More intense crosscultural communications. Maritime trade built on the political stability, economic expansion, and demographic growth of the postclassical era. By the fourteenth century, mariners called at ports throughout the Indian Ocean basin from southeast Asia to India, Cey- lon, Arabia, and east Africa, while sea-lanes through the South China Sea offered access to ports in the islands of southeast Asia, China, Japan, and Korea. Commercial goods traveled over the Indian Ocean in larger quantities than ever before. From the eleventh century forward, cargoes increasingly consisted of bulky com- modities such as timber, coral, steel, building materials, grains, dates, and other foodstuffs. This trade in bulk goods indicated a movement toward economic integration as societies of the Indian Ocean basin concentrated increasingly on cultivating crops or producing goods for ex- port while importing foods or goods that they could not produce very well themselves. Show
Not only because of warfare arising from the conquests of nomadic peoples but also because of epidemic bubonic plague and global climatic changes that brought cooler temperatures. In building their transregional empires, nomadic peoples sometimes devastated the lands that they conquered, throwing societies and economies into turmoil. While facilitating trade and travel, nomadic empires also made it possible for diseases to spread rapidly over long distances, and during the fourteenth century, epidemic bubonic plague became a hemispheric phenomenon. Meanwhile, cooler weather resulted in lower agricultural yields in many lands, and in some far northern lands, it made agriculture impractical. Together with military destruction and pandemic plague, reduced agricultural production led to political, social, and economic problems throughout much of the eastern hemisphere. Boucher was by no means the only European living at the Mongol court. His wife was a woman of French ancestry whom Boucher had met and married in Hungary. The Flemish missionary William of Rubruck visited Karakorum in 1254, and during his sojourn there he encountered a Frenchwoman named Paquette who was an attendant to a Mongol princess, an artisan from Russia (Paquette's husband), an unnamed nephew of a French bishop, a Greek soldier, and an Englishman named Basil. Other European visitors to the Mongol court found Germans, Slavs, and Hungarians as well as Chinese, Koreans, Turks, Persians, and Ar- menians, among others. Many thirteenth-century roads led to Karakorum. Between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries, nomadic peoples became more prominent than ever before in Eurasian affairs. Turkish peoples migrated to Persia, Anatolia, and India, where they overcame existing authorities and established new states. During the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the Mongols established themselves as the most powerful people of the central Asian steppes and then turned on settled societies in China, Persia, Russia, and east- ern Europe. By the early fourteenth century, the Mongols had built the largest empire the world has ever seen, stretching from Korea and China in the east to Russia and Hungary in the west. Turkish peoples entered Persia, Anatolia, and India at different times and for different purposes. They approached Abbasid Persia much as Germanic peoples had earlier approached the Roman empire. From about the mid-eighth to the mid-tenth century, Turkish peoples lived mostly on the borders of the Abbasid realm, which offered abun- dant opportunities for trade. By the mid- to late tenth century, large numbers of Saljuq Turks served in Abbasid armies and lived in the Abbasid realm itself. By the mid- eleventh century the Saljuqs overshadowed the Abbasid caliphs. Indeed, in 1055 the caliph recognized the Saljuq leader Tughril Beg as sultan ("chieftain" or "ruler"). Tughril first consolidated his hold on the Abbasid capital at Baghdad, then he and his successors extended Turkish rule to Syria, Palestine, and other parts of the realm. For the last two centuries of the Abbasid state, the caliphs served as figureheads of author- ity, whereas actual governance lay in the hands of the Turkish sultans. Outstanding equestrian skills (like earlier armies). Mongols grew up riding horses, and they honed their skills by hunting and playing competitive games on horseback. Their bows, short enough for archers to use while riding, were also stiff, firing arrows that could fell enemies at 200 meters (656 feet). Mongol horsemen were among the most mobile forces of the premodern world, sometimes traveling more than 100 kilometers (62 miles) per day to surprise an enemy. Furthermore, the Mongols understood the psychological dimensions of warfare
and used them to their advantage. If enemies surrendered without resistance, the Mongols usually spared their lives, and they provided generous treatment for artisans, crafts workers, and those with military skills. In the event of resistance, however, the Mongols ruthlessly slaughtered whole populations, sparing only a few, whom they sometimes While the Golden Horde established its
authority in Russia, Khubilai's brother Muslim forces from Egypt soon expelled them and placed a limit on Mongol expan- When
the Mongols crushed ruling regimes in large settled societies, particularly in successful governance required talents beyond the equestrian and military skills es- conquests fell out of their hands within a century. In China, in contrast, the Mongol overlords stood aloof from their subjects, whom Chinese and forbade the Chinese to learn the Mongol language. Soon after their con- Chinese people and convert China
itself into pastureland for their horses. Cooler heads The Mongols also resisted assimilation to Chinese cultural traditions. They ended some religious establishments. They tolerated all cultural and religious traditions in Like trade, diplomatic communication was essential to the Mongols, and their pro- Khan destroyed the Khwarazm shah in Persia because the shah unwisely murdered the Mongol envoys Chinggis Khan dispatched in hopes of opening diplomatic and com- Persia,
and the other khans maintained close communications by means of diplomatic Conquered peoples also supplied the Mongols with talent. When they overcame a goldsmith Guillaume Boucher was only one among thousands of foreign-born individ- their special talents. Like their protection of trade and diplomacy, the Mongols' policy The campaign culminated in 1453 when Sultan Mehmed II, known as Mehmed Istanbul as a base, the Ottomans quickly absorbed the remainder of the Byzantine em- expand throughout most of the sixteenth century as well, extending their rule to south- people asserted control over a long-settled society and quickly built a vast empire. During the half millennium from 1000 to 1500 C.E., nomadic peoples of central Asia played a larger role than ever before in world history. As early as the second millen- nium B.C.E., they had periodically threatened states from China to the eastern Medi- terranean region, and from classical times they had traded regularly and actively with peoples of settled societies. From 1000 to 1500 their relations with neighboring peoples changed, as they dominated affairs in most of Eurasia through their conquests and their