chapter 6 the first global civilization: the rise and ... · 73 chapter 6 the first global...
TRANSCRIPT
73
CHAPTER 6
The First Global Civilization: The Rise and Spread of Islam
CHAPTER SUMMARY
In the 7th century C.E., the Arab followers of Muhammad surged from the Arabian Peninsula to
create the first global civilization. They quickly conquered an empire incorporating elements of
the classical civilizations of Greece, Egypt, and Persia. Islamic merchants, mystics, and
warriors continued its expansion in Europe, Asia, and Africa. The process provided links for
exchange among civilized centers and forged a truly global civilization. Although united in
belief of Muhammad’s message, the Islamic world was divided by cultural and political
rivalries. The disputes did not undermine the strength of Muslim civilization until the 14th
century.
Desert and Town: The Pre-Islamic Arabian World. The inhospitable Arabian Peninsula was
inhabited by bedouin societies. Some desert-dwellers herded camels and goats. Others practiced
agriculture in oasis towns. Important agricultural and commercial centers flourished in southern
coastal regions. The towns were extensions of bedouin society, sharing its culture and ruled by
its clans.
Clan Identity, Clan Rivalries, and the Cycle of Vengeance. Mobile kin-related clans were the
basis of social organization. The clans clustered into larger tribal units that functioned only
during crises. In the harsh environment, individual survival depended upon clan loyalty. Wealth
and status varied within clans. Leaders, or shaykhs, although elected by councils, usually were
wealthy men. Free warriors enforced their decisions. Slave families served the leaders or the
clan as a whole. Clan cohesion was reinforced by interclan rivalry and by conflicts over water
and pasturage. The resulting enmity might inaugurate feuds enduring for centuries. The strife
weakened bedouin society against its rivals.
Towns and Long-Distance Trade. Cities had developed as entrep ts in the trading system
linking the Mediterranean to east Asia. The most important, Mecca, in western Arabia, had been
founded by the Umayyad clan of the Quraysh tribe. The city was the site of the Ka’ba, an
important religious shrine that, during an obligatory annual truce in interclan feuds, attracted
pilgrims and visitors. A second important town, Medina, an agricultural oasis and commercial
center, lay to the northeast. Quarrels among Medina’s two bedouin and three Jewish clans
hampered its development and later opened a place for Muhammad.
Marriage and the Family in Pre-Islamic Arabia. Women might have enjoyed more freedom
than in the Byzantine and Sassanid empires. They had key economic roles in clan life. Descent
was traced through the female line, and men paid a bride-price to the wife’s family. Women did
not wear veils and were not secluded. Both sexes had multiple marriage partners. Still, men,
who carried on the honored warrior tradition, remained superior. Traditional practices of
property control, inheritance, and divorce favored men. Women did drudge labor. Female status
was even more restricted in urban centers.
Poets and Neglected Gods. Arab material culture, because of isolation and the environment,
was not highly developed. The main focus of creativity was in orally transmitted poetry.
74
Bedouin religion was a blend of animism and polytheism. Some tribes recognized a supreme
deity, Allah, but paid him little attention. They instead focused on spirits associated with nature.
Religion and ethics were not connected. In all, the bedouin did not take their religion seriously.
The Life of Muhammad and the Genesis of Islam. In the 6th century C.E., camel nomads
dominated Arabia. Cities were dependent upon alliances with surrounding tribes. Pressures for
change came from the Byzantine and Sassanid empires and from the presence of Judaism and
Christianity. Muhammad, a member of the Banu Hasim clan of the Quraysh, was born about
570. Left an orphan, he was raised by his father’s family and became a merchant. Muhammad
resided in Mecca, where he married a wealthy widow, Khadijah. Merchant travels allowed
Muhammad to observe the forces undermining clan unity and to encounter the spread of
monotheistic ideas. Muhammad became dissatisfied with a life focused on material gain and
went to meditate in the hills. In 610, he began receiving revelations transmitted from God via
the angel Gabriel. Later, written in Arabic and collected in the Qur’an, they formed the basis for
Islam.
Persecution, Flight, and Victory. As Muhammad’s initially very small following grew, he was
seen as a threat by Mecca’s rulers. The new faith endangered the gods of the Ka’ba. With his
life in danger, Muhammad was invited to come to Medina to mediate its clan quarrels. In 622,
Muhammad left Mecca for Medina where his skilled leadership brought new followers. The
Quraysh attacked Medina, but Muhammad’s forces ultimately triumphed. A treaty in 628
allowed his followers permission to visit the Ka’ba. He returned to Mecca in 629 and converted
most of its inhabitants to Islam.
Arabs and Islam. The new religion initially was adopted by town dwellers and bedouins in the
region where Muhammad lived. But Islam offered opportunities for uniting Arabs by providing
a distinct indigenous monotheism supplanting clan divisions and allowing an end to clan feuding.
The “umma,” the community of the faithful, transcended old tribal boundaries. Islam also
offered an ethical system capable of healing social rifts within Arab society. All believers were
equal before Allah; the strong and wealthy were responsible for the care of the weak and poor.
The Prophet’s teachings and the Qur’an became the basis for laws regulating the Muslim
faithful. All faced a last judgment by a stern but compassionate God.
Universal Elements in Islam. Islam, by nature, contained beliefs appealing to individuals in
many differing world cultures. They included its monotheism, legal codes, egalitarianism, and
strong sense of community. Islam, while regarding Muhammad’s message as the culmination of
divine revelation, accepted the validity of similar components previously incorporated in
Judaism and Christianity. Islam’s five pillars provide a basis for underlying unity: (1)
acceptance of Islam; (2) prayer five times daily; (3) the fast month of Ramadan; (4) payment of a
tithe (zakat) for charity; and (5) the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca.
