Other societies were emergingalong the fringes of China, as wellas in other parts of the world.

History and You Many impor-tant civilizations developed between400 and 1500. As you read thischapter, create a database contain-ing each civilization’s name (specifyempire, trading state, dynasty, orkingdom); dates (if noted); ruler(s);religion(s); significant people,events, or accomplishments; andthe reason it ended.

Kublai Khan,grandson of

Genghis KhanDestruction of the Mongol fleet attacking Japan

89CHAPTER 3 Regional Civilizations

The World of Islam

610Muhammad receivesfirst message

632Abu Bakr becomesfirst caliph

661Umayyads establishIslamic Empire

750The Abbasid dynastycomes to power

732Europeans defeat Arabsat Battle of Tours

1258Mongols cap-ture Baghdad

In his Autobiography, the eleventh-century Islamic scholar Ibn Sina, known in theWest as Avicenna, described his early training:

“By the time I was [10] I had mastered the Quran and a great deal of literature.There followed training in philosophy . . . then I took to reading texts by myself . . .mastering logic, geometry and astronomy. I now occupied myself with mastering thevarious texts and commentaries on natural science and metaphysics, until all the gatesof knowledge were open to me. Next I desired to study medicine, and proceeded toread all the books that have been written on this subject. At the same time I continuedto study and dispute on law, being now sixteen years of age.”

—Autobiography, Ibn Sina

Ibn Sina was one of the Islamic world’s greatest scholars.

The ArabsLike the Israelites and the Assyrians, the Arabs were a Semitic-speaking people

who lived in the Arabian Peninsula, a desert land sorely lacking in rivers andlakes. The Arabs were nomads who, because of their hostile surroundings, movedconstantly to find water and food for their animals. Survival in such a harsh envi-ronment was not easy, and the Arabs organized into tribes to help one another.

The Arabs lived as farmers and sheepherders on the oases and rain-fed areas ofthe Arabian Peninsula. After the camel was domesticated in the first millenniumB.C., the Arabs populated more of the desert and expanded the caravan trade.Towns developed along the routes as the Arabs became major carriers of goodsbetween the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean, where the Silk Road ended.

Voices from the Past

An Arabic manuscript

Achievements of Islam

Guide to ReadingMain Ideas• The religion of Islam arose in the

Arabian Peninsula in the 600s.• Muhammad’s successor organized

the Arabs and set in motion a greatexpansion.

• An extensive trade network broughtprosperity to the Islamic world.

Key TermsIslam, Hijrah, caliph, sultan, astrolabe,mosque

People to IdentifyMuhammad, Abu Bakr, Ibn Sina

Places to LocateArabian Peninsula, Makkah, Madinah,Damascus, Baghdad

Preview Questions1. What are the major beliefs and princi-

ples of Islam?2. What major developments occurred

under the Umayyads and Abbasids?

Reading StrategySummarizing Information Use a chartlike the one below to identify the achieve-ments of Islamic civilization.

!600 !700 !800 !900 !1000 !1100 !1200Preview of Events

Arabs trace their ancestors to Abraham and hisson Ishmael, who were believed to have built atMakkah (Mecca) the Kaaba (KAH• buh), a house ofworship whose cornerstone was a sacred stone calledthe Black Stone. The Arabs recognized a supremegod named Allah (Allah is Arabic for “God”), butthey also believed in other tribal gods.

Explaining What factors contributedto the development of towns on the Arabian Peninsula?

The Life of MuhammadBorn in Makkah to a merchant family, Muham-

mad grew up to become a caravan manager andmarried a rich widow named Khadija, who was alsohis employer. Troubled by problems in society,Muhammad often visited the nearby hills to prayand meditate.

During one of his visits, Muslims believe, Muham-mad received revelations from God. According toIslamic teachings, the messages were given by theangel Gabriel.

Muhammad came to believe that Allah hadalready revealed himself in part through Moses andJesus—and thus through the Hebrew and Christiantraditions. He believed, however, that the final reve-lations of Allah were now being given to him.

Out of these revelations, which were eventuallywritten down, came the Quran, the holy book of the

Reading Check

religion of Islam. (The word Islammeans “peace through submissionto the will of Allah.”) The Qurancontains the ethical guidelines andlaws by which the followers ofAllah are to live. Those who practicethe religion of Islam are called Mus-lims. Islam has only one God, Allah,and Muhammad is God’s prophet.

After receiving the revelations,Muhammad set out to convince thepeople of Makkah of the truth of hisrevelations. After three years ofpreaching, he had only 30 followers.

Muhammad became discour-aged by persecution of his follow-ers, as well as by the failure of theMakkans to accept his message. Heand some of his closest supportersleft Makkah and moved north to

Yathrib, later renamed Madinah (Medina; “city of theprophet”). The journey of Muhammad and his fol-lowers to Madinah is known as the Hijrah (HIH•jruh). The year the journey occurred, 622, becameyear 1 in the official calendar of Islam.

Muhammad soon began to win support from peo-ple in Madinah, as well as from Bedouin tribes in thesurrounding countryside. From these groups, heformed the first community of practicing Muslims.

Muhammad became both a religious and a politi-cal leader. He assembled a military force to defendhimself and his followers and began to attract largenumbers of supporters.

In 630, Muhammad returned to Makkah with aforce of ten thousand men. The city quickly surren-dered, and most of the townspeople converted to thenew faith. During a visit to the Kaaba, Muhammaddeclared it a sacred shrine of Islam. Two years afterhis triumphal return to Makkah, Muhammad died,just as Islam was beginning to spread throughout theArabian Peninsula. All Muslims are encouraged tomake a pilgrimage to Makkah, known as the hajj(HAJ), if possible.

Identifying What was the signifi-cance of the message given to Muhammad by Gabriel?

The Teachings of MuhammadLike Judaism and Christianity, Islam is monotheis-

tic. Allah is the all-powerful being who created theuniverse and everything in it. Islam emphasizes sal-vation and offers the hope of an afterlife.

Reading Check

The Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem was built by Muslims in theseventh century. Muslims believe that Muhammad ascended intoParadise from this site.

90 CHAPTER 3 Regional Civilizations

Unlike Christianity, Islam does not believe that itsfirst preacher was divine. Muhammad is considereda prophet, similar to Moses, but he was also a manlike other men. Muslims believe that because humanbeings rejected Allah’s earlier messengers, Allah senthis final revelation through Muhammad.

Islam is a direct and simple faith, stressing theneed to obey the will of Allah. This means practicingacts of worship known as the Five Pillars of Islam:belief, prayer, charity, fasting, and pilgrimage. Mus-lims believe there is no deity but the One God, andMuhammad is his messenger (belief). They performprescribed prayers five times a day (prayer) and givepart of their wealth to the poor (charity). During themonth of Ramadan, Muslims refrain from food anddrink from dawn to sunset (fasting). Finally, believersare expected to make a pilgrimage to Makkah at leastonce in their lifetime (pilgrimage). The faithful whofollow the law are guaranteed a place in an eternalparadise.

Comparing How is Islam similar toJudaism and Christianity?Reading Check

Creation of an Arab EmpireMuhammad had been accepted as both the politi-

cal and religious leader of the Islamic community.The death of Muhammad left his followers with aproblem: Muhammad had never named a successor.Shortly after Muhammad’s death, some of his closestfollowers chose Abu Bakr (uh•BOO BA•kuhr), awealthy merchant and Muhammad’s father-in-law,to be their leader. He was named caliph (KAY•luhf),or successor to Muhammad.

Under Abu Bakr’s leadership, the Islamic move-ment began to grow. As the Romans had slowly con-quered Italy, so also the Muslims expanded overArabia, and beyond.

At Yarmuk in 636, the Arabs, unified under AbuBakr, defeated the Byzantine army in the midst of adust storm that enabled the Arabs to take theirenemy by surprise. Four years later, they took controlof the Byzantine province of Syria. By 642, Egypt andother areas of northern Africa had been added to thenew Arab Empire. To the east, the Arabs had con-quered the entire Persian Empire by 650.


30°E20°E10°E0°

Yarmuk Karbala

Tours

N

S

EW

500 kilometers

500 miles0

0Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area projection

60°E

10°N

20°N

TROPIC OF

CANCER

AFRICA

ASIA MINOR

Mediterranean Sea

ArabianSea

Persian Gulf

Red

Sea

CaspianSea

Black Sea

AralSea

Strait ofGibraltar

Indus

R.

Euphrates R.

Tigris R.

Nile

R.

Danube R.

SPAIN

GRANADA

MOROCCO TUNISIA

EGYPT

FRANCE

SYRIA

PALESTINE

ARABIA

IRAQPERSIA

INDIA

Mesopotamia

Makkah (Mecca)

Madinah (Medina)

Cairo

JerusalemDamascus Baghdad

ConstantinopleC´ordoba

Spread of Islam, 632–750

After Muhammad’s death, the Arab Empire more thandoubled.

1. Applying Geography Skills How did the expansionbenefit the Islamic territories? Byzantine Empire, 750

Islamic territory atMuhammad's death, 632Islamic expansion, 632–661

Islamic expansion, 661–750

Battle

uhd) dynasty. He then moved the capital of the ArabEmpire from Madinah to Damascus, in Syria.

At the beginning of the eighth century, Arab armiesconquered and converted the Berbers, a pastoral peo-ple living along the Mediterranean coast of NorthAfrica. Around 710, combined Berber and Arab forcescrossed the Strait of Gibraltar and occupied southernSpain. By 725, most of Spain had become a Muslimstate with its center at Córdoba. In 732, however, Arabforces were defeated at the Battle of Tours in Gaul(now France), halting Arab expansion in Europe.

In 717, another Muslim force had launched anattack on Constantinople with the hope of defeatingthe Byzantine Empire. The Byzantines destroyed theMuslim fleet. The Arab advance ended, but not beforethe southern and eastern Mediterranean parts of theold Roman Empire had been conquered. Arab poweralso extended to the east in Mesopotamia and Persiaand northward into central Asia.


The Arabs, led by a series of brilliant generals, hadput together a large, dedicated army. The courage ofthe Arab soldiers was enhanced by the belief thatMuslim warriors were assured a place in Paradise ifthey died in battle.

Identifying Who was the first caliphto unify the Arabs and begin an expansionist movement?

Successors of the Arab EmpireAfter Abu Bakr died, problems arose over who

should become the next caliph. There were no clearsuccessors to Abu Bakr.

The Umayyads In 661, Mu’awiyah (moo•UH•wee•uh), the governor of Syria, became caliph. Mu’a-wiyah moved quickly to make the office of caliph,called the caliphate, hereditary in his own family. Indoing this, he established the Umayyad (oo•MY•

Reading Check

How Did the ArabEmpire Succeed?During the early eighth century,the Muslims vastly extendedtheir empire. Their swift con-quest of Southwest Asia hasintrigued many historians.Was their success due toreligious fervor or mili-tary strength, or werethere other reasons fortheir military victoriesthat are not so obvious?

“They were aided by the weakness of the twocontemporary empires, the Sassanian (Persian) andthe Byzantine, which had largely exhausted them-selves by their wars on one another. . . . Nor werethese Arabs simply zealots fired by the ideal of aHoly War. They were by long tradition tough fight-ers, accustomed to raiding out of hunger and want;many or perhaps even most of them were notardent followers of Mohammed. Yet there can belittle question that what got the Arabs started, andkept them going, was mainly the personality andthe teaching of the Prophet.”

—Herbert J. Muller, 1958The Loom of History

“Perhaps . . . another kind of explanation can begiven for the acceptance of Arab rule by the popu-lation of the conquered countries. To most of themit did not much matter whether they were ruled byIranians, Greeks or Arabs. Government impinged for the most part on the life of cities and . . . city-dwellers might not care much who ruled them,

The Abbasid Dynasty In 750, Abu al-Abbas, adescendant of Muhammad’s uncle, overthrew theUmayyad dynasty and set up the Abbasid (uh•BA•suhd) dynasty, which lasted until 1258.

In 762, the Abbasids built a new capital city at Bagh-dad, on the Tigris River, far to the east of the Umayyadcapital at Damascus. The new capital was well placed.It was located on the caravan route from the Mediter-ranean Sea to central Asia.

The Abbasid dynasty experienced a period of splen-did rule during the ninth century. Best known of thecaliphs of the time was Harun al-Rashid (ha•ROONahl•rah•SHEED), whose reign is often described asthe golden age of the Abbasid caliphate. Harun al-Rashid was known for his charity, and he also lavishedsupport on artists and writers.

This was also a period of growing prosperity. TheArabs had conquered many of the richest provinces ofthe Roman Empire, and they now controlled the trade

routes to the East. Baghdad became the center of anenormous trade empire that extended into Asia,Africa, and Europe, greatly adding to the riches of theIslamic world.

Eventually, rulers of the provinces of the AbbasidEmpire began to break away from the central author-ity and establish independent dynasties. A newdynasty under the Fatimids was established in Egyptwith its capital at Cairo, in 973.

The Seljuk Turks The Fatimid dynasty soon becamethe center of Islamic civilization. The Fatimids played amajor role in the trade passing from the Mediterraneanto the Red Sea and beyond. They created a strong armyby hiring non-native soldiers to fight for them. Onesuch group was the Seljuk (SEHL•JOOK) Turks.

The Seljuk Turks were a nomadic people from cen-tral Asia. They had converted to Islam and prosperedas soldiers for the Abbasid caliphate. As the Abbasidsgrew weaker, the Seljuk Turks grew stronger, movinggradually into Iran and Armenia. By the eleventh cen-tury, they had taken over the eastern provinces of theAbbasid Empire.