construction of vast transregional empires. Turkish peoples built the most durable of the nomadic empires, but the spectacular conquests of the Mongols most clearly demonstrated the potential of nomadic peoples to project their formidable military power to settled agricultural societies. By establishing connections that spanned the Eurasian land- mass, the nomadic empires laid the foundation for increasing communication, exchange, and interaction among peoples of different societies and thereby fostered the integration of the eastern hemisphere. The age of nomadic empires, from 1000 to 1500 C.E., foreshadowed the integrated world of modern times. According to the oral tradition, Sundiata's father ruled a small west African kingdom in the northeastern part of what is now Guinea. Despite his royal parentage, Sundiata had a dif- ficult childhood, since a congenitally defective leg left him partially crippled. When the old king died, his enemies invaded the kingdom and killed the royal offspring, sparing the child Sundiata because they thought his physical condition would prevent him from posing a threat to their ambitions. But Sundiata overcame his injury, learned to use the bow and arrow, and strengthened himself by hunting in the forest. As Sundiata grew stronger, his enemies began to fear him, and they forced him to seek refuge in a neighboring kingdom. While in exile, Sundiata distinguished himself as a warrior and assembled a powerful cavalry force staffed by loyal followers and allies. Nevertheless, like their Eurasian and north African counterparts, peoples of sub-Saharan Africa organized productive societies, built powerful states, and participated in large-scale networks of communication and exchange. Internal African processes drove much of that development. Between 1000 and 1500 C.E., in the wake of the Bantu and other migrations (discussed in chapter 3), peoples of sub-Saharan Africa continued to expand the amount of territory under cultivation and to establish agricultural societies. Furthermore, as their population increased, they organized states, developed centers of economic specialization, and carried on interregional trade. Alongside these internal processes, relations with other peoples of the eastern hemisphere also profoundly influenced the development of African societies. From the early centuries C.E. to 1500 and later as well, trade with lands of the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean basins encouraged African peoples to organize their societies so as to produce commodities desired by consumers throughout much of the eastern hemisphere. This trade promoted urban development, the organization of large states and empires, and the introduction of new food crops and new religious beliefs into sub-Saharan Africa. The principal early result of the Bantu and other migrations was to spread agriculture and herding to almost all parts of Africa, excluding deserts and dense, equatorial rainforests. As they established agricultural societies, cultivators and herders displaced many of the hunting, gathering, and fishing peoples who previously inhabited subSaharan Africa and absorbed them into their societies. After about 500 B.C.E., most Bantu peoples possessed iron metallurgy, which enabled them to fashion iron axes, adzes, and hoes that facilitated further clearing of lands and extension of agriculture. By the early centuries C.E., cultivation and herding had reached the southernmost parts of Africa. Yams, sorghum, and millet were the dietary staples of many peoples in south Africa, and the indigenous Khoi people adopted cattle raising even before Bantu and Kushite herders moved into the region. Those developments resulted in increased agricultural production, rising population, and pressure for continuing migration to new territories. The introduction of bananas to Africa encouraged a fresh migratory surge. First As trade and traffic across the desert increased, Ghana underwent a dramatic development and surging trade throughout the eastern hemisphere. Muslim mer- gold for consumers in the Mediterranean basin and elsewhere in the Islamic world. Swahili
is an Arabic term meaning "coasters," referring to those who engaged in underwent similar patterns of development with respect to language, religion, archi- By the tenth century, Swahili society attracted increasing attention from Islamic India, and China. The rapidly increasing volume and value of trade had large repercus- By the eleventh and twelfth centuries, trade had brought tremendous wealth to chiefs strengthened their own authority and increased the influence of their commu- Mombasa, Zanzibar, Kilwa, Mozambique, and Sofala. Each of those sites developed In east Africa, again as in west Africa, trade brought cultural as well as political changes. Like their counterparts in west Africa, the ruling elites and the wealthy mer- their religious and cultural traditions but, rather, continued to observe them for pur- they laid a cultural foundation for close
cooperation with Muslim merchants trading in rule, since they gained recognition from Islamic states in southwest Asia, and their con- though the conversion of elite classes did not bring about the immediate spread of Islam By the eleventh century C.E., Africa was a land of enormous diversity. The peoples of In kingdoms, empires, and city-states, such as Kongo, Mali, and Kilwa, respectively, military nobles, administrative officials, religious authorities, wealthy merchants, arti- more or less resembled those found in other settled, agricultural lands of
Eurasia or- Records of this slave trade are scarce, but a lengthy uprising known as the Zanj many Zanj slaves labored under extremely difficult conditions in southern Mesopo- prepare it for cultivation. On several occasions they mounted revolts, which Muslim named Ali bin Muhammad organized about fifteen thousand Zanj slaves into an im- and even established a rebel state in the region. Distracted by other threats, the Ab- a full decade after it had begun. By 883 they had crushed the revolt, killed Ali bin Apart from the superior creator god, Africans recognized many lesser gods and spir- They could confer or withhold benefits and bring favor or injury to humans. Similarly, Like other peoples of the world, Africans