The Arab Empire of the Umayyads. Muhammad’s defeat of Mecca had won the allegiance of
many bedouin tribes, but the unity was threatened when he died in 632. Tribes broke away and
his followers quarreled about the succession. The community managed to select new leaders
who reunited Islam by 633 and then began campaigns beyond Arabia. Arab religious zeal and
the weaknesses of opponents resulted in victories in Mesopotamia, north Africa, and Persia. The
new empire was governed by a warrior elite under the Umayyad clan that had little interest in
conversion.
75
Consolidation and Division in the Islamic Community. Muhammad, the last of the prophets,
could not have a successor possessing his attributes. He had not established a procedure for
selecting a new leader. After a troubled process, Abu Bakr was chosen as caliph, the leader of
the Islamic community. Breakaway tribes and rival prophets were defeated during the Ridda
wars to restore Islamic unity. Arab armies invaded the weak Byzantine and Sassanid empires
where they were joined by bedouins who had migrated earlier.
Motives for Arab Conquest. Islam provided the Arabs with a sense of common cause and a
way of releasing martial energies against neighboring opponents. The rich booty and tribute
gained often were more of a motivation than spreading Islam, since converts were exempted
from taxes and shared the spoils of victory.
Weaknesses of the Adversary Empires. The weak Sassanian Empire was ruled by an emperor
manipulated by a landed, aristocratic class that exploited the agricultural masses. Official
Zoroastrianism lacked popular roots and the more popular creed of Mazdak had been brutally
suppressed. The Arabs defeated the poorly prepared Sassanid military and ended the dynasty in
651. The Byzantines were more resilient adversaries. The empire had been weakened by the
defection of frontier Arabs and persecuted Christian sects and by long wars with the Sassanids.
The Arabs quickly seized western Iraq, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. From the 640s, the Arabs
had gained naval supremacy in the eastern Mediterranean and extended conquests westward into
north Africa and southern Europe. The weakened Byzantines held off attacks in their core Asia
Minor and Balkan territories.
The Problem of Succession and the Sunni-Shi’a Split. Arab victories for a time covered old
tribal internal divisions. The murder of Uthman, the third caliph, caused a succession struggle.
Muhammad’s earliest followers supported Ali, but he was rejected by the Umayyads. In the
ensuing hostilities, Ali won the advantage until he accepted a plea for mediation at Siffin in 657.
Ali lost the support of his most radical adherents, and the Umayyads won the renewed hostilities.
The Umayyad leader, Mu’awiya, was proclaimed caliph in 660. Ali was assassinated in 661; his
son, Husayn, was killed at Karbala in 680. The dispute left a permanent division within Islam.
The Shi’a, eventually dividing into many sects, continued to uphold the rights of Ali’s
descendants to be caliphs.
The Umayyad Imperium. With internal disputes resolved, the Muslims during the 7th and 8th
centuries pushed forward into central Asia, northwest India, and southwestern Europe. The
Franks checked the advance at Poitiers in 732, but Muslims ruled much of Iberia for centuries.
By the 9th century, they dominated the Mediterranean. The Umayyad political capital was at
Damascus. The caliphs built an imperial administration with both bureaucracy and military
dominated by a Muslim Arab elite. The warriors remained concentrated in garrison towns to
prevent assimilation by the conquered.
Converts and “People of the Book.” Umayyad policy did not prevent interaction,
intermarriage, and conversion between Arabs and their subjects. Muslim converts still paid taxes
and did not receive a share of booty; they were blocked from important positions in the army or
bureaucracy. Most of the conquered peoples were Dhimmis, or people of the book. The first
were Jews and Christians; later the term also included Zoroastrians and Hindus. The Dhimmis
had to pay taxes but were allowed to retain their own religious and social organization.
76
Family and Gender Roles in the Umayyad Age. Gender relationships altered as the Muslim
community expanded. Initially, the more favorable status of women among the Arabs prevailed
over the seclusion and male domination common in the Middle East. Muhammad and the Quran
stressed the moral and ethical dimensions of marriage. The adultery of both partners was
denounced; female infanticide was forbidden. Although women could have only one husband,
men were allowed four wives, but all had to be treated equally. Muhammad strengthened
women’s legal rights in inheritance and divorce. Both sexes were equal before Allah.
In Depth: Civilization and Gender Relationships. The strong position gained by women
through Muhammad’s teachings did not endure. Long-established Middle Eastern and
Mediterranean male-dominated traditions of the conquered societies eventually prevailed. The
historical record in China, India, Greece, and the Middle East appears to make a connection
among political centralization, urbanization, and decline in the position of women. But in the
Islamic world, religion and law left women of all classes in better conditions than in other
civilized cultures. In cultural areas with decentralized authority and unstratified social
organization, women retained a stronger position.
Umayyad Decline and Fall. The spoils of victory brought luxury and decline of military talents
to the Umayyads. Many Muslims considered such conduct a retreat from Islamic virtues, and
revolts occurred throughout the empire. The most important occurred among frontier warriors
settled near the Iranian borderland town of Merv. Many men had married locally and developed
regional loyalties. Angry at not receiving adequate shares of booty, they revolted when new
troops were introduced. The rebels were led by the Abbasid clan. Allied with Shi’a and malawi,
Abu al-Abbas defeated the Umayyads in 750, later assassinating most of their clan leaders.
From Arab to Islamic Empire: The Early Abbasid Era. The triumph of a new dynasty
reflected a series of fundamental changes within the Islamic world. The increased size of
Muslim civilization brought growing regional identities and made it difficult to hold the empire
together. The Abbasid victory led to increased bureaucratic expansion, absolutism, and
luxurious living. The Abbasids championed conversion and transformed the character of the
previously Arab-dominated Islamic community. Once in power, the Abbasids turned against the
Shi’a and other allies to support a less tolerant Sunni Islam. At their new capital, Baghdad, the
rulers accepted Persian ruling concepts, elevating themselves to a different status than the earlier
Muslim leaders. A growing bureaucracy worked under the direction of the wazir, or chief
administrator. The great extent of the empire hindered efficiency, but the regime worked well
for more than a century. The constant presence of the royal executioner symbolized the absolute
power of the rulers over their subjects.