In 1055, a Turkish leader captured Baghdad andtook command of the empire. His title was sultan—or“holder of power.” The Abbasid caliph was still thechief religious authority, but, after they captured Bagh-dad, the Seljuk Turks held the real military and politi-cal power of the state.

The Mongols The Mongols were a pastoral peoplewho swept out of the Gobi in the early thirteenth cen-tury to seize control over much of the world.

Beginning with the advances led by Genghis Khanin North China, Mongol armies spread across centralAsia. In 1258, under the leadership of Hülegü(hoo•LAY•GOO), brother of the more famous Kublai(KOO•BLUH) Khan, the Mongols seized Persia andMesopotamia. The Abbasid caliphate at Baghdadended. Hülegü had a strong hatred of Islam. After hisforces captured Baghdad in 1258, he decided todestroy the city.

Over time, the Mongol rulers converted to Islamand intermarried with local peoples. They began torebuild the cities. By the fourteenth century, the Mon-gol Empire had begun to split into separate kingdoms.The old Islamic Empire established by the Arabs in theseventh and eighth centuries had come to an end. As aresult of the Mongol destruction of Baghdad, the newcenter of Islamic civilization became Cairo, in Egypt.

Describing How did the Mongolsbring about the end of the old Islamic Empire?Reading Check

provided they were secure, at peace and reason-ably taxed. The people of the countryside . . .lived under their own chiefs and . . . with theirown customs, and it made little difference tothem who ruled the cities. For some, the replace-ment of Greeks and Iranians by Arabs evenoffered advantages.”

—Albert Hourani, 1991A History of the Arab Peoples

1. Review the information presented in this sectioncarefully. Using the material from the text andinformation obtained from your own outsideresearch, explain why both of these viewpointscan be considered valid.

2. Compare the information given in the secondexcerpt to attitudes of other conquered peoplesthat you have read about. Do you believe thatmost people easily accept outside rule? Whatfactors lead to acceptance and what factors leadto rebellion against outside rule?


Economy and Social StructureOverall, the period of the Arab Empire was pros-

perous. The Arabs carried on extensive trade, notonly within the Islamic world but also with China,the Byzantine Empire, India, and Southeast Asia.Trade was carried both by ship and by camel cara-vans, which traveled from Morocco in the west to thecountries beyond the Caspian Sea.

Starting around 750, trade flourished under theAbbasid dynasty. From south of the Sahara camegold and slaves; from China, silk and porcelain; fromeastern Africa, gold and ivory; and from the lands ofSoutheast Asia and India, sandalwood and spices.Within the empire, Egypt contributed grain; Iraq pro-vided linens, dates, and precious stones; and westernIndia supplied textiles.

With flourishing trade came prosperous cities.While the Abbasids were in power, Baghdad wasprobably the greatest city in the empire and one ofthe greatest cities in the world. After the rise of theFatimids, the focus of trade shifted to Cairo.

To be a Muslim is not simply to worship Allah butalso to live one’s life according to Allah’s teachings asrevealed in the Quran. As Allah has decreed, so musthumans live. Questions concerning politics and sociallife are answered by following Islamic teachings.

According to Islam, all people are equal in the eyesof Allah. In reality, however, this was not strictly thecase in the Arab Empire. There was a fairly welldefined upper class that consisted of ruling families,senior officials, nomadic elites, and the wealthiestmerchants. Even ordinary merchants, however,enjoyed a degree of respect that merchants did notreceive in Europe, China, or India.

The Quran granted women spiritual and socialequality with men. Women had the right to the fruitsof their work and to own and inherit property. Islamicteachings did account for differences between menand women in the family and social order. Both hadduties and responsibilities. As in most societies of thetime, however, men were dominant in Muslim society.

Summarizing On what ideas wassociety in the Arab Empire built?

The Brilliance of Islamic CultureDuring the first few centuries of the Arab Empire,

the ancient Greek philosophers were largelyunknown in Europe. The Arabs, however, were notonly aware of Greek philosophy, they were translatingworks by Plato and Aristotle into Arabic. The processof translating works and making them available toscholars was aided by the making of paper, which wasintroduced from China in the eighth century.

It was through the Muslim world that Europeansrecovered the works of Aristotle and other Greekphilosophers. In the twelfth century, the Arabic trans-lations were in turn translated into Latin, makingthem available to the West. The brilliant Islamic civi-lization contributed more intellectually to the Westthan translations, however.

Philosophy and Science When Aristotle’s worksarrived in Europe in the twelfth century, they wereaccompanied by commentaries written by outstand-ing Arabic philosophers. One such philosopher wasIbn-Rushd (IH•buhn-RUSHT). He lived in Córdobaand wrote a commentary on virtually all of Aristo-tle’s surviving works.

Islamic scholars also made contributions to math-ematics and the natural sciences that were passed onto the West. The Muslims adopted and passed on thenumerical system of India, including the use of thezero. In Europe, it became known as the “Arabic”system.

In astronomy, Muslims set up an observatory atBaghdad to study the position of the stars. Theywere aware that Earth was round, and they named

Reading Check


The minaret of the Samarra mosque

many stars. They also perfected theastrolabe, an instrument used by sailorsto determine their location by observingthe positions of stars and planets. Theastrolabe enabled Europeans to sail tothe Americas.

Muslim scholars developed medicineas a field of scientific study. Especiallywell known was the philosopher and sci-entist Ibn Sina (IH•buhn SEE•nuh). Hewrote a medical encyclopedia that,among other things, stressed the conta-gious nature of certain diseases. After itwas translated into Latin, Ibn Sina’s workbecame a basic medical textbook for university students in medieval Europe.

Art and Architecture Islamic art is a blend of Arab,Turkish, and Persian traditions. The best expressionof Islamic art is found in the magnificent Muslimmosques (houses of worship). The mosque repre-sents the spirit of Islam.

Constructed from 848 to 852, the Great Mosque ofSamarra in present-day Iraq was the world’s largestmosque at the time it was built. It covers 10 acres(more than 40,000 square m). The most famous sectionof the Samarra mosque is its minaret. This is the towerfrom which the muezzin (moo•EH•zuhn), or crier,calls the faithful to prayer five times a day. The minaretof Samarra, nearly 90 feet (around 27 m) in height, isunusual because of its outside spiral staircase.

One of the most famous mosques is the ninth-century mosque at Córdoba in southern Spain. It isstill in remarkable condition today. Its hundreds ofcolumns, which support double-horseshoe arches,transform this building into a unique “forest oftrees.”

Identifying Name two culturalachievements of the Arab Empire after 700.Reading Check


Checking for Understanding1. Define Islam, Hijrah, caliph, sultan,

astrolabe, mosque.

2. Identify Muhammad, Quran, Muslims,Abu Bakr, Abbasid dynasty, Mongols,Ibn Sina.

3. Locate Arabian Peninsula, Makkah,Madinah, Damascus, Baghdad.

4. Describe how the Arabs created atrade empire. Identify the items tradedin the empire and where they camefrom.

5. List the Five Pillars of Islam.

Critical Thinking6. Explain How did the Muslims transmit

ancient literature to other cultures?Argue against the viewpoint that Islamiccivilization was mainly a preserver andtransmitter of culture, rather than acreator of culture.

7. Summarizing Information Create adiagram to list the main characteristicsof the Islamic religion. Your diagramcan list more characteristics than thisexample.

Analyzing Visuals8. Examine the photograph of the

Mosque of Córdoba shown above.What architectural influences fromother cultures do you see reflected inthis Islamic mosque? What elementsare unique to Islamic architecture?

History through Architecture

The Mosque of Córdoba This mosque inSpain is famous for the symmetry of its arches.Intricate arabesque patterns highlight the interiorof this mosque and others. When did Arabarmies cross into Spain?

9. Descriptive Writing Imagine thatyou are a young Muslim Arab cor-responding with a European friend.In one or two brief paragraphs,describe Islamic accomplishments inphilosophy, mathematics, science,medicine, art, and architecture toyour friend.

Characteristics of Islam

96

Distinguishing Between Fact and OpinionWhy Learn This Skill?

Imagine that you are watching two candidatesfor president debate the merits of the college loanprogram. One says, “In my view, the college loanprogram must be reformed. Sixty percent of studentsdo not repay their loans on time.”

The other replies, “College costs are skyrocketing,but only 30 percent of students default on theirloans for more than one year. I believe we shouldspend more on this worthy program.”

How can you tell who or what to believe? Youmust learn to distinguish fact from opinion in orderto effectively evaluate and analyze informationacquired from a variety of sources such as books,television, and the Internet.

Learning the SkillA fact is a statement that can be proved to be true.

In the example above, the statement “Sixty percentof students do not repay their loans on time” is afact. By reviewing statistics on the number of stu-dent loan recipients who repay their loans, we candetermine whether it is true or false. To identifyfacts, look for words and phrases indicating specificpeople, places, events, dates, and times.

An opinion, on the other hand, expresses a per-sonal belief, viewpoint, or emotion. Because opin-ions are subjective, we cannot prove or disprovethem. In the opening example, one statement fromeach candidate appears to be fact, and one state-ment appears to be opinion.

Opinions often include qualifying words andphrases such as I think, I believe, probably, seems to be,may, might, could, ought, in my judgment, or in myview. Also, look for expressions of approval or dis-approval such as good, bad, poor, and satisfactory. Beaware of superlatives such as greatest, worst, finest,and best. Notice words with negative meanings andimplications such as squander, contemptible, and

disgrace. Also, identify generalizations such as none,every, always, and never.

Practicing the SkillFor each pair of statements below,

determine which is fact and which isopinion. Give a reason for each choice.

1 a The ByzantineEmpire came to apitiful end at thehands of the savageTurks.

b The Byzantine Empire ended when Constantine XIdied while defending Constantinople in 1453.

2 a The alliance with the ByzantineEmpire made Kiev a majortrading link between Europe and Asia and between Scandinavia and Southwest Asia.

b In the 900s, Kiev was the most isolated, unciv-ilized place and it possessed little in the wayof culture.

3 a The Byzantine culture was more advancedthan any other of its day.

b Vladimir’s conversion to Eastern Orthodoxybrought Byzantine culture to Kievan Rus.

Applying the Skill

Find a news article and an editorial pertaining to thesame subject in your local newspaper. Identify threefacts and three opinions from these sources.

Glencoe’s Skillbuilder Interactive Workbook,Level 2, provides instruction and practice in keysocial studies skills.

Byzantine cross

Early African Civilizations


The Arab traveler Ibn Battuta once described an audience between an African kingand his subjects:

“When [the king] calls one of [his subjects] while he is in session the man invitedtakes off his clothes and wears patched clothes, takes off his turban, puts on a dirtycap, and goes in raising his clothes and trousers up his legs half-way to his knees. Headvances with humility looking like a beggar. He hits the ground with his elbows, hehits it hard. He stands bowed, listening to what the king says. When one of themspeaks to the king and he gives him an answer, he removes his clothes from his backand throws dust on his head and back, as a person does when bathing with water. I used to wonder how they do not blind their eyes.”

—Ibn Battuta in Black Africa, Said Hamdun and Noel King, eds., 1975

Because most African societies did not have written languages, much of what we know about these societies comes from descriptions recorded by foreign visitors,like Ibn Battuta.

The Emergence of CivilizationAfter Asia, Africa is the largest of the continents. It stretches nearly five thou-

sand miles (around eight thousand km) and is almost completely surrounded bytwo oceans and two seas.


Benin brass castinghonoring the king

(top, center)

150Kush declines asAxum emerges

500Ghana emerges as a trading state

1240Sundiata defeatsGhanaians

Guide to Reading

Preview of Events

1493Muhammad Tureexpands Songhai

c. 330King Ezana convertsto Christianity

1312Mansa Musabegins reign

!100 !325 !550 !775 !1000 !1225 !1450

Main Ideas• The mastery of farming gave rise to the

first civilizations in Africa: Egypt, Kush,and Axum.

• The expansion of trade led to migrationand the growth of new kingdoms.

• Extended family units formed the basisof African villages.

Key Termssavanna, Bantu, lineage group

People to IdentifyKing Ezana, Sundiata Keita, Mansa Musa,Sunni Ali, Muhammad Ture

Places to LocateSahara, Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Benin

Preview Questions1. What are the four distinct climate

zones of Africa and where are theylocated?

2. What factors led to the spread ofIslam in Africa?

Reading StrategyUsing a chart like the one below, list theAfrican kingdoms discussed in this chap-ter and whether they were in north,south, east, or west Africa.

Kingdom Location

Africa includes four distinct climate zones: a mildzone across the northern coast and southern tip;deserts in the north (the Sahara) and south (the Kala-hari); the rain forest along the Equator; and savannas(broad grasslands) that stretch across Africa bothnorth and south of the rain forest. These four climatezones have affected the way the peoples of Africa live.

The mastery of farming gave rise to the first civi-lizations in Africa: Egypt (discussed in Chapter 1),Kush, and Axum. Much later, Islam became an impor-tant factor in the development of African empires.

Kush By 2000 B.C., a busy trade had grown betweenEgypt and the area to the south known as Nubia.Although subject to Egyptian control for many cen-turies, Nubia freed itself around 1000 B.C. andbecame the independent state of Kush.

Kush soon emerged as one of the major tradingstates in the region. Kush flourished from about 250B.C. to about A.D. 150 but declined because of the riseof a new power in the region known as Axum.

Axum Axum was located in the highlands of what isnow Ethiopia. Axum was founded as a colony byArabs from the southern tip of the Arabian Penin-sula. Eventually, Axum emerged as an independentstate that combined Arab and African cultures.