recognized classes of religious special- power to mediate between humanity and supernatural beings. Often referred to as di- who understood clearly the networks of political, social, economic, and psychological The fortunes of Christianity in Ethiopia reflected the larger political experience of the region. In the late seventh century C.E., the ruling house of Axum fell into decline, and during the next several centuries the expansion of Islam left an isolated island of Christianity in the Ethiopian highlands. During the twelfth century, however, a new ruling dynasty undertook a centralizing campaign and enthusiastically promoted Chris- tianity as a faith that could provide cultural unity for the land. From the twelfth through the sixteenth century, Christianity enjoyed particular favor in Ethiopia. During the twelfth century, the Ethiopian kings ordered the carving of eleven massive churches out of solid rock—a monumental work of construction that required enormous re- sources and untold hours of labor. During the thirteenth cen- tury, rulers of Ethiopia's Solo- monic dynasty claimed descent from the Israelite kings David and Solomon in an effort to lend additional biblical luster to their authority. The fictional work Kebra Negast (The Glory of Kings), which undertook to trace that lineage, has recently become popular among Rasta- farians and devotees of reggae music in Ethiopia, Jamaica, and other lands as well. Meanwhile, Christianity retained its privi- leged status in Ethiopia until it fell out of favor following the socialist revolution of 1974. During the centuries after the Islamic conquests of Egypt, the Sudan, and northern Africa, Ethiopian Christians had little contact with Christians in other lands. As a result, although Ethi- opian Christianity retained basic Christian theology and rituals, it increasingly reflected the in- terests of its African devotees. Ethiopian Christians believed that a large host of evil spirits populated the world, for exam- ple, and they carried amulets or charms for protection against these menacing spirits. The twelfth-century carved-rock churches themselves harked back to pre-Christian values, since rock shrines had been a prominent feature in Ethiopian religion from the second or perhaps even third mil- lennium B.C.E. The rock churches absorbed that tradition into Ethiopian Christianity. Not until the sixteenth century, when Portuguese mariners began to visit Ethiopia en route to India, did Ethiopians reestablish relations with Christians from other lands. By that time the Portuguese had introduced their Roman Catholic faith to the king- dom of Kongo, and Christianity had begun to win a place for itself elsewhere in sub- Saharan Africa. The foundations of most sub-Saharan societies were the agricultural economy and iron-working skills that Bantu and other peoples spread through- state structures that predominated elsewhere in the eastern hemisphere. When different societies came into conflict with one another, however, they increasingly established for- sizes, some very small and others quite large. When they entered into commercial relation- imperial states in west Africa and bustling city-states in coastal east Africa. These states had In 1260 C.E. two brothers, Niccolò and Maffeo Polo, traveled from their native Venice to Con- Caffa on the Black Sea, and then to the trading cities of Sarai and Bulghar on the Volga River. Long after its disappearance the Roman empire inspired European philosophers, theo- Christian Europe. Beginning in the late
tenth century, German princes formed the Roman empire. In fact, however, the Roman empire returned only in name. When- they faced stiff resistance from the popes and the princes of other European lands. Meanwhile, independent monarchies emerged in France and England, and other au- political mosaic of independent and competing regional states. Those states frequently they also organized their own territories efficiently, and they laid the political founda- As the Carolingian empire faded during the ninth century, counts, dukes, and other local authorities took responsibility for providing order in their own regions. Gradu- larger states. Otto of Saxony was particularly aggressive. By the mid-tenth century, The French monarchy grew slowly from humble beginnings. When the last of the Capetian kings, gradually added to their resources and expanded their political in- justice throughout the realm. By the early fourteenth century, the Capetian kings had Regional states emerged also in other lands of medieval Europe, though not on such regime controlled the entire peninsula. Rather, a series of ecclesiastical states, city- had provided political leadership since the Carolingian era. Indeed, although the pa- in central Italy known as the Papal State. In northern Italy, too, the church influenced political affairs, since bishops of the major cities took much of the initiative in orga- grew wealthy from trade and manufacturing, lay classes challenged the bishops and By about the twelfth century, a series of prosperous city-states—including Florence, by the Byzantine empire and various Muslim states. Norman adventurers first inter- people of Salerno as they fought off an attack by Muslim raiders. Other Normans later adventurers in an unstable region, Norman mercenaries soon made their way to south- and Muslim authorities, brought southern Italy into the orbit of Roman Catholic Chris- As in Italy, a series of regional states competed for power in the Iberian peninsula. From the
eighth to the eleventh century, Muslim conquerors ruled most of the penin- states began to attack Muslim territories and enlarge their own domains. As in south- as soldiers of fortune. By the late thirteenth century, the Christian kingdoms of With its Holy Roman Empire, regional monarchies, ecclesiastical principalities, city-states, and new states founded on conquest, medieval Europe might seem to pre- such as China, reunified by centralized imperial rule. Moreover, European rulers rarely enlarge their holdings at the expense of their neighbors. As a result, the political his- middle ages effectively tended to public affairs in limited regions. In
doing so, they Beginning in the late tenth century, as local lords pacified their territories and put
of land available for game preserves, where nobles enjoyed hunting wild animals. Grad- higher taxes and increase their own wealth. By the early twelfth century, lords were en- Expansion of land under cultivation, improved methods of cultivation, and the quality of food supplies. During the early middle ages, the European diet consisted al- beans and peas became much more prominent in the European diet, though without As in other lands, increased agricultural productivity supported rapid population growth in medieval Europe. In 800 C.E., during the Carolingian era, European
pop- invasions and restored order, it had edged up to thirty-six million. During the next north Africa—a development discussed in chapter 22. Between 1000 and 1300, how- trade in medieval Europe. With abundant supplies of food, European society was able to support large numbers Roman times, such as Paris, London, and Toledo, became thriving centers of govern- and Flanders (the northwest- experienced especially strong time since the fall of the west- European economic and so- The growth of towns and cities brought about increas- ing specialization of labor, which in turn resulted in a dramatic expansion of manu- facturing and trade. Manu- facturing concentrated espe- cially on the production of wool textiles. The cities of Italy and Flanders in par- ticular became lively centers for the spinning, weaving, and dyeing of wool. Trade in wool products helped to fuel economic development throughout Europe. By the twelfth century the counts of Champagne in northern France sponsored fairs that operated almost year-round and that served as vast mar- ketplaces where merchants from all parts of Europe com- pared and exchanged goods. The revival of urban soci- ety was most pronounced in Italy, which was geographically well situated to partici- pate in the trade networks of the Mediterranean basin. During the tenth century the cities of Amalfi and Venice served as ports for merchants engaged in trade with Byzantine and Muslim partners in the eastern Mediterranean. During the next cen- tury the commercial networks of the Mediterranean widened to embrace Genoa, Pisa, Naples, and other Italian cities. Italian merchants exchanged salt, olive oil, wine, wool fabrics, leather products, and glass for luxury goods such as gems, spices, silk, and other goods from India, southeast Asia, and China that Muslim merchants brought to eastern Mediterranean markets. As trade expanded, Italian merchants established colonies in the major ports and few other Italian merchants were beginning to venture beyond the eastern Mediter- Although medieval trade was most active in the Mediterranean basin, a lively com- of a particularly well-developed trade network known as the Hanseatic League, or Aristocratic women found the chivalric code much to their liking, and they went to some lengths to spread its values. Instead of emphasizing the code's