Islamic Conversion and Malawi Acceptance. Under the Abbasids, new converts, both Arabs
and others, were fully integrated into the Muslim community. The old distinction between
Mawali and older believers disappeared. Most conversions occurred peacefully. Many
individuals sincerely accepted appealing ethical Islamic beliefs. Others perhaps reacted to the
advantages of avoiding special taxes and to the opportunities for advancement open to believers
through education, administration, and commerce. Persians, for example, soon became the real
source of power in the imperial system.
Town and Country: Commercial Boom and Agrarian Expansion. The rise of the Mawali was
accompanied by the growth in wealth and status of merchant and landlord classes. Urban
77
expansion was likened to a revival of the Afro-Eurasian trading network declining with the fall
of the Han and Roman empires. Muslim merchants moved goods from the western
Mediterranean to the South China Sea. Urban prosperity led to increased artisan handicraft
production in both government and private workshops. The most skilled artisans formed guild-
like organizations to negotiate wages and working conditions and to provide support services.
Slaves performed unskilled labor and served caliphs and high officials. Some slaves held
powerful positions and gained freedom. Most unskilled slaves, many of them Africans, worked
under terrible conditions. A rural, landed elite, the ayan, emerged. The majority of peasants
occupied land as tenants and had to give most of their harvest to the owners.
The First Flowering of Islamic Learning. The Arabs before Islam were without writing and
knew little of the outside world. They were very receptive to the accomplishments of the many
civilizations falling to Muslim armies. Under the Abbasids, Islamic artistic contribution first lay
in mosque and palace construction. Islamic learning flourished in religious, legal, and
philosophical discourse, with special focus on the sciences and mathematics. Scholars recovered
and preserved the works of earlier civilizations. Greek writings were saved and later passed on
to the Christian world. Muslims also introduced Indian (“Arabic”) numbers into the
Mediterranean world.
Global Connections: Early Islam and the World. The rise of Islamic civilization was without
precedent in history. By the 9th century, Abbasid power had waned before the rise of regional
states and the incursions of non-Muslim peoples. The Turks converted to Islam and became a
major component of the Muslim world. The Arabs had created a basis for the first global
civilization, incorporating many linguistic and ethnic groups into one culture. They created
Islam, one of the great universal religions. Religion and politics initially had been joined, but the
Umayyads and Abbasids used religious legitimacy to govern their vast empires. In both religion
and politics, they absorbed precedents from earlier civilizations. Muslims did the same in the
arts and sciences, later fashioning their own innovative thinking that influenced other societies in
Europe, Africa, and Asia.
KEY TERMS
Bedouin: Nomads of the Arabian Peninsula with a culture based on herding camels and goats.
Shaykhs: Leaders of tribes and clans within bedouin society; usually possessed large herds,
several wives, and many children.
Mecca: Arabian commercial center; dominated by the Quraysh; the home of Muhammad and the
future center of Islam.
Medina: Town northeast of Mecca; asked Muhammad to resolve its intergroup differences.
Muhammad’s flight to Medina, the Hijra, in 622 began the Muslim calendar.
Umayyad: Clan of the Quraysh that dominated Mecca; later an Islamic dynasty.
Ka’ba: Revered pre-Islamic shrine in Mecca; incorporated into Muslim worship.
Qur’an: The word of God as revealed through Muhammad; made into the holy book of Islam.
78
Umma: Community of the faithful within Islam.
Zakat: Tax for charity obligatory for all Muslims.
Five pillars: The obligatory religious duties for all Muslims: profession of faith, prayer, fasting
during Ramadan, zakat, and hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca).
Caliph: The successor to Muhammad as head of the Islamic community.
Ali: Cousin and son-in-law of Muhammad; one of the orthodox caliphs; focus for the
development of Shi’ism.
Abu Bakr: Succeeded Muhammad as the first caliph.
Ridda Wars: Wars following Muhammad’s death; the defeat of rival prophets and opponents
restored the unity of Islam.
Jihad: Islamic holy war.
Uthman: Third caliph; his assassination set off a civil war within Islam between the Umayyads
and Ali.
Battle of Siffin: Battle fought in 657 between Ali and the Umayyads; led to negotiations that
fragmented Ali’s party.
Mu’awiya: First Umayyad caliph; his capital was Damascus.
Sunni: Followers of the majority interpretation within Islam; included the Umayyads.
Shi’a: Followers of Ali’s interpretation of Islam.
Karbala: Site of the defeat and death of Husayn, the son of Ali.
Mawali: Non-Arab converts to Islam.
Jizya: Head tax paid by all non-Muslims in Islamic lands.
Dhimmis: “The people of the book,” Jews, Christians; later extended to
Zoroastrians and Hindus.
Abbasids: Dynasty that succeeded the Umayyads in 750; their capital was Baghdad.
Wazir: Chief administrative official under the Abbasids.
Ayan: The wealthy landed elite that emerged under the Abbasids.
Quraysh Bedouin tribe: The Umayyad clan of this bedouin tribe founded the city of Mecca.
Allah: Islamic term for God.
79
Khadijah: First wife of Muhammad who was the widow of a wealthy merchant.
Hijra: Term used to describe Muhammad’s flight to Medina; marks the first year of the Islamic
calendar.
Ramadam: The ninth month of the Islamic year that requires daily fasting from sunrise to
sunset.
Hajj: Pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca; one of the Five Pillars of Islam.
Damascus: Ancient Islamic cultural center; capital of present-day Syria.