Perhaps the most distinctive feature of Axumitecivilization was its religion. About A.D. 330, KingEzana converted to Christianity and made it the offi-cial religion of Axum.

The rise of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula also hadan impact on Africa. In 641, Arab forces took controlof Egypt. By the early eighth century, the entirecoastal region of North Africa as far west as the Straitof Gibraltar was under Arab rule. Several Muslimtrading states were established on the African coastof the Red Sea.

Until the twelfth century, relations between Chris-tian Axum and its Muslim neighbors were relativelypeaceful. Then conflict arose when the Muslim statesalong the coast moved inland to gain control over the trade that Axum had dominated for hundreds of years.

Identifying What were the first threecivilizations in Africa?

The Royal Kingdoms of West AfricaDuring the eighth century, a number of major trad-

ing states emerged in the area south of the Sahara inWest Africa. Eventually, these states—Ghana, Mali,

Reading Check

and Songhai—made the Sahara into one of the lead-ing avenues of world trade.

The Kingdom of Ghana Ghana, the first greattrading state in West Africa, emerged as early as A.D.500 in the upper Niger River valley. (The modernstate of Ghana takes its name from this early state butis located in the forest region to the south.)

The kings of Ghana were strong rulers who gov-erned without any laws. Their wealth was vast. Toprotect their kingdom and enforce their wishes,Ghanaian kings relied on a well-trained regular armyof thousands of men.

Ghana had an abundance of gold. The heartlandof the state was located near one of the richest gold-producing areas in all of Africa. Ghana’s gold made itthe center of an enormous trade empire.

Muslim merchants from North Africa brought toGhana metal goods, textiles, horses, and salt. Salt wasespecially desirable. Used to preserve food, salt wasalso important because people needed extra salt toreplace what their bodies lost in the hot climate.Ghanaians traded their abundant gold for salt andother products brought from North Africa.

Much of the trade across the desert was carried bythe Berbers, nomadic peoples whose camel caravansbecame known as the “fleets of the desert.” Camelsbecame a crucial factor in trade across the Sahara.


Sundiata Keitac. 1210–1260—Malian ruler

The name Sundiata means the“lion prince.” The lion was the sym-bol of the Keita clan, of which Sundi-ata was a member.

Sundiata belonged to a family thathad ruled Mali for about two cen-turies. Born with a disability, he still could not walk whenhe was seven years old. With the aid of a blacksmith whomade braces for his legs, however, Sundiata graduallyand painfully learned to walk.

Although he became a Muslim, Sundiata kept histraditional African religion as well. This enabled him to maintain the support of the common people, whobelieved that the king had magical powers. As a power-ful warrior-king and the creator of the kingdom of Mali,Sundiata Keita became revered as the father of hiscountry.

They were well adapted to conditions in the desert,since they could drink enormous quantities of waterat one time and needed little food for days.

The Kingdom of Mali The state of Ghana flour-ished for several hundred years. Eventually, it wasweakened by wars, and it collapsed during the 1100s.In its place rose a number of new trading societies inWest Africa. The greatest of these states was Mali,established in the mid-thirteenth century by Sundi-ata Keita.

Like George Washington in the United States,Sundiata is considered the founder of his nation.Sundiata defeated the Ghanaians and captured theircapital in 1240. He united the people of Mali and cre-ated a strong government. Mali built its wealth andpower on the gold and salt trade. Most of its people,however, were farmers who grew grains such assorghum, millet, and rice.

One of the richest and most powerful kings wasMansa Musa, who ruled from 1312 to 1337 (mansameans “king”). Mansa Musa doubled the size of thekingdom of Mali. He created a strong central govern-ment and divided the kingdom into provinces. Oncehe felt secure, Mansa Musa decided—as a devoutMuslim—to make a pilgrimage to Makkah.

A king, of course, was no ordinary pilgrim. MansaMusa was joined by thousands of servants and sol-diers. Accompanying the people were hundreds ofcamels carrying gold, as well as food, clothing, andother supplies.

Mansa Musa’s pilgrimage caused people to viewthe king as a great ruler of a powerful and prosper-ous kingdom. Mansa Musa left another legacy. Ear-lier rulers of Mali had already converted to Islam, butMansa Musa strongly encouraged the building ofmosques, such as the famous Sankore mosque inTimbuktu, as well as the study of the Quran in hiskingdom.

The Kingdom of Songhai By the fifteenth century,a new kingdom—Songhai—was beginning to sur-pass Mali. Under the leadership of Sunni Ali, whocreated the Sunni dynasty in 1464, Songhai began toexpand. Sunni Ali spent much of his reign on horse-back and on the march as he led his army in one mil-itary campaign after another. His conquests gaveSonghai control of the trading empire—especiallytrade in salt and gold—that had made Ghana andMali so prosperous.

The Songhai Empire reached the height of itspower during the reign of Muhammad Ture. He


N

S

EW

1,000 kilometers0Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area projection

1,000 miles0

20°W 0° 20°E 40°E40°N

20°N

0°

Red

Sea

Mediterranean Sea

CaspianSea

PersianGulf

A t l a n t i cO c e a n

Senegal R.

Nige r R .

Nil

eR.

L. Chad

EGYPTARABIAN

PENINSULAS A H A R A

Cairo

Sennar

Baghdad

Makkah(Mecca)

Marrakech

AgadirMogador Tripoli

TunisTangier

Fez

Taghaza

Saleh

Timbuktu

GaoKukya

Jenne

Benin

Bussa

Trade in gold and salt wasthe major force in creatingseveral trading empires,beginning with Ghana, inWest Africa.

1. Interpreting MapsHow far was the centerof Ghana from the near-est salt source?

2. Applying GeographySkills Explain how thismap reveals that Ghana,Mali, and Songhai wouldnot have come into com-petition with each otherover trade.

Trading for Salt and Gold in West Africa, A.D. 800–1500

Ghana, c. A.D. 1050

Mali, A.D. 1300sBenin, c. A.D. 1500Songhai, A.D. 1500s

Trade routeSalt sourceGold source

CHAPTER 3 Regional CivilizationsCHAPTER 7 Early African CivilizationsCHAPTER 5 Rome and the Rise of Christianity

From African Rhythms to Rock and RollBeginning in the 1500s, Africans were brought as

slaves to the Western Hemisphere. Their music camewith them and became an important ingredient in thedevelopment of musical styles in the Americas.

A strong rhythmic pattern was an important featureof African music, an effect achieved through a wide vari-ety of instruments, including drums, bells, harps, gourds,pots, sticks beaten together, and hand clapping. Anotherimportant feature of African music was the coming

together of voice and instrument. A call and responsepattern was common: a leader would sing a short pieceand people would repeat it back to the beat of a drum.

As slaves in North America, Africans would use worksongs, sung to rhythmic patterns, to make their longwork days less burdensome. At rest, others sang folksongs known as spirituals to lament the loss of theirhomeland and their freedom. Over the years, theseAfrican musical forms developed into new forms knownas blues, gospel, jazz, and ragtime. In the twentieth cen-tury, African American artists inspired new forms ofmusic known as rock and roll and rap.

In Latin America, the beat of African drums was com-bined with European instruments, such as the Spanishguitar, and Native American instruments, such as themaraca and wooden rhythm sticks. From the combina-tion of these elements came such styles as reggae,calypso, and salsa music.

! Burundi drummers

" Jazz saxophonist

Listen to blues, gospel, jazz, and ragtime music.Describe the similarities and the differences betweenthese types of music. Compare these musical types tocontemporary, popular music.

continued Sunni Ali’s policy of expansion, creatingan empire that stretched a thousand miles along theNiger River. The chief cities of the empire prosperedas never before from the salt and gold trade until theend of the sixteenth century.

Summarizing What were MansaMusa’s accomplishments?

Societies in East and South AfricaIn eastern Africa, a variety of states and small soci-

eties took root. Islam strongly influenced many ofthem. Some became extremely wealthy as a result of trade.

Beginning in the first millennium B.C., farmingpeoples who spoke dialects of the Bantu (BAN•TOO)family of languages began to move from the region ofthe Niger River into East Africa and the Congo Riverbasin. They moved slowly, not as invading hordesbut as small communities.

On the eastern fringe of the continent, the Bantu-speaking peoples gradually began to take part in the

Reading Check

regional trade that moved by sea up and down theEast African coast. Beginning in the eighth century,Muslims from the Arabian Peninsula and the PersianGulf began to settle at ports along the coast. Theresult was the formation of a string of trading portsthat included Mogadishu (MAH•guh•DIH•shoo),Mombasa, and Kilwa in the south.

In the southern half of the African continent, statesformed more slowly than in the north. From about1300 to about 1450, Zimbabwe (zihm•BAH•bwee)was the wealthiest and most powerful state in theregion. It prospered from the gold trade with the trad-ing communities on the eastern coast of the continent.

The ruins of Zimbabwe’s capital, known as GreatZimbabwe, illustrate the kingdom’s power and influ-ence. The town sits on a hill overlooking the ZambeziRiver and is surrounded by stone walls. The local peo-ple stacked granite blocks together without mortar tobuild the massive walls. Ten thousand people wouldhave been able to live in the area enclosed by the walls.

Evaluating What do the walledenclosures tell us about Great Zimbabwe?Reading Check

African Society and CultureThe relationship between king and subjects was

often less rigid in African society than in other civi-lizations. Frequently, the ruler would allow people tovoice their complaints to him. Still, the king was heldin a position high above all others.

Few Africans, of course, ever met with their kings.Most people lived in small villages. Their sense ofidentity was determined by their membership in anextended family and a lineage group. Lineagegroups, which were communities of extended familyunits, were the basis of African society.

Early African religious beliefs varied from place toplace. Most African societies shared some commonreligious ideas. These ideas included belief in variousgods, the power of diviners (people who believe theycan foretell events), and the importance of ancestors.

In early Africa, as in much of the rest of the worldat the time, the arts—whether painting, literature, ormusic—were a means of serving religion. In the thir-teenth and fourteenth centuries, metalworkers at Ife(EE•feh), in what is now southern Nigeria, producedhandsome bronze and iron statues. The Ife sculpturesmay have influenced artists in Benin in West Africa,who produced equally impressive works in bronzeduring the same period. The Benin sculpturesinclude bronze heads, many of kings, and figures ofvarious types of animals.

Summarizing Describe the role oflineage groups on African society.Reading Check


" Benin bronze figures

Delicately carved bronze "

head of Benin, queen mother, from 1500s

" Ife king, bronze

Checking for Understanding1. Define savanna, Bantu, lineage group.

2. Identify King Ezana, Berbers, SundiataKeita, Mansa Musa, Sunni Ali, Muham-mad Ture.

3. Locate Sahara, Ghana, Mali, Songhai,Benin.

4. Describe the most distinctive feature ofAxumite civilization. How did this affectAxum’s relations with its neighbors?

5. List the trading commodities that madethe African kingdoms wealthy. Howwere camels a crucial factor in Africantrade?

Critical Thinking6. Analyze How did the indigenous reli-

gious beliefs of Africans differ fromIslam and Christianity?

7. Sequencing Information Using a dia-gram like the one below, put the royalkingdoms of West Africa in chronologi-cal order (include dates) along the toprow of boxes. In the second row, adddetails about the accomplishments ofeach kingdom.

Analyzing Visuals8. Examine the art works shown on this

page and on page 97. Approaching thetask as if you were an anthropologist,what can you learn about African art,culture, society, and technology fromthese figures?

9. Expository Writing Music, dance,and storytelling do not leave aphysical archaeological record in the same way as buildings or roads.Describe how historians have beenable to determine the significance ofthe performing arts in African society.

" "

102

The Salt Mines

Analyzing Primary Sources

1. Why did Ibn Battuta write that the village of Taghaza was a village “with no goodin it”?

2. Explain the economic value of Taghaza.

IBN BATTUTA WAS BORN IN MOROCCOin 1304. When he was 21 years old, hewent on a pilgrimage to Makkah. Hespent the next 24 years wanderingthroughout Africa and Asia. In writingan account of his travels, he providedmodern readers with an accuratedescription of conditions in thefourteenth century.

“We arrived after 25 days at Taghaza.It is a village with no good in it. Among its curiositiesis the fact that the construction of its houses is of

rock salt with camel skin roof-ing and there are no trees init, the soil is just sand. In it isa salt mine. It is dug out ofthe ground and is found therein huge slabs, one on top ofanother as if it had beencarved and put under theground. A camel can carry twoslabs of salt. Nobody lives inthe village except slaves whodig for the salt and live on

dates and on the meat of camels that is broughtfrom the land of the blacks. The blacks arrive fromtheir country and carry away the salt from there. Theblacks exchange the salt as money as one wouldexchange gold and silver. They cut it up and tradewith it in pieces. In spite of the insignificance of thevillage of Taghaza, much trading goes on in it. Westayed in it 10 days in miserable conditions, becauseits water is bitter and it is of all places the most fullof flies. In it water is drawn for the entry into thedesert which comes after it. This desert is a travelingdistance of 10 days and there is no water in it exceptrarely. But we found much water in it in pools leftbehind by the rains. One day we found a pool ofsweet water between two hillocks of rocks. Wequenched our thirsts from it and washed our clothes.In that desert truffles are abundant. There are also so

many lice in it that people put strings around theirnecks in which there is mercury which kills the lice.In those days we used to go ahead in front of thecaravan. When we found a place suitable for pasturewe would let the animals pasture. ”

—Ibn Battuta, Ibn Battuta in Black Africa

TaghazaS A H A R A

Niger R.

A F R I C A

MOROCCO

Gulf of Guinea

ATLANTICOCEAN

African salt mines were described by IbnBattuta (inset photo) in the 1300s and stillexist today.