religious dimen- troubadours, a class of traveling poets, minstrels, and entertainers whom aristocratic musicians of Muslim ancestry. Enchanted by that refined literature, they began to pro- Social change also touched those who worked. By the twelfth century the ranks of workers included not only peasants but also increasing numbers of merchants, ar- growing towns of medieval Europe. The expansion of the urban working population taxes and tolls on commerce within the urban district. Sometimes groups of cities or- to protect themselves against the encroachments of political authorities. The same kinds of tasks but in the larger towns and cities women worked along- fishmongers, shoemakers, gemsmiths, innkeepers, laun- physicians and pharmacists. Women dominated some oc- making of hats, wigs, and fur garments. About the mid-twelfth century, students and teachers organized academic
guilds charged excessive rates for room and board, and called on their teachers to provide rig- bestow academic degrees, which served as licenses to teach in other cities, and to con- cathedral schools into universities. The first universities were those of Bologna, Paris, The Cathars, sometimes called Albigensians, went even further than the Waldensians. As Europeans participated more actively in long-distance trade networks, they encoun- tered ideas popular in the Byzantine empire and else- where in the Mediterranean basin. Most active in south- ern France and northern Italy, the Cathars adopted the teachings of heretical groups in eastern Europe, such as the Bogomils, who viewed the world as the site of an un- relenting, cosmic struggle be- tween the forces of good and evil. They considered the ma- terial world evil and advo- cated an ascetic, pure, spiri- tual existence. Those who sought spiritual perfection re- nounced wealth and marriage and adopted a strict vegetarian diet. They also rejected the Roman Catholic church, which they considered hopelessly corrupt, along with its priests and sacraments. During the high middle ages, the relationship between western European peoples and their neighbors underwent dramatic change. Powerful states, economic expansion, and demographic growth all strengthened European society, and church officials encouraged the colonization of pagan and Muslim lands as a way to extend the influence of Roman Catholic Christianity. Beginning about the mid-eleventh century, Europeans embarked on expansive ventures on several fronts: Atlantic, Baltic, and Mediterranean. Scandina- vian seafarers ventured into the Atlantic Ocean, establishing colonies in Iceland, Green- land, and even for a short time North America. In the Baltic region Europeans conquered and introduced Christianity to Prussia, Livonia, Lithuania, and Finland. In the Mediter- ranean basin Europeans recaptured Spain and the Mediterranean islands that Muslims had conquered between the eighth and tenth centuries. Finally, knights from all over Eu- rope mounted enormous campaigns designed to seize the holy land of Palestine from Muslims and place it under Christian authority. As military ventures, the crusades achieved limited success, since they brought the holy land into Christian hands only tem- porarily. Nevertheless, the crusades signaled clearly that Europeans were beginning to play a much larger role in the affairs of the eastern hemisphere than they had during the early middle ages. In the Baltic lands of Prussia, Livonia, and Lithuania, Christian authority arrived in to devote their lives and efforts to the struggle against Muslims and pagans. The Teu- Aided by German missionaries, the Knights founded churches and monasteries in the The term crusade refers to a holy war. It derives from the Latin word crux, meaning "cross," the device on which Roman authorities had executed Jesus. When a pope de- of cloth in the form of a cross on the backs of their garments, and venture forth to fight Pope Urban II launched the crusades in 1095. While meeting with bishops at the Council of Clermont, he called for Christian knights to take up arms and seize the holy land, promising salvation for those who fell during the campaign. The response to Urban's appeal was immediate and enthusiastic. A zealous preacher named Peter the Hermit traveled throughout France, Germany, and the Low Countries whipping up support among popular au- diences. Within a year of Pope Urban's call, the Her- mit had organized a ragtag army of poor knights and enthusiastic peasants—includ- ing women as well as men— and set out for Palestine without proper training, dis- cipline, weapons, supplies, or plans. Not surprisingly, the campaign was a disaster: par- ticipants fought not only with Greeks and Turks they met on the road to Palestine but also among themselves. Many members of Peter's band died in those conflicts, and Turkish forces captured others and forced them into slavery. Few made it beyond Anatolia or back to Europe. Yet the campaign indicated the high level of interest that the crusading idea generated among the European public. Although the crusaders did not realize it, hindsight shows that their quick victo- The crusaders' successes, however, encouraged Turks, Egyptians, and other Muslims to Turks in 1144, and the Muslim leader Salah al-Din, known to Europeans as Sal- another century, but Saladin's victories sealed the fate of Christian forces in the eastern As holy wars intended to reestablish Roman Catholic Christianity in the eastern the long run, the crusades were much more important for their social, economic, com- Palestine and Syria, European scholars and missionaries dealt with Muslim philoso- counterparts. The result was a large-scale exchange of ideas, technologies, and trade sugar, coffee, and dates as well as trade goods such as silk products, cotton textiles, car-
In the early days of the crusades, Europeans had little to exchange for those products demand for the new commodities increased throughout western Europe as large num- Seeking to meet the rising demand for luxury goods, Italian merchants developed new products and marketed them in commercial