Hadiths: Traditions of the prophet Muhammad.
Battle of River Zab: Battle in 750 C.E. in which Abbasid forces met and defeated an army led
by the Umayyad caliph near the Tigris River; the Abbasid victory opened the way for the
conquest of Syria and capture of the Umayyad capital
Baghdad: Ancient Islamic cultural center on Tigris River; capital of present-day Iraq.
Dhows: Ship with lateen sails and raised deck at the stern; used along the coasts of east Africa
and the Middle East.
Mosque: Islamic temple and place of worship.
LESSON SUGGESTIONS
Leader Analysis Muhammad Peoples Analysis Islamic societies
Conflict Analysis Sunni-Shi’a split
Change Analysis Arabian society before and after Muhammad
Societal Comparison Umayyad and Han or Roman empires
Document Analysis The Thousand and One Nights
Dialectical Journal The postclassical period as a period of world history
Inner/Outer Circle In Depth: Civilization and Gender Relationships
89
CHAPTER 7
Abbasid Decline and the Spread of Islamic Civilization to South and
Southeast Asia
CHAPTER SUMMARY
By the mid-9th century, the Abbasids were losing control over their vast Muslim Empire.
Distance hampered efforts to move armies and control local administrators. Most subjects
retained local loyalties. Shi’a dissenters were particularly troublesome, while slave and peasant
risings sapped empire strength. Mongol invasions in the 13th century ended the very weakened
state. Despite the political decline, Islamic civilization reached new cultural heights, and Islam
expanded widely in the Afro-Asian world through conquest and peaceful conversion.
The Islamic Heartlands in the Middle and Late Abbasid Era. The Abbasid Empire
disintegrated between the 9th and 13th centuries. Peasant revolts and slavery increased. Despite
the artistic and intellectual creativity of the age, the position of women eroded. Signs of decline
were present during the reign of Caliph al-Mahdi (775-785). He failed to reconcile moderate
Shi’a to Abbasid rule. Al-Mahdi abandoned the frugal ways of his predecessor and surrounded
his court with luxury. He failed to establish a succession system resolving disputes among his
many sons, leaving a lasting problem to future rulers.
Imperial Extravagance and Succession Disputes. One son, Harun al-Rashid, became one of
the most famous Abbasid caliphs. The luxury and intrigues of his court were immortalized in
The Thousand and One Nights. The young ruler became dependent on Persian advisors, a trend
followed during later reigns as rulers became pawns in factional court struggles. Al-Rashid’s
death led to the first of many civil wars over the succession. The sons of the winner, al-
Ma’mun, built personal retainer armies, some including Turkic nomads, to safeguard their
futures. The armies became power centers, removing and selecting caliphs; their uncontrolled
excesses developed into a general focus for societal unrest.
Imperial Breakdown and Agrarian Disorder. The continual civil violence drained the
imperial treasury. Caliphs increased the strain by constructing costly new imperial centers.
Peasants had imposing tax burdens, often collected by oppressive tax farmers, forced upon
them. Agricultural villages were abandoned and irrigation works fell into disrepair. Bandits
and vagabonds were everywhere; they participated in peasant rebellions often instigated by
dissident religious groups.
The Declining Position of Women in the Family and Society. The freedom and influence
during the first centuries of Islam severely declined. Male-dominated Abbasid society imagined
that women possessed incurable lust, and therefore men needed to be segregated from all but
the women of their family. The harem and the veil symbolized subjugation to men. The
seclusion of elite women, wives, and concubines continued, and the practice of veiling spread to
all. Abbasid wealth generated large demand for concubines and male slaves. Most came from
non-Muslim neighboring lands. Poor women remained economically active, but the rich were
kept at home. They married at puberty and spent their lives in domestic management and
childbearing. At higher political levels, women intrigued for advancement of their sons’
careers.
90
Nomadic Incursions and the Eclipse of Caliphal Power. By the mid-10th century,
breakaway former provinces began to challenge Abbasid rule. The Buyids of Persia captured
Baghdad in 945. The caliphs henceforth became powerless puppets controlled by sultans, the
actual rulers. The Seljuk Turks defeated the Buyids in 1055 and ruled the remnants of the
Abbasid Empire for two centuries. The Seljuks were staunch Sunni who purged the Shi’a. For
a time, Seljuk military power restored the diminished caliphate. Egyptians and Byzantines were
defeated, the latter success opening Anatolia, the nucleus of the later Ottoman Empire, to
settlement by Turkic nomads.
The Impact of the Christian Crusades. West European Christian knights in 1096 invaded
Muslim territory to capture the biblical Holy Land. They established small, rival kingdoms that
were not a threat to the more powerful surrounding Muslim leaders. Most were recaptured near
the close of the 12th century by Muslims reunited under Saladin. The last fell in 1291. The
Crusades had an important effect on the Christian world through intensifying the existing
European borrowing from the more sophisticated technology, architecture, medicine,
mathematics, science, and general culture of Muslim civilization. Europeans recovered much
Greek learning lost after the fall of Rome. Italian merchants remained in Islamic centers after
the crusader defeat and were far more important carriers of Islamic advanced knowledge than
the Christian warriors were. Muslim peoples were little interested in European civilization.
An Age of Learning and Artistic Refinements. The political and social turmoil of late
Abbasid times did not prevent Muslim thinkers and craftsmen, in states from Spain to Persia,
from producing one of the great ages of human creativity. Rapid urban growth and its
associated prosperity persisted until late in the Abbasid era. Employment opportunities for
skilled individuals remained abundant. Merchants amassed large fortunes through supplying
urban needs and from long-distance trade to India, southeast Asia, China, north Africa, and
Europe. Artists and artisans created mosques, palaces, tapestries, rugs, bronzes, and ceramics.