The Asian World


The Mongols were masters of military tactics. John of Plano Carpini, a Franciscanfriar, wrote:

“As soon as they discover the enemy they charge and each one unleashes three orfour arrows. If they see that they can’t break him, they retreat in order to entice theenemy to pursue, thus luring him into an ambush prepared in advance. If they con-clude that the enemy army is stronger, they retire for a day or two and ravage neigh-boring areas. Or they [set up] camp in a well chosen position, and when the enemyarmy begins to pass by, they appear unexpectedly.”

—L’Empire des Steppes, Rene Grousset, 1939

Due in large part to their military prowess, the Mongols rose to power in Asia withstunning speed.

China ReunifiedThe Han dynasty came to an end in 220, and China fell into chaos. For the next

three hundred years, the Chinese suffered through disorder and civil war. Then,in 581, a new Chinese empire was set up under a dynasty known as the Sui(SWAY). The Sui dynasty (581–618) did not last long, but it managed to unifyChina once again under the emperor’s authority.

The Tang Dynasty A new dynasty, the Tang (TONG), soon emerged. It wouldlast for almost three hundred years, from 618 until 907. The early Tang rulersbegan their reigns by instituting reforms, as rulers often did in the early days ofnew dynasties. They restored the civil service examination started by the Qin


581Sui dynasty begins

1432Thai set up capitalat Ayutthaya

Guide to Reading

Preview of Events

794Heian periodbegins in Japan

Main Ideas• The Mongols created a vast land empire.• Rulers and powerful families struggled

for control in Japan.• Muslim power grew in India.• New Southeast Asian states adapted

Chinese and Indian models.

Key Termskhanate, samurai, Bushido, shogun,daimyo, Shinto, archipelago

People to IdentifyGenghis Khan, Kublai Khan, Li Bo,Shotoku Taishi, Timur Lenk

Places to LocateTibet, Mongolia, Beijing, Nara, Kyoto,Angkor Thom, Malay Peninsula

Preview Questions1. Why did Japan not develop a central-

ized government like China’s?2. What impact did Muslim rule have

on India?

Reading StrategyUsing a diagram like the one below, iden-tify all the civilizations that were affectedby Mongol expansion.

1279Kublai Khan defeats the Song andestablishes the Yuan dynasty

1369Timur Lenk begins conquests

Guide to Reading

Preview of Events

Mongol horseman

Mongol Expansion

!600 !750 !900 !1050 !1200 !1350 !1500

dynasty, to serve as the chief method of recruitingofficials for the civilian bureaucracy. They also triedto create a more stable economy by giving land to thepeasants and breaking up the power of largelandowners.

Tang rulers worked hard to restore the power ofChina in East Asia. They brought peace to north-western China and expanded their control to the bor-ders of Tibet, an area north of the Himalaya. Chinaclaimed to be the greatest power in East Asia.

During the eighth century, the Tang dynastyweakened and became prey to rebellions. Tang rulershired Uighurs (WEE•GURZ), a northern tribal groupof Turkic-speaking people, to fight for the dynasty.Continued unrest, however, led to the collapse ofTang rule in 907.

The Song Dynasty In 960, a new dynasty known asthe Song (SOONG) rose to power. The Song ruledduring a period of economic prosperity and culturalachievement, from 960 to 1279. From the start, how-ever, the Song also experienced problems, especiallyfrom northern neighbors. Song rulers were forced tomove the imperial court south to Hangzhou.

The Song dynasty could never overcome the chal-lenge from the north. During the 1200s, the Mongols—a nomadic people from the Gobi—carried out wars ofconquest and built a vast empire. Within 70 years, they


1,000 kilometers

1,000 miles0

0

N

SE

W

Two-Point Equidistant projection

30°N

20°N

10°N

0°60°E 80°E 100°E 120°E

130°E

140°E

TROPIC

OF CAN

CER

70°E 90°E 110°E

G O B I

H

I MA L A Y A

ASIA

ArabianSea

Bay ofBengal

SouthChina Sea

EastChina Sea

Sea ofJapan

PaCIFICOCEaN

INDIaNOCEaN

Hu

an

g

He

Chang Jiang

Mekong

R.

Ganges R.

Indu

s R.

TIBET

INDIA

MONGOLIA

CHINA

KOREA

JAPAN

Beijing

Changan LuoyangHangzhou

Guangzhou

The Sui dynasty was the first to reunify China after the fallof the Han dynasty.

1. Interpreting Maps What was the length of the GrandCanal?

2. Applying Geography Skills What do you notice about the western border of each dynasty? What wouldaccount for the movement of the border?

Sui, 581–618• Built canal linking northern

and southern China

Tang, 618–907• Restored civil service• Distributed land to peasants• Controlled Tibet• Traded with Southeast Asia

Civil War, 907–960

Song, 960–1279• Lost control of Tibet• Formed alliance with Mongols

500

600

700

800

900

1000

1100

1200

1300

Dynasties of China, 581–1279

Sui, Tang, and Song Empires in China, 581–1279

Sui Empire, 581–618

Tang Empire, 618–907

Song Empire, 960–1279

Grand Canal

Silk Road

controlled all of China. The Mongols overthrew theSong and created a new Mongol dynasty.

Government, Economy, and Society The era fromthe beginning of the Sui dynasty to the end of theSong dynasty lasted nearly seven hundred years.During that period, a mature political system basedon principles first put into practice during the Qinand Han dynasties gradually emerged in China. Asin the Han Era, China was a monarchy thatemployed a relatively large bureaucracy. Beyond thecapital, government was centered around provinces,districts, and villages. Confucian ideals were thecement that held the system together.

During the long period between the Sui and Songdynasties, the Chinese economy grew in size andcomplexity. Agriculture flourished, and manufactur-ing and trade grew dramatically. In Chinese cities,technological developments added new productsand stimulated trade. During the Tang dynasty, forexample, the Chinese began to make steel for swordsand sickles and invented gunpowder, used for explo-sives and a flamethrower called a fire-lance.

Long-distance trade had declined between thefourth and sixth centuries as a result of the collapseof both the Han dynasty and the Roman Empire.Trade revived under the Tang dynasty, in partbecause of the unification of much of Southwest Asiaunder the Arabs. The Silk Road was renewed andthrived as caravans carried goods between Chinaand the countries of Southwest and South Asia.

Economic changes had an impact on Chinese soci-ety. For wealthier city dwellers, the Tang and SongEras were times of prosperity. The Song capital ofHangzhou, for example, flourished. In the late thir-teenth century the Italian merchant Marco Polodescribed the city to European readers as one of thelargest and wealthiest cities on Earth. “So manypleasures may be found,” he said, “that one fancieshimself to be in Paradise.”

The vast majority of the Chinese people still livedoff the land in villages. Most peasants never left theirvillages except for an occasional visit to a nearby mar-ket town. Changes were taking place in the country-side, however. Before, there had been a great gulfbetween wealthy landowners and poor peasants. Amore complex mixture of landowners, free peasants,sharecroppers, and landless laborers now emerged.

Describing Identify one of the broadgoals of the Tang dynasty and describe how Tang rulersworked to reach it.

Reading Check

The Mongol EmpireThe Mongols were a pastoral people from the

region of modern-day Mongolia who were organ-ized loosely into clans. Temujin (teh•MOO•juhn),born during the 1160s, gradually unified the Mon-gols. In 1206, he was elected Genghis Khan (“strongruler”) at a massive meeting somewhere in the Gobi.From that time on, he devoted himself to conquest.

The Mongols brought much of the Eurasian land-mass under a single rule, creating the largest landempire in history. To rule the new Mongol Empire,Genghis Khan set up a capital city at Karakorum.Mongol armies traveled both to the west and to theeast. Some went as far as central Europe.

After the death of Genghis Khan in 1227, theempire began to change. Following Mongol custom,upon the death of the ruling khan, his heirs dividedthe territory. The once-united empire of Genghis Khanwas thus split into several separate territories calledkhanates, each under the rule of one of his sons.

In 1231, the Mongols attacked Persia and thendefeated the Abbasids at Baghdad in 1258. In the 1260s,a new wave of invasion began when Mongol forcesattacked the Song in China. In their attack on the Chi-nese, the Mongols encountered the use of gunpowderand the firelance. By the early fourteenth century, for-eigners employed by the Mongol rulers of China hadintroduced gunpowder and firearms into Europe.


This silk watercolor shows students taking a civil service examination during the Song dynasty.

The Mongol Dynasty in China In 1279, one ofGenghis Khan’s grandsons, named Kublai Khan,completed the conquest of the Song and establisheda new Chinese dynasty, the Yuan (YOO•AHN).Kublai Khan, who ruled China until his death in1294, established his capital at Khanbaliq (“the city ofthe Khan”) in northern China. Later the city wouldbe known by the Chinese name Beijing.

Under the leadership of the talented Kublai Khan,the Yuan, or Mongol, dynasty continued to expandthe empire. Mongol armies advanced into Vietnam,and Mongol fleets were launched against Java andSumatra and twice against the islands of Japan. OnlyVietnam was conquered, however—and then onlyfor a while.

The Mongols had more success in ruling China.Mongol rulers adapted to the Chinese political sys-tem. Over time, the Mongols won the support ofmany Chinese people. Some came to respect the sta-bility and economic prosperity that the Mongols atfirst brought to China. The capital at Khanbaliqreflected Mongol prosperity. It was a magnificent

city, and foreign visitors were impressed by itssplendor.

The Mongol dynasty eventually fell victim to thesame problems that had plagued other dynasties. In1368, Zhu Yuanzhang (JOO YOO•AHN•JAHNG), theson of a peasant, raised an army, ended the Mongoldynasty, and set up a new dynasty, the Ming dynasty.

Religion By the time the Mongols established theirdynasty in China, religious preferences in the Chi-nese court had undergone a number of changes. Con-fucian principles became the basis for Chinesegovernment during the Han dynasty (202 B.C.–A.D.220). By the time of the Sui and Tang dynasties, Buddhism and Daoism rivaled the influence of Confucianism. During the Song dynasty, however,Confucianism became dominant at court, a positionit retained until the early twentieth century. ; (See page 773 to read excerpts from The Buddha’s Sermon inthe Primary Sources Library.)

A Golden Age in Art and Literature The periodbetween the Tang and Ming dynasties was in manyways the great age of Chinese art and literature. Dur-ing the Song and Mongol dynasties, landscape paint-ing reached its high point. Influenced by Daoism,Chinese artists went into the mountains to paint andfind the Dao, or Way, in nature. This practice explainsin part the emphasis on nature in traditional Chinesepainting. The word for landscape in Chinese means“mountain-water” and reflects the Daoist search forbalance between the earth and sky.

Chinese artists tried toreveal the hidden formsof the landscape. Ratherthan depicting the realis-tic shape of a specificmountain, for example,they tried to portray theidea of “mountain.” Emptyspaces were left in thepaintings because Daoistsbelieve one cannot knowthe whole truth.

The invention of print-ing during the Tangdynasty helped to make lit-erature more readily avail-able and more popular. Itwas in poetry, above all,that the Chinese of thistime best expressed their


In the thirteenth-century battle shown above,Mongol troops storm across the Chang Jiang on a bridge made of boats. Which Chinesedynasty do you think the Mongols wereattempting to conquer in this battle?

History

Song ink and watercolor drawing on silk

literary talents. Chinese poems celebrated the beautyof nature, the changes of the seasons, and the joys offriendship. They expressed sadness at the shortnessof life and the necessity of parting.

Li Bo (LEE BWAW) was one of the most popularpoets during the Tang Era. Li Bo was a free spiritwhose writing often centered on nature. The follow-ing is probably the best-known poem in China andhas been memorized by schoolchildren for centuries.It is entitled “Quiet Night Thoughts”:

“Beside my bed the bright moonbeams boundAlmost as if there were frost on the ground.Raising up, I gaze at the Mountain moon;Lying back, I think of my old home town.”

Summarizing What inventionhelped make literature both more available and more popular?

The Rise of the Japanese StateChinese and Japanese societies have historically

been very different. One of the reasons for these dif-ferences is geography. Whereas China is on a vastcontinent, Japan is a chain of many islands. The pop-ulation is concentrated on four main islands: Hok-kaido, the main island of Honshu, and the two smallerislands of Kyushu and Shikoku. Japan’s total landarea is approximately 146,000 square miles (378,000 sqkm)—about the size of the state of Montana.

In the early seventh century, Shotoku Taishi, aprince of the Yamato clan, tried to unify the variousJapanese clans in order to more effectively resist aninvasion by the Chinese. He began to create a newcentralized system of government in Japan, basedroughly on the structure of the Chinese government.

Prince Shotoku wanted a centralized governmentunder a supreme ruler. His objective was to limit thepowers of the small class of aristocrats and enhancethe Yamato ruler’s (his own) authority. As a result,the ruler was portrayed as a divine figure and thesymbol of the Japanese nation.

The Nara Period After Shotoku Taishi’s death in622, political power fell into the hands of the Fujiwaraclan. A Yamato ruler was still emperor, but he wasstrongly influenced by the Fujiwara family. In 710, anew capital was established at Nara. The emperorbegan to use the title “son of Heaven.”

Though the reforms begun by Prince Shotoku con-tinued during this period, Japan’s central govern-ment could not overcome the power of thearistocrats. These powerful families were able tokeep the taxes from the lands for themselves. Unable

Reading Check

to gain tax revenues, the central government steadilylost power and influence.

The Heian Period In 794, the emperor moved thecapital from Nara to nearby Heian, on the site ofpresent-day Kyoto. At Heian, the emperor continuedto rule in name, but actual power remained in thehands of the Fujiwara clan.