centers and port cities such as Constan- woolen textiles or glassware. By the thirteenth century, large numbers of Italian mer- and southeast Asia. Thus, although the crusades largely failed as military ventures, they encouraged the reintegration of western Europe into the larger economy of the east- From 1000 to 1300 western Europe underwent thorough political and economic reorganization. Building on foundations laid during the early middle ages, political leaders founded a series of independent regional states. Despite the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire, they did not revive central imperial authority in western Europe. Regional states maintained good order and fostered rapid economic growth. Agricultural improvements brought increased food supplies, which encouraged urbanization, manufacturing, and trade. By the thirteenth century, European peoples traded actively throughout the Mediterranean, Baltic, and North Sea regions, and a few plucky merchants even ventured as far away as China in search of commercial opportunities. In the high middle ages, as in the early middle ages, Roman Catholic Christianity was the cultural foundation of European society. The church prospered during the high middle ages, and advanced educational institutions such as cathedral schools and universities reinforced the influence of Roman Catholic Christianity throughout Europe. Christianity even played a role in European political and military expansion, since church officials encouraged crusaders to conquer pagan and Muslim peoples in Baltic and Mediterranean lands. Thus between 1000 and 1300, western European peoples strengthened their own society and began in various ways to interact regularly with their counterparts in other regions of the eastern hemisphere. The city itself sat in the water of Lake Tex- allowed canoes to navigate to all parts of the city. The imperial palace included many
large slings, armor, and shields, attracted Bernal Díaz's professional attention. The aviary of Tenochti- lions, wolves, foxes, and rattlesnakes were noteworthy residents of the zoo. To Bernal Díaz the two most impressive sights were the markets and the
temples of Te- and the order that prevailed there. In the principal market at Tlatelolco, a district of Tenochti- cacao, animal skins, maize, beans, vegetables, fruits, poultry, meat, fish, salt, paper, and tools. It Although the peoples of Africa, Asia, and Europe interacted regularly before modern times, With the emergence of the Toltecs and later the Mexica, much of central Mexico again came under unified rule. The Toltecs began to migrate into the area about the eighth century. They came from the arid land of northwestern Mexico, and they settled mostly at Tula, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) northwest of modern Mexico City. Though situated in a corner of the valley of Mexico that possesses thin soil and receives little rainfall, the Toltecs tapped the waters of the nearby River Tula to irrigate crops of maize, beans, peppers, tomatoes, chiles, and cotton. At its high point, from about 950 to 1150 C.E., Tula supported an urban population that might have reached sixty thousand people. Another sixty thousand lived in the surrounding region. About 1345 the Mexica settled on an island in a marshy region of Lake Texcoco Spanish conquerors later built Mexico City. Though inconvenient at first, the site of- agriculture. The Mexica dredged a rich and fertile muck from the lake's bottom and built it up into small plots of land known as chinampas. During
the dry season, cultiva- climate they grew crops of maize, beans, squashes, tomatoes, peppers, and chiles year- to harvest seven crops per year from their gardens. Finally, the lake served as a natural The main objective of the triple alliance was to exact tribute from subject peoples. From nearby peoples the Mexica and their allies received food crops and manufac- The annual tribute owed by
the state of Tochtepec on the Gulf coast, for example, them for local products. These included luxury items such as translucent jade, emeralds, tortoise shells, jaguar skins, parrot feathers, cocoa and chocolate—from which Mexica elites pre- At the high point of the Aztec empire in the early sixteenth century, tribute from The bulk of the Mexica population consisted of commoners who lived in hamlets known as calpulli. Originally, calpulli were clans or groups of
families claiming de- Mexica commoners worked on lands awarded to aristocrats or prominent warriors Beyond Mexico the peoples of North America developed a rich variety of political, social, and collecting edible plants. In the arctic and subarctic regions, for example, diets in- such as moose and caribou. Peoples in coastal regions consumed fish, but in interior re- and deer. Throughout the continent nuts, berries, roots, and grasses such as wild rice supplemented the meat provided by hunters and fishers. Like their counterparts else- Large-scale agricultural societies emerged also in the woodlands east of the Missis- centuries C.E., and after about 800 these cultivated foods made up the bulk of their diets. They lived in settled communities, and they often surrounded their larger
settle- the Owasco people had established a distinct society in what is now upstate New York, and Seneca) had emerged from Owasco society. Women were in charge of Iroquois vil- cultivation of fields surrounding their
settlements. Men took responsibility for affairs Because peoples north of Mexico had no writing, information about their societies An elaborate network of rivers—notably the Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, and Ten- the eastern half of North America. Throughout the eastern woodlands, archaeologists hub of North American trade networks. Situated near the confluence of the Missis- Mississippi valley and lands bordering the Gulf of Mexico. South American peoples had no script and no tradition of writing before the arrival of Spanish invaders in the early sixteenth century. As a result, the experiences of early South American societies are much more difficult to recover than those of Meso- america, where writing had been in use since the fifth century B.C.E. Yet, from archaeological evidence and information recorded by Spanish conquerors, it is possible to reconstruct much of the historical experience of Andean South America, which had been the site of complex societies since the first millennium B.C.E. As in Mesoamerica, cities and sec- ular government in South America began to over- shadow ceremonial centers and priestly regimes during the centuries from 1000 to 1500 C.E. Toward the end of the period, like the Mex- ica in Mesoamerica, the Incas built a powerful state, ex- tended their authority over a vast region, and established the largest empire South America had ever seen. After the twelfth century, for example, the kingdom of Chucuito dominated the Peru and Bolivia at about 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) of elevation. Chucuito de- before the
sixteenth century. In elaborately terraced fields built with stone retaining around a potato-based stew enlivened by maize, tomatoes, green vegetables, pep- In the absence of any script or
system of writing, Inca bureaucrats and adminis- suspended from one large, thick cord. Experts tied a series of knots in the small cords, Despite those splendid
roads, Inca society did not generate large classes of merchants goods, but the Inca state did not permit individuals to become independent