The Full Flowering of Persian Literature. Persian replaced Arabic as the primary written
language of the Abbasid court. Arabic was the language of religion, law, and the natural
sciences; Persian became the language of “high culture,” used for literary expression,
administration, and scholarship. The development of a beautiful calligraphy made literature a
visual art form. Perhaps the greatest work was Firdawsi’s epic poem, Shah-Nama, a history of
Persia from creation to Islamic conquest. Other writers, such as the great poet Sa’di and Omar
Khayyam in the Rubaiyat, blended mystical and commonplace themes in their work.
Achievements in the Sciences. Muslim society, for several centuries, surpassed all others in
scientific and technological discoveries. In mathematics, thinkers made major corrections in the
theories learned from the ancient Greeks. In chemistry, they created the objective experiment.
Al-Razi classified all material substances into three categories: animal, vegetable, and mineral.
Al-Biruni calculated the exact specific weight of 18 major minerals. Sophisticated, improved
astronomical instruments, such as the astrolabe, were used for mapping the heavens. Much of
the Muslim achievement had practical application. In medicine, improved hospitals and formal
courses of studies accompanied important experimental work. Traders and craftsmen
introduced machines and techniques originating in China for papermaking, silk weaving, and
ceramic firing. Scholars made some of the world’s best maps.
91
Religious Trends and the New Push for Expansion. The conflicting social and political
trends showed in divergent patterns of religious development. Sufis developed vibrant
mysticism, but ulama (religious scholars) became more conservative and suspicious of non-
Muslim influences and scientific thought. They were suspicious of Greek rationalism and
insisted that the Qur’an was the all-embracing source of knowledge. The great theologian al-
Ghazali struggled to fuse Greek and Qur’anic traditions but often was opposed by orthodox
scholars. The Sufis created the most innovative religious movement. They reacted against the
arid teachings of the ulama and sought personal union with Allah through asceticism,
meditation, songs, dancing, or drugs. Many Sufis gained reputations as healers and miracle
workers; others made the movement a central factor in the continuing expansion of Islam.
New Waves of Nomadic Invasions and the End of the Caliphate. In the early 13th century,
central Asian nomadic invaders, the Mongols, threatened Islamic lands. Chinggis Khan
destroyed the Turkic-Persian kingdoms east of Baghdad. His grandson, Hulegu, continued the
assault. The last Abbasid ruler was killed when Baghdad fell in 1258. The once-great Abbasid
capital became an unimportant backwater in the Muslim world.
The Coming of Islam to South Asia. Muslim invasions from the 7th century added to the
complexity of Indian civilization. Previous nomadic invaders usually had blended over time
into India’s sophisticated civilization. Muslims, possessors of an equally sophisticated but very
different culture, were a new factor. The open, tolerant, and inclusive Hindu religion was based
on a social system dominated by castes, whereas Islam was doctrinaire, monotheistic,
evangelical, and egalitarian. In the earlier period of contact, conflict predominated, but as time
passed, although tensions persisted, peaceful commercial and religious exchange occurred in a
society where Muslim rulers governed Hindu subjects.
Political Divisions and the First Muslim Invasions. The Umayyad general Muhammad ibn
Qasim conquered and annexed Sind, and, despite quarrels among succeeding Muslim dynasties,
the occupation endured. Many Indians, treated as “people of the book,” welcomed the new
rulers because they offered religious tolerance and lighter taxes. Few Arabs resided in cities or
garrison towns, and minimal conversion efforts did not change existing religious beliefs.
Indian Influences on Islamic Civilization. Although Islam’s effect on India was minimal,
Islamic civilization was enriched by Indian culture. Indian achievements in science,
mathematics, medicine, music, and astronomy passed to the Arabs. Indian numerals were
accepted, later to pass to Europe as “Arabic” numerals. Colonies of Arabs settled along India’s
coasts, adopted local customs, and provided staging points for later Islamic expansion to island
and mainland southeast India.
From Booty to Empire: The Second Wave of Muslim Invasions. After the initial Muslim
conquests, internal divisions weakened Muslim rule and allowed limited Hindu reconquest. In
the 10th century, a Turkish dynasty gained power in Afghanistan. Its third ruler, Mahmud of
Ghazni, began two centuries of incursions into northern India. In the 12th century, the Persian
Muhammad of Ghur created an extensive state in the Indus valley and north-central India.
Later campaigns extended it along the plains of the Ganges to Bengal. A lieutenant to
Muhammad, Qutb-ud-din Aibak, later formed a new state, with its capital at Delhi on the
Ganges plain. The succeeding dynasties, the sultans of Delhi, were military states; their
authority was limited by factional strife and dependence on Hindu subordinates. They ruled
much of north-central India for the next 300 years.
92
Patterns of Conversion. Although Muslims came as conquerors, early interaction with Indians
was dominated by peaceful exchanges. The main carriers of Islam were traders and Sufi
mystics, the latter drawing followers because of similarities to Indian holy men. Their mosques
and schools became centers of regional political power, providing protection to local
populations. Low and outcast Hindus were welcomed. Buddhists were the most numerous
converts. Buddhist spiritual decline had debased its practices and turned interest to the vigorous
new religion of Islam. Others converted to escape taxes or through intermarriage. Muslim
migrants fleeing 13th- and 14th-century Mongol incursions also increased the Islamic
community.
Patterns of Accommodation. In most regions, Islam initially had little effect on the general
Hindu community. High-caste Hindus did not accept the invaders as their equals. Although
serving as administrators or soldiers, they remained socially aloof, living in separate quarters
and not intermarrying. Hindus thought the Muslims, as earlier invaders, would be absorbed by
Hindu society. Muslim communities did adopt many Indian ways; they accepted Hindu social
hierarchies, foods, and attitudes toward women.