In fact, the government was returning to the decen-tralized system that had existed before the time ofShotoku Taishi. Powerful families whose wealth wasbased on the ownership of tax-exempt farmland dom-inated the rural areas. With the decline of centralpower, local aristocrats tended to take justice into theirown hands. They turned increasingly to military forceas a means of protecting their interests. A new class ofmilitary servants emerged whose purpose was to pro-tect the security and property of their employers.

Called the samurai (“those who serve”), thesewarriors resembled the knights of medieval Europe.


Lambert Conformal Conic projection400 kilometers0

400 miles0

N

S

EW

30°N

40°N

130°E 140°E

PacificOcean

Sea of Japan

Korea

Strait

YellowSea

East ChinaSea

CHINA

Honshu

Shikoku

Kyushu

Mt. Fuji

KamakuraPeninsula

Hokkaido

RUSSIA

KOREA Edo(Tokyo)

OsakaIseNara

Heian(Kyoto)

Early Japan

The geography of Japan influenced the development ofJapanese culture.

1. Interpreting Maps List, from north to south, the fourmajor islands that make up Japan. On which island arethe major cities of early Japan located?

2. Applying Geography Skills Heian (Kyoto) and Osakawere important cities in early Japan. Today Tokyo is amajor city. What geographic features contributed toTokyo’s importance?

Japanese, most of the Mongol ships were destroyedby a typhoon (violent storm) before the forces couldland. Japan would not again face a foreign invaderuntil American troops landed in the summer of 1945.Fighting the Mongols put a heavy strain on the polit-ical system. In 1333, the Kamakura shogunate wasoverthrown by a group of powerful families led bythe Ashikaga family.

The power of the local aristocrats grew during thefourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Heads of noblefamilies, now called daimyo (DY•mee•OH), “greatnames,” controlled vast landed estates that owed notaxes to the government. By 1500, Japan was close tochaos. A disastrous civil war, which lasted from 1467to 1477, led to the virtual destruction of the capitalcity of Kyoto. Armies passed back and forth throughthe city, burning temples and palaces. Centralauthority disappeared.

Describing What difficulties didJapanese rulers encounter in establishing a strong centralgovernment?

Life and Culture in Early JapanEarly Japan was mostly a farming society. Its peo-

ple took advantage of the limited amount of farmlandand abundant rainfall to grow wet rice (ricegrown in flooded fields). As we have seen,noble families were able to maintain controlover most of the land.

Trade and manufacturing began todevelop during the Kamakura period. Mar-kets appeared in the larger towns, and indus-tries such as paper, iron casting, andporcelain emerged. Trade between regionsalso grew. Foreign trade, mainly with Koreaand China, began during the eleventh cen-tury. Japan shipped raw materials, paintings,swords, and other manufactured items inreturn for silk, porcelain, books, and cop-per coins.

Early Japanese people worshiped spirits,called kami, whom the Japanese believed

resided in trees, rivers, streams,and mountains. The Japanese alsobelieved that the spirits of theirancestors were present in the airaround them. In Japan, thesebeliefs evolved into a kind of statereligion called Shinto (“the SacredWay” or “the Way of the Gods”),which is still practiced today.

Reading Check

Like knights, the samurai fought on horseback, cladin helmet and armor, although a samurai carried asword and a bow and arrow rather than a lance andshield. Like knights, the samurai were supposed tolive by a strict warrior code, known in Japan asBushido (“the way of the warrior”). Above all, thesamurai’s code was based on loyalty to his lord.

The Kamakura Shogunate By the end of thetwelfth century, rivalries among Japanese aristocraticfamilies had led to almost constant civil war. Finally,a powerful noble named Minamoto Yoritomodefeated several rivals and set up his power near themodern city of Tokyo.

To strengthen the state, he created a more central-ized government under a powerful military leaderknown as the shogun (general). In this new system—called the shogunate—the emperor remained ruler inname only, and the shogun exercised the actualpower. The Kamakura shogunate, founded by Yorit-omo, lasted from 1192 to 1333.

At first the system worked well. The Japanesewere fortunate that it did, because the governmentsoon faced its most serious challenge yet from theMongols. In 1281, Kublai Khan sent nearly 150,000warriors to invade Japan. Fortunately for the

108

The suit of armor (above) was worn bysamurai warriors, such as the warrior inthe painting at left. Compare this typeof armor to the armor shown on thechapter time line (page 87). What sim-ilarities and differences do you see?

History

CHAPTER 3 Regional Civilizations

In Japanese art and architecture, landscape servesas an important means of expression. The landscapesurrounding the fourteenth-century Golden Pavil-ion in Kyoto displays a harmony of garden, water,and architecture that makes it one of the treasures ofthe world.

Identifying What industries emergedin Japan during the Kamakura period?

India after the GuptasIn the early eighth century, Islam became popular

in the northwestern corner of the Indian subconti-nent. The new religion had a major impact on Indiancivilization. This impact is still evident today in thedivision of the Indian subcontinent into mostlyHindu India and the two Islamic states of Bangladeshand Pakistan.

One reason for Islam’s success in South Asia is thatit arrived at a time when India was in a state of greatpolitical disunity. The Gupta Empire had collapsed,and no central authority had replaced it. India wasdivided into about seventy states, which fought eachother constantly.

When the Arab armies reached India in the earlyeighth century, they did little more than move intothe frontier regions. At the end of the tenth century,however, a new phase of Islamic expansion tookplace when rebellious Turkish slaves founded a newIslamic state known as Ghazni, located in present-day Afghanistan.

When the founder of the new state died in 997, hisson, Mahmud of Ghazni, succeeded him. Mahmud, anambitious man, began to attack neighboring Hindukingdoms to the southeast. Before his death in 1030, hewas able to extend his rule throughout the upperIndus Valley and as far south as the Indian Ocean.

Resistance against the advances of Mahmud andhis successors into northern India was led by theRajputs, who were Hindu warriors. They foughtbravely, but their military tactics,based on infantry supported byelephants, were no match for thecavalry of the invaders. Mahmud’ssuccessors continued theiradvances. By 1200, Muslim powerhad reached over the entire plain ofnorthern India, creating a newMuslim state known as the Sul-tanate of Delhi. In the fourteenthcentury, this state extended itspower into the Deccan Plateau.

Reading Check

The Impact of Timur Lenk During the latter half ofthe fourteenth century, the Sultanate of Delhi beganto decline. Near the end of the century, a new militaryforce crossed the Indus River from the northwest,raided the capital of Delhi, and then withdrew. Asmany as 100,000 Hindu prisoners were massacredbefore the gates of the city. It was India’s first meet-ing with Timur Lenk (Tamerlane).

Timur Lenk was the ruler of a Mongol state basedin Samarkand, to the north of the Pamir Mountains.Born sometime dur-ing the 1330s inSamarkand, TimurLenk seized power in1369 and immedi-ately launched a pro-gram of conquest.During the 1380s, heplaced the entire region east of the Caspian Seaunder his authority and then occupied Mesopo-tamia. After his brief foray into northern India, heturned to the west. He died in 1405 in the midst of amilitary campaign.

The death of Timur Lenk removed a menace fromthe various states of the Indian subcontinent, but thecalm did not last long. By the early sixteenth century,two new challenges had appeared from beyond thehorizon. One came from the north in the form of theMoguls, a newly emerging nomadic power. Theother came from Europe, from Portuguese tradersarriving by sea in search of gold and spices.

Islam and Indian Society The Muslim rulers inIndia viewed themselves as foreign conquerors. Theytried to maintain a strict separation between the Mus-lim ruling class and the mass of the Hindu population.

Like rulers elsewhere at this time, many Muslimrulers in India were intolerant of other faiths. Theygenerally used peaceful means, however, to encouragepeople to convert to Islam. Most Muslim rulers real-

ized that there were simply toomany Hindus to convert them all.They reluctantly accepted the needto tolerate religious differences.Nevertheless, Muslim rulers didimpose many Islamic customs onHindu society. Overall, the relation-ship between Muslim and Hinduwas that of conqueror and con-quered, a relationship marked


Indian warrior seated on his elephant

Baghdad

Makkah

Caspian Sea

Constantinople

Damascus

Samarkand

Delhi

MTS.

PAMIR

Indu

s R.

TIMUR LENK'SEMPIRE

INDIA

The Formation of States Between 500 and 1500, anumber of organized states developed throughoutSoutheast Asia. When the peoples of the regionbegan to form states, they used models from Chinaand India. At the same time, they adapted thesemodels to their own needs and created their ownunique states.

The Chinese conquered Vietnam in 111 B.C., butthe Vietnamese overthrew Chinese rule in the tenthcentury. Chinese influence remained, though. Viet-namese rulers followed the Chinese model of cen-tralized government, calling themselves emperorsand practicing Chinese court rituals. The new Viet-namese state, which called itself Dai Viet (Great Viet),also adopted state Confucianism.

In the ninth century, the kingdom of Angkor arosein the region that is present-day Cambodia. A power-ful figure named Jayavarman united the Khmer(kuh•MEHR) people and established a capital atAngkor Thom. For several hundred years, Angkor—or the Khmer Empire—was the most powerful statein mainland Southeast Asia.

In 1432, the Thai from the north destroyed theAngkor capital. They set up their own capital atAyutthaya (ah•YU•tuh•yuh) on the Chao Phraya(chau PRY•uh) River, where they remained as amajor force for the next four hundred years.

The Thai were threatened from the west by theBurman peoples, who had formed their own societyin the valleys of the Salween and Irrawaddy (IHR•uh•WAH•dee) Rivers. In the eleventh century, theyfounded the first great Burman state, the kingdom ofPagan. Like the Thai, they adopted Indian politicalinstitutions and culture.

In the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian Arch-ipelago, a different pattern emerged. For centuries,this area had been tied to the trade that passed fromEast Asia into the Indian Ocean. The area had neverbeen united under a single state, however. The vastmajority of the people of the region were of Malaybackground, but the peoples were divided intonumerous separate communities.

Society and Culture At the top of the social ladderin most Southeast Asian societies were the hereditaryaristocrats. They held both political power and eco-nomic wealth. Most aristocrats lived in the majorcities. Angkor Thom, for example, was a city withroyal palaces, parks, and numerous temples.

Beyond the major cities lived the rest of the popu-lation, which consisted of farmers, fishers, artisans,and merchants. In most Southeast Asian societies, the


Southeast Asia is a diverse area, largely due to the region’sgeographical barriers.

1. Interpreting Maps Is the mainland region of South-east Asia located north or south of the Equator?

N

S

EW

Two-Point Equidistant projection1,000 kilometers0

1,000 miles0

10°S

10°N

0˚

20°N

100°E 110°E 120°E

TROPIC

OF CANC

ER

130°E

EQUATOR

PacificOcean

SouthChina

Sea

Gulf ofThailand

IndianOcean

Strait ofMalacca

Irra

wad

dyR

.Sa

lwe e

nR

.

ChaoPhraya R.

Mekong R.

Red R.

Borneo

Sumatra

Java

INDIA CHINA

MalayPeninsula

Melaka

Phnom PenhAyutthaya Angkor Thom

Pagan

SoutheastAsia, 1200

Angkor (Khmer)

Dai Viet

Champa Sailendra

Pagan

Srivijaya

by suspicion and dislike rather than friendship andunderstanding.

Evaluating What was the relation-ship between the Muslims and Hindus in India?

Civilization in Southeast AsiaBetween China and India lies the region that today

is called Southeast Asia. It has two major parts. Oneis the mainland region, extending southward fromthe Chinese border down to the tip of the MalayPeninsula. The other is an extensive archipelago, orchain of islands, most of which is part of present-dayIndonesia and the Philippines. Located betweenIndia and China—two highly advanced and denselypopulated regions of the world—Southeast Asia is amelting pot of peoples.

Reading Check

majority of people were probably rice farmers wholived at a bare level of subsistence and paid heavyrents or taxes to a landlord or local ruler.

Chinese culture made an impact on Vietnam. Inmany other areas of Southeast Asia, Indian culturalinfluence prevailed. The most visible example of thisinfluence was in architecture. Of all the existing struc-tures at Angkor Thom, the temple of Angkor Wat isthe most famous and most beautiful. It combines

Indian architectural techniques with native inspira-tion in a structure of impressive grace. The construc-tion of Angkor Wat, which took 40 years to complete,required an enormous quantity of stone—as much asit took to build Egypt’s Great Pyramid.

Contrasting How did the develop-ment of the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian Archipelagodiffer from development elsewhere in Southeast Asia?

Reading Check


Checking for Understanding1. Define khanate, samurai, Bushido,

shogun, daimyo, Shinto, archipelago.

2. Identify Genghis Khan, Kublai Khan, LiBo, Shotoku Taishi, Rajputs, TimurLenk, Angkor Wat.

3. Locate Tibet, Mongolia, Beijing, Nara,Kyoto, Angkor Thom, Malay Peninsula.

4. Describe the golden age of literatureand art in China.

5. List the religious and philosophicalinfluences on the civilizations men-tioned in this section.

Critical Thinking6. Explain How did the samurai and

shogun affect the government of earlyJapan?

7. Organizing Information Use a tablelike the one below to list the achieve-ments of the Sui, Tang, Song, andMongol dynasties.

Analyzing Visuals8. Describe what you see in the Song

landscape drawing shown on page 106 of your text. How do you think thepainting reflects the culture in which itwas painted? What artistic, philosophi-cal, or cultural ideals are expressed by the artist?

Angkor Wat, which is encircled by a three-mile (4.8-km) moat, is located in northernCambodia at the site of the ruins of the old capital city of Angkor Thom.