mer- class of professional, skilled artisans to emerge. Many individuals produced pottery, less prominent among the Incas than among the Mexica and the peoples of the east- The main classes in Inca society were the rulers, the aristocrats, the priests, and the peasant cultivators of common birth. The Incas considered their chief ruler a deity de- in the Inca realm, which he governed as an absolute and infallible ruler. Inca rulers re- and regarded departed kings as intermediaries
with the gods. Succeeding rulers often remains of their ancestors, dressed them in fine clothes, adorned them with gold and sil- maintain cordial relations with former rulers. Meanwhile, by way of tending to the needs of their living subjects, the Inca god-kings supervised a class of bureaucrats, mostly aris- The cultivators were mostly peasants of common birth who lived in communi- rural society. Ranging in size from small several families who lived together, shar- Peasants supported themselves by working on lands allocated to individual families support the ruling, aristocratic, and priestly classes. The rest went into state store- and others unable to cultivate land for themselves. Apart from agricultural work, heavy labor required for the construction, maintenance, and repair of roads, build- and jewelry. With the aid of quipu, Inca bureaucrats kept track of the labor service Members of the Inca ruling class venerated the sun as a god and as their major the temple complex, and they expressed amazement at its lavish decoration, includ- the visitors was an imitation garden in which grains of
gold represented a field, which with sacrifices, which in Inca society usu- or animals such as llamas and guinea pigs Inhabitants of Oceania did not interact with
peoples of different societies as frequently ventured over vast stretches of their continent and created networks of trade and ex- they deal with peoples beyond Australia as they traded sporadically with merchants from
New Guinea and the islands of southeast Asia. Meanwhile, throughout the Pa- had sizable populations, hierarchical social orders, and hereditary chiefly rulers. In the central and western Pacific, mariners sailed regularly between island groups and estab- of the Pacific Ocean also had occasional dealings with American and Asian peoples, In spite of seasonal migrations, frequent encounters with peoples from other abo- mostly did not diffuse much beyond the regions inhabited by individual
societies. Abo- around them. Rocks, mountains, forests, mineral deposits, and bodies of water were crucial for their survival, and they related stories and myths about those and other geo- aboriginal peoples with their
immediate environments, their cultural and religious tra- In the central and western regions of the Pacific, where several clusters of islands are since it helped ruling elites establish and maintain harmonious relations with one an- Inhabitants of the Tonga, Samoa, and Fiji islands traded mats and canoes, for example, While undertaking regular or intermittent voyages over long distances, islanders growth in all the larger Pacific island groups—Samoa, Tonga, the Society
Islands (in- island groups, the human population may have exceeded five hundred thousand when Indeed, beginning about the thirteenth century, expanding populations prompted One of the great world travelers of all time was the Moroccan legal scholar Ibn Battuta. Born in 1304 at Tangier, Ibn Battuta followed family tradition and studied Islamic law. In 1325 he left Morocco, perhaps for the first time, to make a pilgrimage to Mecca. He traveled by caravan across north Africa and through Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, arriving at Mecca in 1326. After completing his hajj, Ibn Battuta did not head for home but spent a year visiting Mesopotamia and Persia, then traveled by ship through the Red Sea and down the east African coast as far south as Kilwa. By 1330 he had returned to Mecca, but he did not stay there long. When he learned that the sultan of Delhi offered handsome rewards to foreign legal scholars, he set off for India. Instead of traveling there directly by sailing across the Arabian Sea, however, he followed a long and circuitous land route that took him through Egypt, Syria, Anatolia, Constantinople, the Black Sea, and the great trading cities of central Asia, Bokhara and Samarkand. Only in 1333 did he arrive in Delhi, from the north. For the next eight years, Ibn Battuta remained in India, serving mostly as a qadi (judge) in the government of Muhammad ibn Tughluq, the sultan of Delhi. In 1341 Muhammad appointed him to head an enormous embassy to China, but a violent storm destroyed the party's ships as they prepared to depart Calicut for the sea voyage to China. All personal goods and diplomatic presents sank with the ships, and many of the passengers drowned. (Ibn Battuta survived because he was on shore attending Friday prayers at the mosque when the storm struck.) For the next several years, Ibn Battuta made his way around southern India, Ceylon, and the Maldive Islands, where he served as a qadi for the recently founded Islamic sultanate, before continuing to China on his own about 1345. He visited the bustling southern Chinese port cities of Quanzhou and Guangzhou, where he found large communities of Muslim merchants, before returning to Morocco in 1349 by way of southern India, the Persian Gulf, Syria, Egypt, and Mecca. Between 1000 and 1500 c.e., the peoples of the eastern hemisphere traveled, traded, communicated, and interacted more regularly and intensively than ever before. The large empires of the Mongols and other nomadic peoples provided a political foundation for this cross-cultural interaction. When they conquered and pacified vast regions, nomadic peoples provided safe roads for merchants, diplomats, missionaries, and other travelers. Quite apart from the nomadic empires, improvements in maritime technology led to increased traffic in the sea lanes of the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. As a result, long-distance travel became much more common than in earlier eras, and individual travelers such as Ibn Battuta and Marco Polo sometimes ventured throughout much of the eastern hemisphere. Merchants engaged in long-distance trade relied on two principal networks of trade routes. Luxury goods of high value relative to their weight, such as silk textiles and precious stones, often traveled overland on the silk roads used since classical times. Bulkier commodities, such as steel, stone, coral, and building materials, traveled the sea lanes of the Indian Ocean, since it would have been unprofitable to transport them overland. The silk roads linked all of the Eurasian landmass, and trans-Saharan caravan routes drew west Africa into the larger economy of the eastern hemisphere. The sea lanes of the Indian Ocean served ports in southeast Asia, India, Arabia, and east Africa while also offering access via the South China Sea to ports in China, Japan, Korea, and the spice-bearing islands of southeast Asia. Thus, in combination, land and sea routes touched almost every corner of the eastern hemisphere. As the volume of trade increased, the major trading cities and ports grew rapidly, attracting buyers, sellers, brokers, and bankers from parts near and far. Khanbaliq (modern Beijing), Hangzhou, Quanzhou, Melaka, Cambay, Samarkand, Hormuz, Baghdad, Caffa, Cairo, Alexandria, Kilwa, Constantinople, Venice, Timbuktu, and