Islamic Challenge and Hindu Revival. Muslims, despite Indian influences, held to the tenets
of Islam. The Hindu response, open to all individuals and castes, led to an increased emphasis
on devotional cults of gods and goddesses. The cults, open to men, women, and all castes,
stressed the importance of strong emotional bonds to the gods. Mira Bai, a low-caste woman,
and Kabir, a Muslim weaver, composed songs and poems in regional languages accessible to
common people. Reaching a state of ecstatic unity brought removal of all past sins and
rendered caste distinctions meaningless. Shiva, Vishnu, and the goddess Kali were the most
worshiped. The movement helped, especially among low-caste groups, to stem conversion to
Islam.
Stand-Off: The Muslim Presence in India at the End of the Sultanate Period. Similarities
in style and message between Sufis and bhaktic devotees led to attempts to bridge the gaps
between Islam and Hinduism. The orthodox of each faith repudiated such thought. Brahmins
denounced Muslims as temple destroyers and worked for reconversion to Hinduism. Muslim
ulama stressed the incompatibility of Islam’s principles with Hindu beliefs. By the close of the
sultanate period, there were two distinct religious communities. The great majority of the
population remained Hindu. They were convinced of the superiority of Indian religion and
civilization and of its capability to absorb the Muslim invaders. South Asia remained the least
converted and integrated of all areas receiving the message of Islam.
The Spread of Islam to Southeast Asia. Southeast Asia had been a middle ground where the
Chinese part of the Eurasian trading complex met the Indian Ocean zone. By the 7th and 8th
centuries, southeast Asian sailors and ships were active in the trade. When Muslims, from the
8th century, gained control of Indian commerce, Islamic culture reached southeast Asia. The
13th-century collapse of the trading empire of Shrivijaya, ruled by devout Buddhists and
located on the Strait of Malacca and northern Sumatra, made possible large-scale, peaceful
Muslim entry.
Trading Contacts and Conversion. Peaceful contacts and voluntary conversion were more
important to the spread of Islam than were conquest and force. Trading contacts prepared the
way for conversion, with the process carried forward by Sufis. The first conversions occurred
93
in small northern Sumatran ports. On the mainland, the key to the spread of Islam was the city
of Malacca, the smaller successor to Shrivijaya. From Malacca, Islam went to Malaya,
Sumatra, and the state of Demak on Java’s north coast. Islam spread into Java and moved on to
the Celebes and Mindanao in the Philippines. Coastal cities were the most receptive to Islam.
Their conversion linked them to a Muslim system connected to the principal Indian Ocean
ports. Buddhist dynasties were present in many regions, but since Buddhist conversions were
limited to the elite, the mass of the population was open to the message of the Sufis. The island
of Bali and mainland southeast Asia, where Buddhism had gained popular support, remained
impervious to Islam.
In Depth: Conversion and Accommodation in the Spread of World Religions. Great
civilizations and world religions have been closely associated throughout world history. World
religions, belief structures that flourish in many differing cultures, have to possess a spiritual
core rich enough to appeal to potential converts. They have to possess core beliefs that allow
adherents to maintain a sense of common identity but also must be flexible enough to allow
retention of important aspects of local culture. The capacity for accommodation allowed Islam,
and later Christianity, to spread successfully into many differing communities.
Sufi Mystics and the Nature of Southeast Asian Islam. The mystical quality of Islam in
southeast Asia was due to Sufi strivings. They often were tolerant of the indigenous peoples’
Buddhist and Hindu beliefs. Converts retained pre-Islamic practices, especially for regulating
social interaction. Islamic law ruled legal transactions. Women held a stronger familial and
societal position than they had in the Middle East or India. They dominated local markets,
while in some regions matrilineal descent persisted. Many pre-Muslim beliefs were
incorporated into Islamic ceremonies.
Global Connections: Islam—A Bridge Between Worlds. Despite the political instability of
the Abbasids, Islam’s central position in global history was solidified. The expanding Muslim
world linked ancient civilizations through conquest and commercial networks. Islam was the
civilizer of nomadic peoples in Asia and Africa. Its cultural contributions diffused widely from
great cities and universities. There were, however, tendencies that placed Muslims at a
disadvantage in relation to rival civilizations, particularly their European rivals. Political
divisions caused exploitable weaknesses in many regions. Most importantly, the increasing
intellectual rigidity of the ulama caused Muslims to become less receptive to outside influences
at a time when the European world was transforming.
KEY TERMS
al-Mahdi: Third Abbasid caliph (775-785); failed to reconcile Shi’a moderates to his dynasty
and to resolve the succession problem.
Harun al-Rashid: Most famous of the Abbasid caliphs (786-809); renowned for sumptuous
and costly living recounted in The Thousand and One Nights.
Buyids: Persian invaders of the 10th century; captured Baghdad and acted as sultans through
Abbasid figureheads.
94
Seljuk Turks: Nomadic invaders from central Asia; staunch Sunni; ruled from the 11th century
in the name of the Abbasids.
Crusades: Invasions of western Christians into Muslim lands, especially Palestine; captured
Jerusalem and established Christian kingdoms enduring until 1291.
Saladin: 12th-century Muslim ruler; reconquered most of the crusader kingdoms.
Ibn Khaldun: Great Muslim historian; author of The Muqaddimah; sought to
uncover persisting patterns in Muslim dynastic history.
Rubaiyat: Epic poem of Omar Khayyam; seeks to find meaning in life and a path to union with
the divine.
Shah-Nama: Epic poem written by Firdawsi in the late 10th and early 11th centuries; recounts
the history of Persia to the era of Islamic conquests.
Sa’di: A great poet of the Abbasid era.
al-Razi: Classified all matter as animal, vegetable, and mineral.
al-Biruni: 11th-century scientist; calculated the specific weight of major minerals.
Ulama: Islamic religious scholars; pressed for a more conservative and restrictive theology;
opposed to non-Islamic thinking.
al-Ghazali: Brilliant Islamic theologian; attempted to fuse Greek and Qur’anic traditions.