9. Descriptive Writing Imagine thatyou are a samurai living in Japanduring the fourteenth century.Describe your role and your dailyduties.

Dynasty AchievementsSuiTangSongMongol


SSamarkand, Bukhara, Urgench, Balkh, Merv, Nisha-

pur, Herat, Ghazni: The glorious cities of central

Asia toppled like dominoes before fierce horsemen

who burst from the Mongolian steppe in the thir-

teenth century. According to one survivor of a

Mongol raid, “They came, they sapped, they burnt,

they slew, they plundered, and they departed.” The

leader of this ruthless horde was called Genghis

Khan—“strong ruler.” But was Genghis Khan only

a merciless killer and looter? The answer, say mod-

ern historians, is yes—and no.

There is no questionthat the Mongols blazed

a trail of destruction.Some historians think

that Genghis Khan sti-fled development in

parts of Asia for centuries.Other scholars point out that Genghis was simply a

major player in one of the most war-torn centuries in history.While Crusaders attacked in the Holy Land, and dynasties fought

one another in China, central Asiasuffered a number of wars even beforeGenghis invaded.

Whatever opinions historians mayhold, present-day Mongolians regardGenghis Khan as a national hero.

After more than six decades of Sovietdomination—during which Mongo-lia’s own history was suppressed todestroy any trace of national pride—Mongolians have reclaimed GenghisKhan as the father of their country. Inthe capital, Ulaanbaatar, the formerLenin Avenue is now Genghis KhanAvenue, and Genghis’s face is stampedon the currency.

The boy who would grow up to be the great khan was born in the1160s some 200 miles (321.8 km)northeast of Ulaanbaatar near theOnon River. It is said that the baby,named Temujin (“blacksmith”), was born with a clot of blood in his hand—a sign of good fortune.

Genghis Khanlord of the mongols

1


Later his shaman (a spiritual leader)told Temujin that the supreme Mon-gol deity had ordained him to be master of the world.

At this time, the Mongolian popula-tion included some 30 nomadic groupsthat had long vied with one anotherfor power. When Temujin was nine,Tatars poisoned his father, a minorchieftain. To help the family survive,Temujin and his brothers caught fishand snared small animals called mar-mots. Like other Mongol children,Temujin grew up on horseback, proba-bly learning to ride at age four or five.

In his youth Temujin began todemonstrate the leadership that wouldmake him famous. He made allies with

other leaders, one of whom wasToghril, a leader of the Kereyits.When the Merkit group kidnappedTemujin’s young wife, Borte, in a raid, Toghril and other friends helpedTemujin rescue her. Later, throughconquest or bestowal of gifts, Temujinsteadily built a confederation ofgroups. He did not include the Tatars,who had killed his father. When hedefeated them he left only the smallestmales alive and enslaved the womenand children. This act of vengeanceeffectively erased the Tatars from theface of the earth. (One of the ironiesof history is that Europeans for cen-turies used a variation of the name“Tartars” to refer to the Mongols.)

Eventually, some of Temujin’s former friends began to oppose hisgrowing power, but he crushed them.When he was about 40, the Mongolsnamed him Genghis Khan.

Some historians suggest Genghisdid not consciously set out to conquerthe world. He acted because heneeded to feed his people and supplythem with horses, although he may attimes have been out for revenge.

Whatever the Mongol leader’s

1 A Mongol cavalryman, lightlyarmored in leather, was much moreagile than the knights of Europe in theirheavy chain mail. He carried a smallleather shield that he could raise toprotect his face, and under a loose robehe wore a tightly woven silk tunic toblunt enemy arrows. Braced on disk-shaped stirrups he could maneuvereasily during battle, firing arrows eitherforward or backward.

2 A lone horseman rides on the flood-plain of the Onon River in northeasternMongolia, where a boy named Temujinwas born in the 1160s.

3 Bronze plaque of Genghis Khan.

4 Mongol youngsters, like these chil-dren racing at a summer festival, learnto ride by the time they are aboutfive—just as their ancestors did eightcenturies ago.

S P E C I A L R E P O RT

2

3

4


motivation, however, warfare was an old tradition among these nomads,and soon Genghis’s army was on the move. According to modernresearchers, his troops never num-bered more than 110,000, but theywere molded into a disciplined force.Genghis was a canny judge of menwho had survived power struggles. To prevent other leaders from gainingtoo much influence, Genghis gavecommand only to those who hadproven themselves in campaigns.

Genghis’s army moved against two kingdoms in quick succession.His first campaign outside Mongoliawas in 1209 against Xi Xia. Xi Xiawas a kingdom in northern Chinathat controlled oases along the SilkRoad and exacted heavy taxes fromMongol caravans. To reach Ningxia,the capital (now the Chinese city ofYinchuan), Genghis’s army had tocross the Gobi, a harsh desert thathad discouraged invasions. Crossingwas relatively easy for Mongolnomads, however, who could surviveon mare’s milk and blood drawn froma cut in a horse’s hide. After a defeatby Genghis’s forces, the emperor ofXi Xia opted for peace in 1210, offer-ing tribute and giving Genghis one ofhis daughters to marry.

This pattern was repeated with thevastly richer kingdom east of Xi Xia,ruled by the Jin dynasty, which hadcontrolled northern China for morethan a century. With much of the600,000-man Jin army boggeddown in a war in the south,Genghis’s 70,000 troopsslaughtered the remnantforce blocking their wayinto northern China. Chinese texts say disheart-ened Jin troops changedsides and swore allegianceto the invader.

When the Mongols surroundedthe Jin capital of Zhongdu (present-day Beijing) in 1214, the emperoroffered gold, silver, and other tribute—including one of his daughters—ifGenghis would withdraw his troops.

Returning to Mongolia as hewould after each campaign, Genghisbegan to build a capital at Karakorum.Not one to waste talented artisans, hemarched some 30,000 of them backfrom Xi Xia to put them to work rais-ing his citadel. Genghis also borrowedfrom other cultures to develop Mon-gol society. He used a scholar inChina to advise him on building agovernment and recruited Uighurs,his advanced Turkic neighbors, as

accountants and scribes. Soon aschool was turning out Mongol taxcollectors and record keepers.

In 1218, Genghis sent one of histrusted generals, Jebe, to preempt

a possible attack by the prince ofKara-Khitai, at Mongolia’s

western border. The mostlyMuslim people rejoiced tobe freed of their ruler, whohad forbidden them topractice their religion andhad crucified a religious

leader. Genghis took Kara-Khitai into his protection.

With success in that quarter,Genghis’s territory now touched thatof the wealthy Khwarizm Empire,ruled by Shah Muhammad inSamarkand. Genghis attempted toestablish friendly trade relations withthe shah, but the Khwarizm wouldnot cooperate. A caravan of 450 Mon-gol merchants were murdered by thegovernor of one of Khwarizm’s outly-ing regions. When Genghis sent anambassador to the shah to demandthe governor be handed over, the shahhad the ambassador killed and hishead sent back to Genghis. Thus,Genghis aimed to punish his enemies,although the possibility of enormousplunder was surely an added incentivefor his campaign. Although the shah’sarmy was much larger than that of theMongols, he proved a weak adversary.When Genghis appeared outsideSamarkand, the shah fled. City noblesopened the gates and begged formercy, but some of the shah’s soldiersrefused to surrender. About a thou-sand took refuge in the mosque hop-ing for Allah’s protection, but flamingMongol arrows rained on the build-ing. When archaeologists excavatedthe site centuries later, they foundburned bones.

More destruction was to come. InBukhara, Genghis rode his horse intothe courtyard of the Friday Mosque,ordered the nobles to bring him theirriches, then turned his troops loose to

5

6


5 Many Mongol cavalrymen wore elaborately designed helmets inlaid with silver.

6 One of the Mongols’ great advantagesin warfare was the mobility of its armies.To help sustain the army, the Mongolstraveled with their gers, or felt tenthomes, their families, and thousands ofanimals. The large ger in the center isthe khan’s, which functioned as hisportable court.

7 Between 1206 and his death in 1227,Genghis Khan unified Mongolia and con-quered kingdoms across central Asia.

pillage, rape, and burn the city to theground. Next came the Silk Roadcities of Urgench and Merv. By one account, a Muslim holy man andhis helpers spent 13 days in Mervcounting corpses—tallying 1.3 millionin all—“taking into account onlythose that were plain to see.”

Although Muslim accounts ofMongol butchery also report enor-mous numbers, historians doubt thesecities had such large populations.Some cities might have been deci-mated to frighten others.

While Genghis pursued Muham-mad’s son Jalal, who had escaped, he sent his generals Jebe and Subedaiafter the shah. The pair chasedMuhammad to the Caspian Sea,where the exhausted shah died. Hav-ing now entered new territory, thetwo generals took 20,000 troops on areconnaissance of Europe. Living offthe land over the next three years andvanquishing every opposing army,they rode 8,000 miles (12,872 km),circling the Caspian in one of thegreatest cavalry exploits of all time.

S P E C I A L R E P O RT

Upon rejoining Genghis in thecentral Asian steppe, the warriorsheaded for home. Genghis had a lastscore to settle. Just before the cam-paign against the Khwarizm Empire,the Xi Xia had insulted him and theyhad since been trying to revolt. In1226 he decided it was time to teachthem a lesson. As fate would have it,the lesson would be taught by some-one else. One account says thatGenghis had an accident and fellwhen his horse shied, another that hewas ill, perhaps with typhus. In anycase, the great khan delivered hisfinal orders from his deathbed: theextermination of the Xi Xia people.His army is said to have killed“mothers and fathers down to theoffspring of their offspring.” Finally,in August 1227, Genghis Khan died.His body is supposed to be buriednear a mountain called BurkhanKhaldun. It is said that a thousandhorsemen trampled the site so thegrave could not be found. Its loca-tion is still a mystery.

1. How did Genghis Khan’s experi-ences in his youth prepare him for hislater military and political success?

2. What made Mongol armies so muchstronger than their enemies?

3. What region suffered the most at thehands of the Mongols? Why was thisregion so harshly ravaged?

60° 140°

40°N

20°

20°

100°80°60°

120°

Longitude East of Greenwich

Kereyit

Uighur

Merkit

Mo

ngol

Tatar

Present-day boundaryof Mongolia

Location of GenghisKhan's death

1215

1209

1219

1211-15

1221

1219

1225

12181224

1219-1220

1226-27

12221224

1221

Caucasus Mts.

Hindu Kush

Ti a n

S h a n

HI M

A L A Y A

T I B E T

A l t a y M o u n t a i n s GO

B

I

Greater

KhinganRa.

Danube

Dni

eper

Indu

s Mekong Chang

Jiang

HuangHe

Ono

n

Volga

AralSea

LakeBaikal

B lackSea

CaspianSea

RedSea Persian

Gulf

YellowSea

THEHOLYLAND

KARA-KHITAIEMPIRE XI XIA

EMPIRE

SOUTHERNSONG

EMPIRE

CHINA

SULTANATEOF DELHI

J I NE M

P I RE

SELJUKSULTANATE

AYYUBIDSULTANATE

ABBASIDCALIPHATE

KH

WARIZ

MEMPIRE

RUSSIANPRINCIPALITIES

A S I A

E U R O P E

LiaoyangUlaanbataar

Karakorum

Kashgar Bukhara

Urgench

Ghazni

Balkh Nishapur

Herat

Tabriz

Merv

Ningxia

Hangzhou

Baghdad

Zhongdu(Beijing)

Samarkand

Astrakhan

Kiev

0

0

mi.

km

400

600

7 Genghis Khan’s empire, 1227Mongol homelandCampaign under Genghis KhanRoute of Subedei and JebeTribeMongol

INTERPRETING THE PAST

Guide to Reading

Emerging Europe and the Byzantine Empire

Preview of Events

In 1020, Bishop Fulbert of Chartres wrote about the mutual obligations betweenlord and vassals:

“[The vassal] who swears loyalty to his lord ought always to have these six things inmemory: what is harmless, safe, honorable, useful, easy, practicable. Harmless, that isto say, that he should not injure his lord in his body; safe, that he should not injurehim by betraying his secrets; honorable, that he should not injure him in his justice;useful, that he should not injure him in his possessions; easy and practicable, that thatgood which his lord is able to do easily he make not difficult, nor that which is practi-cable he make not impossible to him.”

—Readings in European History, James Harvey Robinson, 1934

A system of lords and vassals spread over Europe after the collapse of the Carolin-gian Empire.

The New Germanic KingdomsA new European civilization came into being in western Europe after the col-

lapse of the Western Roman Empire. This new civilization was formed by thecoming together of three major elements: the Germanic peoples who moved inand settled the Western Roman Empire, the legacy of the Romans, and the Chris-tian church. By 800, this new European civilization was taking shape. Increasingly,Europe would become the center of what we call Western civilization.


Main Ideas• The new European civilization was

formed by the Germanic peoples, thelegacy of the Romans, and the Church.

• While European monarchs began tobuild strong states, Byzantine rulerscreated an empire in the East.

Key Termspope, monk, feudalism, vassal, fief, com-mon law, Magna Carta, Crusades

People to IdentifyClovis, Charlemagne, William of Nor-mandy, Justinian, Pope Urban II

Places to LocateEngland, Runnymede, Holy RomanEmpire, Kiev, Jerusalem

Preview Questions1. What led to the development of

feudalism?2. What was the impact of the Crusades?