many other cities had large quarters occupied by communities of foreign merchants. When a trading or port city enjoyed a strategic location, maintained good order, and resisted the temptation to levy excessive customs fees, it had the potential to become a major emporium serving long-distance trade networks. A case in point is Melaka (in modern Malaysia). Founded in the 1390s, within a few decades Melaka became the principal clearinghouse of trade in the eastern Indian Ocean. The city's authorities policed the strategic Strait of Melaka and maintained a safe market that welcomed all merchants and levied reasonable fees on goods exchanged there. By the end of the fifteenth century, Melaka had a population of some fifty thousand people, and in the early sixteenth century the Portuguese merchant Tomé Pires reported that more than eighty languages could be heard in the city's streets. The best-known long-distance traveler of Mongol times was the Venetian Marco Polo (1253-1324). Marco's father, Niccolò, and uncle Maffeo were among the first European merchants to visit China. Between 1260 and 1269 they traveled and traded throughout Mongol lands, and they met Khubilai Khan as he was consolidating his hold on China. When they returned to China in 1271, seventeen-year-old Marco Polo accompanied them. The great khan took a special liking to Marco, who was a marvelous conversationalist and storyteller. Khubilai allowed Marco to pursue his mercantile interests in China and also sent him on numerous diplomatic missions, partly because Marco regaled him with stories about the distant parts of his realm. After seventeen years in China, the Polos decided to return to Venice, and Khubilai granted them permission to leave. They went back on the sea route by way of Sumatra, Ceylon, India, and Arabia, arriving in Venice in 1295. In spite of occasional exaggerations and tall tales, Marco's stories deeply influenced European readers. Marco always mentioned the textiles, spices, gems, and other goods he observed during his travels, and European merchants took note, eager to participate in the lucrative trade networks of Eurasia. The Polos were among the first Europeans to visit China, but they were not the last. In their wake came hundreds of others, mostly Italians. In most cases, their stories do not survive, but their travels helped to increase European participation in the larger economy of the eastern hemisphere. Most active of the Roman Catholic missionaries in China was John of Montecorvino, an Italian Franciscan who went to China in 1291, became the first archbishop of Khanbaliq in 1307, and died there in 1328. While serving the community of Roman Catholic expatriates in China, John worked energetically to establish Christianity in the host society. He translated the New Testament and the book of Psalms into Turkish, a language commonly used at the Mongol court, and he built several churches in China. He took in young boys from Mongol and Chinese families, baptized them, and taught them Latin and Roman Catholic rituals. He claimed to have baptized six thousand individuals by 1305, and he invited the great khan himself to convert to Christianity. Although popular and widely respected among Europeans, Chinese, and Mongols alike, John attracted few Asian peoples to Christianity. Roman Catholic authorities in Europe dispatched many other priests and missionaries to China during the early fourteenth century, but like John of Montecorvino, they won few converts. Missions successfully established Christian communities in Scan dinavia, eastern Europe, Spain, and the Mediterranean islands that European armies recaptured from Muslims during the centuries after 1000 c.e., but east Asia was too distant for the resources available to the Roman Catholic church. Moreover, east Asian peoples already possessed sophisticated religious and cultural traditions, so Christianity had little appeal. Nevertheless, Christian missions to China continued until the mid-fourteenth century, when the collapse of the Mongols' Yuan dynasty and the eruption of epidemic disease temporarily disrupted long-distance travel across Eurasia. Long-distance travel of all kinds, whether for commercial, political, diplomatic, or missionary purposes, encouraged cultural exchanges between peoples of different societies. Songs, stories, religious ideas, philosophical views, and scientific knowledge all passed readily among travelers who ventured into the larger world during the era from 1000 to 1500 c.e. The troubadours of western Europe, for example, drew on the poetry, music, and love songs of Muslim performers when developing the literature of courtly love. Similarly, European scientists avidly consulted their Muslim and Jewish counterparts in Sicily and Spain to learn about their understanding of the natural world. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, Italian administrative methods made their way beyond the Alps. Partly because of the enormous expenses they incurred during the Hundred Years' War, the kings of France and England began to levy direct taxes and assemble powerful armies. The French kings taxed sales, hearths, and salt; their English counterparts instituted annual taxes on hearths, individuals, and plow teams. Rulers in both lands asserted the authority of the central government over the nobility. The English kings did not establish a standing army, but they were able to raise powerful forces when rebellion threatened public order. In France, however, King Louis XI (reigned 1461-1483) maintained a permanent army of about fifteen thousand troops, many of them professional mercenary soldiers equipped with firearms. Because the high expense of maintaining such forces was beyond the means of the nobility, Louis and his successors enjoyed a decisive edge over ambitious subordinates seeking to challenge royal authority or build local power bases. State building took place in Russia as well as in western Europe. After the fourteenth century, as Mongol power waned, Russian princes sought to expand their territories. Most successful of them were the grand princes of Moscow. As early as the mid-fourteenth century, the princes began the process of "gathering the Russian land" by acquiring territories surrounding their strategically located commercial town of Moscow on the Volga River. In 1480 Grand Prince Ivan III (reigned 1462-1505), later known as Ivan the Great, stopped paying tribute to the Mongol khan. By refusing to acknowledge the khan's supremacy, Ivan in effect declared Russian independence from Mongol rule. He then made Moscow the center of a large and powerful state. His territorial annexations were impressive: Muscovy, the principality ruled from Moscow, almost tripled in size as he brought Russian-speaking peoples into his realm. The most important addition to his possessions came with the acquisition of the prosperous trading city of Novgorod. A hub of the lucrative fur trade and a member of the Hanseatic League of Baltic commercial cities, Novgorod was an autonomous city-state that governed its affairs through a town council. The city's merchants had strong ties to Poland and Lithuania to the west, and Ivan wanted to make sure that Novgorod's prosperity did not benefit neighboring states. Thus he demanded that the city acknowledge