Sufis: Islamic mystics; spread Islam to many Afro-Asian regions.
Mongols: Central Asian nomadic peoples; captured Baghdad in 1258 and killed the last
Abbasid caliph.
Muhammad ibn Qasim: Arab general who conquered Sind and made it part of the Umayyad
Empire.
Arabic numerals: Indian numerical notation brought by the Arabs to the West.
Harsha: 7th-century north Indian ruler; built a large state that declined after his death in 646.
Mahmud of Ghazni: Third ruler of a dynasty in Afghanistan; invaded northern India during
the 11th century.
Muhammad of Ghur: Persian ruler of a small kingdom in Afghanistan; invaded and conquered
much of northern India.
Qutb-ud-din Aibak: Lieutenant of Muhammad of Ghur; established a kingdom in India with
the capital at Delhi.
95
Sati: Hindu ritual for burning widows with their deceased husbands.
Bhaktic cults: Hindu religious groups who stressed the importance of strong emotional bonds
between devotees and the gods or goddesses—especially Shiva, Vishnu, and Kali.
Mira Bai: Low-caste woman poet and songwriter in bhaktic cults.
Kabir: 15th-century Muslim mystic who played down the differences between Hinduism and
Islam.
Shrivijaya: Trading empire based on the Malacca Strait; its Buddhist government resisted
Muslim missionaries; when it fell, southeastern Asia was opened to Islam.
Malacca: Flourishing trading city in Malaya; established a trading empire after the fall of
Shrivijaya.
Demak: Most powerful of the trading states on the north Java coast; converted to Islam and
served as a dissemination point to other regions.
Latten sails: Large triangular sails that are attached to the masts by long booms or yard arms
which extend diagonally high across both the fore and aft portions of the ship.
Eunuchs: A castrated man in charge of a harem or high officer of a court of emperor.
Sultan: Word meaning “victorious”; came to designate Muslim rulers.
Holy Land: The region of present-day Israel; includes the city of Jerusalem, which is a holy
city to Christianity, Islam, and Judaism.
Chinggis Khan: Born in 1170s in decades following death of Kabul Khan; elected khagan of
all Mongol tribes in 1206; responsible for conquest of northern kingdoms of China, territories as
far west as the Abbasid regions; died in 1227, prior to the conquest of most of the Islamic
world.
Hulegu: (1217 – 1265) Ruler of the Ilkhan khanate; grandson of Chinggis Khan; responsible
for capture and destruction of Baghdad in 1257.
Mamluks: Turkic slave-warriors who ruled Egypt and defeated the Mongols to prevent their
entry into northern Africa.
Rajas: Term used for Hindu kings.
Sultans of Delhi: Title of the Islamic imperial houses of India, which literally means princes of
the heartland.
Pan: Indian chew food which consists of limestone wrapped with betel leaves.
Sati: Hindu ritual in which widows were burned on the same funeral pyres of deceased
husbands.
106
CHAPTER 8
African Civilizations and the Spread of Islam
CHAPTER SUMMARY
Africa below the Sahara for long periods had only limited contact with the civilizations of the
Mediterranean and Asia. Between 800 and 1500 C.E., the frequency and intensity of contacts
increased. Social, religious, and technological changes influenced African life. The spread of
Islam in Africa linked its regions to the outside world through trade, religion, and politics. State
building in Africa was influenced both by indigenous and Islamic inspiration. States like Mali
and Songhay built on military power and dynastic alliances. City-states in western and eastern
Africa were tied to larger trading networks. African civilizations built less clearly on prior
precedent than did other postclassical societies. Older themes, such as Bantu migration,
persisted. Parts of Africa south of the Sahara entered into the expanding world network; many
others remained in isolation.
African Societies: Diversity and Similarities. Although Africans shared aspects of language
and belief, their continent’s vast size and number of cultures made diversity inevitable. Political
forms varied from hierarchical states to “stateless” societies organized on kinship principles and
lacking concentration of power and authority. Both centralized and decentralized forms existed
side by side, and both were of varying size. Christianity and Islam sometimes influenced
political and cultural development.
Stateless Societies. Stateless peoples were controlled by lineages or age sets. They lacked
concentrated authority structures but at times incorporated more peoples than their more
organized neighbors did. In the west African forest, secret societies were important in social life
and could limit rulers’ authority. The main weakness of stateless societies was their delayed
ability to respond to outside pressures, mobilize for war, undertake large building projects, or
create stability for long-distance trade.
Common Elements in African Societies. There were many similarities throughout African
diversity. The migration of Bantu speakers provided a common linguistic base for much of
Africa. Animistic religion, a belief in natural forces personified as gods, was common, with
well-developed concepts of good and evil. Priests guided religious practices for community
benefit. African religions provided a cosmology and a guide to ethical behavior. Many Africans
believed in a creator deity whose power was expressed through lesser spirits and ancestors.
Families, lineages, and clans had an important role in dealing with gods. Deceased ancestors
were a link to the spiritual world; they retained importance after world religions appeared.
African economies were extremely diversified. North Africa was integrated into the world
economy, but sub-Saharan regions had varying structures. Settled agriculture and ironworking
were present in many areas before postclassical times, with specialization encouraging regional
trade and urbanization. International trade increased in some regions, mainly toward the Islamic
world. Both women and men were important in market life. In general, Africans exchanged raw
materials for manufactured goods. Finally, little is known of the size of Africa’s population
before the 20th century.
The Arrival of Islam in North Africa. North Africa was an integral part of the classical
Mediterranean civilization. From the mid-7th century, Muslim armies pushed westward from
107
Egypt across the regions called Ifriqiya by the Romans and the Maghrib (the West) by the Arabs.