Reading StrategyContrasting Information Use a tablelike the one below to list the differencesbetween the systems of feudalism andempires.


c. 510Clovis establishesFrankish kingdom

534Justinian codifiesRoman law

1066Battle of Hastingsfought

800Charlemagne crownedRoman emperor

1215Magna Cartais signed

A medieval lord and his vassals

Feudalism Empires

!500 !650 !800 !950 !1100 !1250

European civilization emerged and developedduring a period called the Middle Ages or themedieval period. It lasted from about 500 to 1500. Tohistorians who first used the title, the Middle Ageswas a middle period between the ancient world andthe modern world.

By 500, the Western Roman Empire had beenreplaced by a number of states ruled by Germankings. Only one of the German states on the Euro-pean continent proved long lasting—the kingdom ofthe Franks. The Frankish kingdom was establishedby Clovis, a strong military leader who around 500became the first Germanic ruler to convert to Chris-tianity. By 510, Clovis had established a power-ful Frankish kingdom that stretched from the Pyre-nees in the southwest to German lands in the east(modern-day France and western Germany).

Identifying What is the name of theperiod during which European civilization developed?

The Role of the ChurchBy the end of the fourth century, Christianity had

become the supreme religion of the Roman Empire.As the official Roman state fell apart, the Christianchurch played an increasingly important role in thegrowth of the new European civilization.

By the fourth century, the Christian church haddeveloped a system of organization. Local Christiancommunities called parishes were led by priests. A

Reading Check

group of parishes was headed by a bishop, whose areaof authority was known as a bishopric, or diocese.

Over time, one bishop—the bishop of Rome—began to claim that he was the leader of what wasnow called the Roman Catholic Church. Later bish-ops of Rome came to be known as popes (from theLatin word papa, “father”) of the Catholic Church.

The Catholic Church developed a body of doctrine.Especially important was the church council, a meet-ing of representatives from the entire Christian com-munity. Church councils defined church teachings.

Also important to the early Christian church wasthe role of monks. A monk is a man who pursues alife of total dedication to God. The practice of livingthe life of a monk is known as monasticism. In thesixth century, Saint Benedict founded a communityof monks for which he wrote a set of rules. The Bene-dictine rule came to be used by other monasticgroups. Monks were the social workers of their com-munities, providing schools for the young, hospitalsfor the sick, and hospitality for travelers. Theybecame the new heroes of Christian civilization.

Describing How was the Christianchurch organized?

Charlemagne and the CarolingiansIn 768, a new ruler came to the throne of the Frank-

ish kingdom. This new king was the dynamic andpowerful ruler Charles the Great, or Charlemagne.

Reading Check


A medieval depiction of the crowning of Charlemagne

Charlemagne was a determined and decisive man whowas highly intelligent and curious. He was a strongstatesman and a pious Christian. Although unable toread or write, he was a wise patron of learning.

During his lengthy rule from 768 to 814, Charle-magne greatly expanded the territory of the Frankishkingdom and created what came to be known as theCarolingian (KAR•uh•LIN•jee•uhn) Empire. At itsheight, Charlemagne’s empire covered much of west-ern and central Europe. Not until the time ofNapoleon Bonaparte in the nineteenth centurywould an empire its size be seen again in Europe.

As Charlemagne’s power grew, so too did hisprestige as the most powerful Christian ruler. Onemonk even described Charlemagne’s empire as the“kingdom of Europe.” In 800, Charlemagne wascrowned emperor of the Romans by the pope.

Charlemagne’s coronation as Roman emperorsymbolized the coming together of Roman, Christ-ian, and Germanic elements. A Germanic king hadbeen crowned emperor of the Romans by the pope,the spiritual leader of western Christendom. A newcivilization had emerged.

Analyzing What was the significanceof Charlemagne’s coronation as Roman emperor?Reading Check

118 CHAPTER 3 Regional CivilizationsCHAPTER 9 Emerging Europe and the Byzantine Empire

The Castles of the Aristocrats

The growth of the European nobility inthe High Middle Ages (1000 to 1300)

was made visible by a growing number ofcastles scattered across the landscape.Castles varied considerably but possessedtwo common features: they were perma-nent residences for the noble family, itsretainers, and servants,and they were defensiblefortifications.

The earliest castleswere made of wood.However, by the eleventhcentury, castles of stonewere being built. At first,the basic castle plan had

two parts. The motte was a man-made ornatural steep-sided hill. The bailey was anopen space next to the motte. Both motteand bailey were encircled by large stonewalls. The keep, the central building of thecastle, was built on the motte.

The keep was a large building with anumber of stories constructed of thickstone walls. On the ground floor were the

kitchens and stables.The basementhoused storeroomsfor equipment andfoodstuffs. Above theground floor was thegreat hall. This verylarge room served anumber of purposes.

Bodiam Castle, England118

FeudalismAfter the death of

Charlemagne in 814, theCarolingian Empire thathe had established beganto fall apart. Rulers foundit more and more difficultto defend their subjectsfrom invaders such as theVikings, a Germanic peo-ple from Scandinavia.Thus, people began toturn to local landed aristo-crats, or nobles, to protect them. It became importantto find a powerful lord who could offer protection inreturn for service. This led to a new political andsocial system called feudalism.

Knights and Vassals At the heart of feudalism wasthe idea of vassalage. In Germanic society, warriorsswore an oath of loyalty to their leaders and foughtfor them. The leaders, in turn, took care of the war-riors’ needs. By the eighth century, a man who serveda lord in a military capacity was known as a vassal.

In the eighth century, warriors on horseback werearmored in coats of mail (armor made of metal links

HISTORY

Web Activity Visitthe Glencoe WorldHistory—Modern Times Web site at

and click on Chapter 3–Student Web Activity to learn more aboutmedieval Europe.

wh.mt.glencoe.com

119CHAPTER 3 Regional CivilizationsCHAPTER 9 Emerging Europe and the Byzantine Empire

Here, the lord of the castle heldcourt and received visitors. Here, too, the inhabitants of the castle ate and even slept. Smaller roomsmight open off the great hall, includ-ing bedrooms with huge curtainedbeds with straw mattresses, latrines,and possibly a chapel.

The growing wealth of the HighMiddle Ages made it possible forEuropean nobles to improve theirstandard of living. Nobles sought to buy more luxury goods, such asjewelry, better clothes, and exoticspices. They also built more elabo-rate castles with thicker walls andmore buildings and towers. Roomsbecame better furnished and moreelaborately decorated.

Medieval Castle

Innercurtain

wall

Inner ward(bailey)Tower

GatehouseDrawbridgeMoat

Keep

Outer ward(bailey)

Outer curtainwall

The basic architecture of a medieval castle

CONNECTING TO THE PAST

1. Explaining What architectural and design featuressupported the two basic functions of castles?

2. Describing What was the lifestyle of the Europeannobility in the High Middle Ages?

3. Writing about History Does a nobility exist today?Where?

119

or plates). They wielded long lances that enabledthem to act as battering rams. For almost five hun-dred years, warfare in Europe was dominated byheavily armored cavalry, or knights, as they came tobe called. The knights had great social prestige andformed the backbone of the European nobility.

It was expensive to have a horse, armor, andweapons. With the breakdown of royal governments,the more powerful nobles took control of large areasof land. When these lords wanted men to fight forthem, they granted each vassal a piece of land thatsupported the vassal and his family. Land was themost important gift a lord could give to a vassal.

The Feudal Contract By the ninth century, thegrant of land made to a vassal had become known asa fief (FEEF). Vassals who held fiefs came to holdpolitical authority within them. As the Carolingianworld fell apart, the number of separate powerfullords and vassals increased. Instead of a single gov-ernment, many different people were now responsi-ble for keeping order.

Feudalism came to be characterized by a set ofunwritten rules—known as the feudal contract—that determined the relationship between a lord andhis vassal. The major obligation of a vassal to his lord

was to perform military service, usually about 40days a year.

Describing What social and politicalconditions led to the establishment of feudalism?

The Growth of European KingdomsWhen King John of England was

forced to put his seal on the Magna Carta in 1215, Johnrecognized the rights of his nobles. This act affirmedthat English monarchs had to obey the law of the land.The feudal system put power into the hands of

many different lords. Gradually, however, kingsbegan to extend their own powers. Their actions laidthe foundations for the European kingdoms thathave dominated Europe ever since. One of thesekingdoms—England—created political institutionsthat later influenced the formation of the democraticpolitical system of the United States.

England in the High Middle Ages On October 14,1066, an army of heavily armed knights underWilliam of Normandy landed on the coast ofEngland and defeated King Harold and his soldiersat the Battle of Hastings. William was then crowned

Reading Check

king of England. He began combining Anglo-Saxonand Norman institutions to create a new England.

The power of the English monarchy was greatlyenlarged under Henry II, who reigned from 1154 to1189. Henry increased the number of criminal casestried in the king’s court and devised means for takingproperty cases from local courts to the royal courts.By expanding the power of the royal courts, Henryexpanded the power of the king. In addition, becausethe royal courts were now found throughout Eng-land, a body of common law—law that was commonto the whole kingdom—began to replace law codesthat varied from place to place.

Many English nobles resented the ongoing growthof the king’s power and rose in rebellion during the

reign of King John. At Runnymede in 1215, John wasforced to put his seal on a document of rights calledthe Magna Carta, or the Great Charter.

Feudal custom had always recognized that therelationship between king and vassals was based onmutual rights and obligations. The Magna Carta gavewritten recognition to that fact and was used in lateryears to strengthen the idea that a monarch’s powerwas limited, not absolute.

Some provisions of the Magna Carta came to havegreater significance because of the way they werelater interpreted. For example, Chapter 39 reads: “Nofree man shall be taken or imprisoned or dispos-sessed, or outlawed, or banished, or in any waydestroyed, . . . except by the legal judgment of hispeers or by the law of the land.” In 1215, the label of“free man” applied to less than half of the Englishpopulation. Later this statement was applied to all. Inthe fourteenth century, it gave rise to trial by jury.

In the thirteenth century, during the reign ofEdward I, an important institution in the develop-ment of representative government—the EnglishParliament—also emerged. The Parliament came tobe composed of two knights from every county, two


N

SE

W

500 kilometers0Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area projection

500 miles0

20°W60°N

0° 10°E 20°E 30°E 40°E

50°N

40°N

AtlanticOcean

NorthSea

Black Sea

Mediterranean SeaR

hineR

.

Danube R.

Baltic

Sea

Saxony

Burg

undy

MaineNormandyBrittany

Anjou

Aquitaine

Corsica

Sardinia

Sicily

CreteCyprus

IREL

AND

WALES

ENG

LAN

D

KINGDOMOF

SCOTLAND

KINGDOMOF

NORWAY

KINGDOMOF

DENMARK

KINGDOMOF

SWEDEN

KIEVAN RUS

PRUSSIA

KINGDOMOF

POLAND

KINGDOMOF

HUNGARY

HOLYROMANEMPIRE

VENETIANTERRITORIES

PAPALSTATES

KINGDOMOF

SICILY

KINGDOMOF ARAGON

KINGDOMOF

CASTILE

KIN

GD

OM

OF

KINGDOMOF

NAVARRE

PORTUGAL

MUSLIMTERRITORY

KIN

GD

OM

OF

FRA

NCE

KINGDOMOF

LEON´

BYZANTINE EMPIRE

LondonCanterbury

Runnymede

Paris

C´ordoba

Genoa

Rome

Venice

Kiev

Constantinople

Europe, 1160

Strong monarchies developed in France and England, while Germany and Italy consisted of independent states.

1. Interpreting Maps Locate Runnymede. What eventoccurred there and why was it significant?

2. Applying Geography Skills Create a bar graph comparing the physical sizes of the kingdoms shown on this map.

people from every town, and all of the nobles andbishops from throughout England. Eventually,nobles and church lords formed the House of Lords;knights and townspeople, the House of Commons.The Parliament imposed taxes and passed laws.

The French Kingdom In 843, the CarolingianEmpire was divided into three sections. One, thewest Frankish lands, formed the core of what wouldbecome the kingdom of France. In 987, after the deathof the last Carolingian king, the west Frankish nobleschose Hugh Capet as the new king, thus establishingthe Capetian (kuh•PEE•shuhn) dynasty of Frenchkings. The Capetians had little power and controlledonly the area around Paris.

The reign of King Philip II Augustus, who ruledfrom 1180 to 1223, was a turning point in the growthof the French monarchy. Philip waged war againstthe rulers of England, who also ruled a number ofFrench territories. Philip gained control of most ofthese territories. In doing so, he expanded the incomeof the French monarchy and greatly increased itspower. By 1300, France was the largest and best-governed monarchical state in Europe.

The Holy Roman Empire In the tenth century, thepowerful dukes of the Saxons became kings of theeastern Frankish kingdom (another section of the Car-olingian Empire), which came to be known as Ger-many. The best-known Saxon king of Germany wasOtto I. In return for protecting the pope, Otto I wascrowned emperor of the Romans in 962. The title hadnot been used since the time of Charlemagne.

As leaders of a new Roman Empire, the Germankings attempted to rule both German and Italianlands. Kings Frederick I and Frederick II, instead ofbuilding a strong German kingdom, tried to create anew kind of empire. Frederick I planned to get hischief revenues fromItaly. He consideredItaly the center ofa “holy empire”—hence the name HolyRoman Empire. Fred-erick’s attempt to con-quer northern Italywas opposed by thepope and the cities ofnorthern Italy, whichwere unwilling tobecome his subjects.The main goal of

Frederick II was to establish a centralized state in Italy.However, he also became involved in a losing strugglewith the popes and the northern Italian cities.

By spending their time fighting in Italy, the Ger-man emperors left Germany in the hands of power-ful German lords. These nobles created their ownindependent kingdoms. This made the Germanmonarchy weak and incapable of maintaining astrong monarchical state. As a result, the GermanHoly Roman Emperor had no real power over eitherGermany or Italy.