his authority. After crushing a futile uprising organized by Novgorod's merchants, he ended the city's independence in 1478 and absorbed it into the expansive Muscovite state. With the aid of Novgorod's wealth, Ivan was then able to build a strong centralized government modeled on the Byzantine empire. Indeed, Ivan went so far as to call himself tsar (sometimes spelled czar)—a Russianized form of the term caesar, which Byzantine rulers had borrowed from the classical Roman empire to signify their imperial status. On the first three voyages, Zheng He took his fleet to southeast Asia, India, and Ceylon. The fourth expedition went to the Persian Gulf and Arabia, and later expeditions ventured down the east African coast, calling at ports as far south as Malindi in modern Kenya. Throughout his travels, Zheng He liberally dispensed gifts of Chinese silk, porcelain, and other goods. In return he received rich and unusual presents from his hosts, including African zebras and giraffes, which ended their days in the Ming imperial zoo. Zheng He and his companions paid respect to the local deities and customs they encountered, and in Ceylon they erected a monument honoring Buddha, Allah, and Vishnu. Following the capture of Ceuta, Henrique encouraged Portuguese mariners to venture into the Atlantic. During their voyages they discovered the Madeiras and Azores Islands, all uninhabited, which they soon colonized. They also made an unsuccessful effort to occupy the Canary Islands, inhabited by indigenous peoples but claimed since the early fifteenth century by the kingdom of Castile. Later discoveries included the Cape Verde islands, Fernando Po, São Tomé, and Principe off the west African coast. Because these Atlantic islands enjoyed fertile soils and a Mediterranean climate, Portuguese entrepreneurs soon began to cultivate sugarcane there, often in collaboration with Italian investors. Italians had financed sugar plantations in the Mediterranean islands since the twelfth century, and their commercial networks provided a ready means to distribute sugar to Europeans, who were rapidly developing a taste for sweets. During the middle decades of the fifteenth century, a series of Portuguese fleets also explored the west African coast, each expedition proceeding a bit farther than its predecessor. Originally, the Portuguese traded guns, textiles, and other manufactured items for African gold and slaves. Portuguese traders took full advantage of the long-established African commerce in slaves, but they also changed the nature of the slave trade by dramatically increasing its volume and by sending slaves to new destinations. By the mid-fifteenth century, the Portuguese dispatched thousands of slaves annually from their forts on islands off the African coast. They delivered most of their human cargo to recently founded plantations in the Atlantic islands, where the slaves worked as laborers, although some worked as domestic servants in Europe. The use of African slaves to perform heavy labor on commercial plantations soon became common practice, and it fueled the development of a huge, Atlantic-wide trade that delivered as many as twelve million enslaved Africans to destinations in North America, South America, and the Caribbean region. During the following century, Portuguese merchants and mariners dominated trade between Europe and Asia. Indeed, they attempted to control all shipping in the Indian Ocean. Their ships, armed with cannons, were able to overpower the vessels of Arabs, Persians, Indians, southeast Asians, and others who sailed the Indian Ocean. They did not have enough ships to police the entire Indian Ocean, however, so most merchants easily evaded their efforts to control the region's commerce. Nevertheless, the entry of Portuguese mariners into the Indian Ocean signaled the beginning of European imperialism in Asia. While Portuguese seafarers sought a sea route around Africa to India, the Genoese mariner Cristoforo Colombo, known in English as Christopher Columbus, conceived the idea of sailing west to reach Asian markets. Because geographers in the eastern hemisphere knew nothing of the Americas, Columbus's notion made a certain amount of good sense, although many doubted that his plan could lead to profitable trade because of the long distances involved. After the king of Portugal declined to sponsor an expedition to test Columbus's plan, the Catholic Kings, Fernando and Isabel of Spain, agreed to underwrite a voyage. In 1492 Columbus set sail. After a stop in the Canary Islands to take on supplies and make repairs, his fleet of three ships crossed the Atlantic Ocean, reaching land at San Salvador (Watling Island) in the Bahamas. As European mariners ventured into the Indian and Atlantic Ocean basins, they unwittingly inaugurated a new era in world history. For millennia, peoples of different societies had traded, communicated, and interacted. As technologies of transportation improved, they dealt with peoples at increasingly greater distances. By 1500 the Indian Ocean served as a highway linking peoples from China to east Africa, and overland traffic kept the silk roads busy from China to the Mediterranean Sea. Trade goods, diplomatic missions, religious faiths, technological skills, agricultural crops, and disease pathogens all moved readily over the sea lanes and the silk roads, and they profoundly influenced the development of societies throughout the eastern hemisphere. In the western hemisphere, trading networks linked lands as distant as Mexico and the Great Lakes region, while Pacific islanders regularly traveled and traded between island groups. Which of the following contributed to the Sufis success in spreading Islam to common people quizlet?Which of the following contributed to the Sufis' success in spreading Islam to common people? The Seljuk Turks' migration into the Islamic heartland contributed to the continued dominance of Shiite rule.
Which of the following is a reason for the success of Islamic trading firms in the Mediterranean?Which of the following is a reason for the success of Islamic trading firms in the Mediterranean? Answers: They benefitted from favored trading status with the Holy Roman Empire. They established a commercial law apart from religion so that all people could participate in trade.
What did the Spanish use as a model for obtaining Amerindian labor for colonial mines quizlet?Encomienda was a labor system used to reward Spanish colonists who worked for the Spanish through allowing them to use natives for labor. Under this system, natives of American colonies labored in mines, fields, or ranches for Spanish Landlords, who promised Spanish leaders they would care for and respect the workers.
What was the major reason why European states wanted to prevent the New World colonies from trading with other states?What was the major reason that European states wanted to prevent their New World colonies from trading with other states? They wanted to prevent the spread of wealth to states other than their own.
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Which of the following was a reason that the Swahili peoples became brokers for trade linking the Arabian Peninsula the Persian Gulf and the western coast of India quizlet?
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