Central and Eastern Europe The Slavic peopleswere originally a single people in central Europe.Gradually, they divided into three major groups: thewestern, southern, and eastern Slavs.

The western Slavs eventually formed the Polishand Bohemian kingdoms. The Poles and Czechs,along with the non-Slavic Hungarians, all acceptedwestern Christianity and became part of the RomanCatholic Church and its Latin culture.

The southern Slavic peoples included the Croats,the Serbs, and the Bulgarians. The Croats remainedCatholic. The other southern Slavs, as well as theeastern Slavic peoples, embraced Eastern Orthodoxy,the faith of the neighboring Byzantine Empire.

Russia Eastern Slavic peoples had also settled in theterritory of present-day Ukraine and Russia. There,beginning in the late eighth century, they began toencounter Swedish Vikings. The Vikings eventuallycame to dominate the native peoples. The nativepeoples called the Viking rulers the Rus, from whichthe name Russia is derived.

One Viking leader, Oleg, settled in Kiev at thebeginning of the tenth century and created the Russtate known as the principality of Kiev. His successorsextended their control over the eastern Slavs andexpanded Kiev until it included the territory betweenthe Baltic and Black Seas and the Danube and VolgaRivers.

Civil wars and invasions brought an end to thefirst Russian state in 1169. In the thirteenth century,the Mongols conquered Russia. They occupied Rus-sian lands and required tribute from Russian princes.

One prince emerged as more powerful than theothers—Alexander Nevsky, prince of Novgorod. Thekhan, leader of the western Mongol Empire, awardedNevsky the title of grand-prince. Nevsky’s descen-dants eventually became leaders of all Russia.

Analyzing Why is 1066 consideredan important date in history?Reading Check


The pope crowning Frederick II

Lambert Azimuthal Equal-Area projection500 kilometers0

500 miles0

N

SE

W50°N

40°N

30°N

0° 10°E 20°E 30°E 40°E

AtlanticOcean

Black Sea

NorthSea

CaspianSea

Red Sea

RhineR

.

D anube R.

Nile

R.

Medi terranean Sea

Baltic Se

a

SYRIA

HUNGARY

ITALY

POLAND

SPAIN

FRANCE

ENGLAND

KIEVAN RUS

BYZANTINEEMPIRE

PALESTINE

HOLYROMANEMPIRE

ASIAMINOR

THEHOLYLAND

Crete

Sardinia

Corsica

Sicily

CyprusAFRICA

Constantinople

JerusalemAcreTyre

Antioch

Paris

London

ClermontClairvaux

MarseilleGenoa

Venice

Pisa

Rome

Cologne

The Byzantine EmpireDuring the fifth century, Germanic tribes moved

into the western part of the Roman Empire and estab-lished their states. In contrast, the Roman Empire inthe East, centered in Constantinople, continued toexist, although pressured by powerful Islamic forces.

The Reign of Justinian When Justinian becameemperor of the Eastern Roman Empire in 527, he wasdetermined to reestablish the Roman Empire in theentire Mediterranean world. By 552, he appeared tohave achieved his goals. However, only three yearsafter Justinian’s death in 565, the Lombards had con-quered much of Italy, and other areas were soon lost.

Justinian’s most important contribution was hiscodification of Roman law. The Eastern RomanEmpire had inherited a vast quantity of legal materi-als, which Justinian wished to simplify. The resultwas The Body of Civil Law. This code of Roman lawswas also used in the West and became the basis formuch of the legal system of Europe.

From Eastern Roman Empire to ByzantineEmpire A serious challenge to the Eastern RomanEmpire came from the rise of Islam, which unifiedArab groups and created a powerful new force thatswept through the Eastern Roman Empire. Islamicforces defeated an army of the Eastern Roman


C09-40P

Christian lands, 1095Muslim lands, 1095First Crusade, 1096–1099Second Crusade, 1147–1149Third Crusade, 1189–1192Fourth Crusade, 1202–1204

Crusades, 1096–1204

From the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries, manyEuropeans attempted to free the Holy Land from Muslimoccupation.

1. Interpreting Maps Trace the routes of the four crusades shown on the map. Where did each routebegin and end?

2. Applying Geography Skills How did Italian port citiesbenefit from the Crusades?" Medieval illustration of a

battle during the Crusades

Empire at Yarmuk in 636. Problems arose along thenorthern frontier as well, especially in the Balkans.

By the beginning of the eighth century, the EasternRoman Empire was much smaller, consisting only ofthe eastern Balkans and Asia Minor. Historians callthis smaller Eastern Roman Empire the ByzantineEmpire, a unique civilization that lasted until 1453.

The Byzantine Empire was both a Greek and a Christian state. Greek, the common language,replaced Latin as the official language of the empire.At the same time, the empire was built on a Christianfaith that was shared by many citizens. The Christianchurch of the Byzantine Empire came to be known asthe Eastern Orthodox Church.

New Heights and New Problems The ByzantineEmpire recovered and even expanded, due to theefforts of a new dynasty of emperors known as theMacedonians, who ruled from 867 to 1081. By 1025,the Byzantine Empire was the largest it had beensince the beginning of the seventh century.

The Byzantine Empire continued to face threatsfrom abroad, however. The greatest challenge camefrom the advance of the Seljuk Turks, who hadmoved into Asia Minor. In 1071, a Turkish armydefeated Byzantine forces at Manzikert. Lacking theresources to undertake new campaigns against theTurks, Emperor Alexius I turned to Europe for mili-tary aid.

Evaluating How did the rise of Islamaffect the Eastern Roman Empire?Reading Check

The CrusadesFrom the eleventh to the thirteenth centuries,

European Christians carried out a series of militaryexpeditions known as the Crusades. The push for theCrusades came when the Byzantine emperor Alexius Iasked the Europeans for help against the SeljukTurks, who were Muslims. Pope Urban II, whoresponded to the request, saw an opportunity to pro-vide papal leadership for a great cause. That causewas rallying the warriors of Europe for the liberationof Jerusalem and the Holy Land (Palestine) from theinfidels or unbelievers—the Muslims.

The First Crusade was the only successful one. Thecrusaders captured Jerusalem in June 1099. After fur-ther conquests, the crusaders organized four Latincrusader states. Surrounded by Muslims, these cru-sader kingdoms depended on Italian cities for sup-plies from Europe.

It was not easy for the crusader kingdoms to main-tain themselves. By the 1120s, the Muslims hadbegun to strike back. In 1187, the Holy City ofJerusalem fell to Muslim forces under Saladin.

Did the Crusades have much effect on Europeancivilization? Historians disagree. The Crusades cer-tainly benefited some Italian port cities, especiallyGenoa, Pisa, and Venice. Even without the Crusades,however, Italian merchants would have pursued newtrade contacts with the Eastern world.

Describing What was the purpose ofthe Crusades in the view of European Christians?Reading Check


Checking for Understanding1. Define pope, monk, feudalism, vassal,

fief, common law, Magna Carta,Crusades.

2. Identify Clovis, Charlemagne, Williamof Normandy, Battle of Hastings, Justin-ian, The Body of Civil Law, ByzantineEmpire, Pope Urban II.

3. Locate England, Runnymeade, HolyRoman Empire, Kiev, Jerusalem.

4. Describe the role of monks in theChristian church.

5. List Justinian’s accomplishments.

Critical Thinking6. Explain What is vassalage and what is

its place in the system of feudalism?

7. Organizing Information Use a chartto identify key achievements of mon-archs in England and France.

Analyzing Visuals8. Examine the painting of the pope

crowning Frederick II on page 121.How did the struggle between Germanemperors and the popes impact theHoly Roman Empire?

9. Informative Writing Imagine thatyou are a journalist attending ameeting of the first English Parlia-ment. What questions would youask? Write a newsletter for people of your town explaining whathappened.

Monarch/ AchievementsCountry1.2.3.4.

124

Using Key Terms1. The leader of the Seljuk Turks was called a , or

“holder of power.”2. Muslims perfected the , an instrument used by sailors

to determine location.3. The sons of Genghis Khan divided his empire into separate

territories called .4. are Muslim houses of worship.5. Abu Bakr was named , or successor to Muhammad.6. The word means “peace through submission to the

will of Allah.”7. Larger communities formed from extended families are

known as .8. The bishop of Rome became known as of the

Catholic Church.9. Royal courts created a body of , rather than laws that

varied from place to place.10. A is an area of broad grassland.11. The way of the warrior, or , strictly governed the

behavior of the Japanese military class.12. was a political and social system in the Middle Ages.13. Farming peoples who spoke dialects of the family of

languages migrated into East Africa and the Congo Basin.14. A is a man who pursues a life of total dedication

to God.

Reviewing Key Facts15. Economics What was the highly desired item that Arab

traders brought to Ghana from North Africa?16. Geography Trace the expansionist movement of the Arabs

from 632 to 1055.17. Economics What role did Berbers play in African trade?18. Culture How did Mansa Musa carry on the advances begun

by Sundiata Keita?19. History Discuss the importance of the kamikaze, the

“divine wind,” in early Japanese history.20. Science and Technology Discuss the importance of print-

ing, which was invented during the Tang dynasty.21. Government Explain what Henry II accomplished when he

expanded the power of the royal courts in England.22. History What important English political institution emerged

during the reign of Edward I?23. Government How is feudalism a political system?24. History What reforms in government did Shotoku Taishi

initiate in Japan?

Critical Thinking25. Compare and Contrast Compare and contrast the Islamic

religion to Christianity.26. Drawing Conclusions Evaluate the significance in world

history of the Battle of Tours in 732.

This chart shows some of the defining characteristics of regional civilizations between 400 and 1500.

• Baghdad is the center of the Islamic trade empire.

• African trading statesprosper from the trade of gold and salt.

• The Silk Road revives andflourishes under the Araband Chinese Empires.

• Italian port cities benefitfrom the Crusades.

• Islam spreads throughoutAsia and Africa.

• Confucianism gainsprominence at court underthe Tang dynasty.

• The Japanese state religionof Shinto evolves.

• Monasticism helps spreadChristianity throughoutEurope.

• Abu Bakr establishes theIslamic caliphate.

• The shogunate creates morecentralized governmentin Japan.

• Muslim rulers establish the Sultanate of Delhi inHindu India.

• Lack of central authorityin Europe leads to the riseof feudalism.

• Arab scholars translateancient texts.

• Artists in Ife and Benincreate African sculptures.

• Li Bo writes Chinesepoetry celebrating nature.

• Byzantine emperorJustinian codifiesRoman law.

Economics Government CultureReligion

Self-Check QuizVisit the Glencoe World History—Modern Times Website at and click on Chapter 3–Self-Check Quiz to prepare for the Chapter Test.

wh.mt.glencoe.com

HISTORY

CHAPTER 3 Regional Civilizations 125

Writing About History27. Although the civilizations studied in this chapter are sepa-

rated geographically, they came into contact with each otherthrough trade, expansion, or war. Write an essay explainingthe various ways these civilizations were connected and inwhat ways they influenced each other.

Analyzing SourcesIn the feudal system, lords and vassals had responsibilities toeach other. The following is a description of the vow of loyaltyboth parties took.

“The man should put his hands together as a sign ofhumility, and place them between the two hands of hislord as a token that he vows everything to him andpromises faith to him; and the lord should receive himand promise to keep faith with him. Then the manshould say: ’Sir, I enter your homage and faith andbecome your man by mouth and hands (that is, by tak-ing the oath and placing his hands between those ofthe lord), and I swear and promise to keep faith andloyalty to you against all others.’”

28. Why is it significant that the vow was given to a particularperson rather than a nation, written constitution, or religion?

29. What is meant by the phrase “and the lord should receivehim and promise to keep faith with him”?

Applying Technology Skills30. Create a database of 5 to 10 primary sources on the

regional civilizations in this chapter. Evaluate each sourcebased on its language, correlation with other sources, andinformation about its author. Identify any bias the authorreveals through his or her writing.

Making Decisions31. Imagine that you are a Berber, used to living in the desert

with your family. You have grown accustomed to thenomadic lifestyle. You are offered the opportunity to joinanother family in the city, go to school, and make newfriends. What would you choose to do? Support your answerwith logic and research from traditional and electronicsources.

N

S

EWLambert AzimuthalEqual-Area projection

600 kilometers

600 miles0

020°N

10°N

0°

10°W 0° 10°E

AtlanticOcean

Niger R

.

Benue

R.

Senegal R.

Agriculture of West Africa

Desert Semi-desertSavanna and wooded grasslandWooded zone and lowland rain forest

Climate zones:

Agricultural products:Camels Cattle Cotton GoatsHorses Palm oil Rice Yams

Directions: Use the flowchart and yourknowledge of world history to choose thebest answer to the following question.

Which of the following sentences completes the flowchart?F Central authority eroded.G The Yuan dynasty expanded.H Regional trade increased.J More Shinto shrines were built.

Test-Taking Tip: Flowcharts show how events influencedother events. Study the progression carefully. Think aboutwhat cause-and-effect relationship the flowchart illustrates.

Shogunate isestablished.

Mongol invasionis defeated.

Daimyo becomemore powerful.

?

StandardizedTest Practice

Analyzing Maps and ChartsStudy the map above to answer the following questions.32. Which zone produced the fewest number of different

products? Where were most agricultural products grown?33. In what zones were animals most plentiful? What geographi-

cal features allowed animals to thrive there?

0086-0125 C03SE-860705 11/4/03 7:34 PM Page 125

Date post:	02-Jun-2020
Category:	Documents
Upload:	others
View:	5 times
Download:	0 times

Regional Civilizations - Mrs. Hulsey's...

Documents