By 711 they crossed into Spain. Conversion was rapid, but initial unity soon divided north
Africa into competing Muslim states. The indigenous Berbers were an integral part of the
process. In the 11th century, reforming Muslim Berbers, the Almoravids of the western Sahara,
controlled lands extending from the southern savanna and into Spain. In the 12th century
another group, the Almohadis, succeeded them. Islam, with its principle of the equality of
believers, won African followers. The unity of the political and religious worlds appealed to
many rulers. Social disparities continued, between ethnicities and men and women, the former
stimulating later reform movements.
The Christian Kingdoms: Nubia and Ethiopia. Christian states were present in north Africa,
Egypt, and Ethiopia before the arrival of Islam. Egyptian Christians, Copts, had a rich and
independent tradition. Oppression by Byzantine Christians caused them to welcome Muslim
invaders. Coptic influence spread into Nubia (Kush). The Nubians resisted Muslim incursions
until the 13th century. The Ethiopian successors to Christian Axum formed their state during the
13th and 14th centuries. King Lalibela in the 13th century built great rock churches. Ethiopia
retained Christianity despite increasing pressure from Muslim neighbors.
Kingdoms of the Grasslands. Islam spread peacefully into sub-Saharan Africa. Merchants
followed caravan routes across the Sahara to the regions where Sudanic states, such as Ghana,
had flourished by the 8th century. By the 13th century, new states, Mali, Songhay, and the
Hausa, were becoming important.
Sudanic States. The states often were led by a patriarch or council of elders from a family or
lineage. They were based on an ethnic core and conquered neighboring peoples. The rulers
were sacred individuals separated from their subjects by rituals. Even though most of their
population did not convert, the arrival of Islam after the 10th century reinforced ruling power.
Two of the most important states were Mali and Songhay.
The Empire of Mali and Sundiata, the “Lion Prince.” Mali, along the Senegal and Niger
rivers, was formed among the Malinke peoples, who broke away from Ghana in the 13th century.
Ruler authority was strengthened by Islam. Agriculture, combined with the gold trade, was the
economic base of the state. The ruler (mansa) Sundiata (d. 1260) receives credit for Malinke
expansion and for a governing system based on clan structure. Sundiata’s successors in this
wealthy state extended Mali’s control through most of the Niger valley to near the Atlantic coast.
Mansa Kankan Musa’s pilgrimage to Mecca during the 14th century became legendary because
of the wealth distributed along the way. He returned with an architect, Ishak al-Sahili, who
created a distinctive Sudanic architecture using beaten clay.
City Folk and Villagers. Distinctive regional towns, such as Jenne and Timbuktu, whose
residents included scholars, craft specialists, and foreign merchants, developed in western Sudan.
Timbuktu was famous for its library and university. The military expansion of Mali and
Songhay contributed to their strength. Mandinka juula traders ranged across the Sudan. Most of
Mali’s population lived in villages and were agriculturists. Despite poor soils, primitive
technology, droughts, insect pests, and storage problems, the farmers, working small family
holdings, supported themselves and their imperial states.
108
The Songhay Kingdom. The Songhay people dominated the middle reaches of the Niger
valley. Songhay became an independent state in the 7th century. By 1010, the rulers were
Muslims and had a capital at Gao. Songhay won freedom from Mali by the 1370s and prospered
as a trading state. An empire was formed under Sunni Ali (1464-1492), a great military leader,
who extended rule over the entire middle Niger valley. He developed a system of provincial
administration to secure the conquests. Sunni Ali’s successors were Muslim rulers with the title
of askia; by the mid-16th century, their state dominated central Sudan. Daily life followed
patterns common in savanna states; Islamic and indigenous traditions combined. Men and
women mixed freely; women went unveiled and young girls at Jenne were naked. Songhay
remained dominant until defeated by Moroccans in 1591. Other states that combined Muslim
and pagan ways rose among the Hausa of northern Nigeria. In the 14th century, the first Muslim
ruler of Kano made the Hausa city a center of Muslim learning. Along with other Hausa cities,
Kano followed the Islamic-indigenous amalgam present in the earlier grasslands empires.
Traders and other Muslims widely spread influences, even in regions without Islamic states.
Political and Social Life in the Sudanic States. Larger states were ruled by a dominant group.
Islam provided a universal faith and a fixed law that served common interests. Indigenous
political and social patterns persisted in the unified states. Rulers reinforced authority through
Muslim officials and ideology, but existing traditions continued to be vital, since many of their
subjects were not Muslims. The fusion of traditions shows in the status of women. Many
Sudanic societies were matrilineal and did not seclude women. Slavery and a slave trade to the
Islamic world lasting more than 700 years had a major effect on women and children. All
individuals might become slaves, but the demand for concubines and eunuchs increased demand
for women and children.
The Swahili Coast of East Africa. A series of trading ports, part of the Indian Ocean network,
developed along the coast and islands between the Horn of Africa and Mozambique. Town
residents were influenced by Islam, but most of the general population remained tied to
traditional ways.
The Coastal Trading Ports. Bantu-speaking migrants had reached and mixed with indigenous
Africans early in the first millennium C.E. Immigrants from southeast Asia had migrated to
Madagascar from the second century B.C.E. With the rise of Islam, individuals from Oman and
the Persian Gulf settled in coastal villages. By the 13th century, a mixed Bantu and Islamic
culture, speaking the Bantu Swahili language, emerged in a string of urbanized trading ports.
They exported raw materials in return for Indian, Islamic, and Chinese luxuries. As many as 30
towns flourished, their number including Mogadishu, Mombasa, Malindi, Kilwa, Pate, and
Zanzibar. From the 13th to the 15th century, Kilwa was the most important. All were tied
together by coastal commerce and by an inland caravan trade.
The Mixture of Cultures on the Swahili Coast. The expansion of Islamic influence in the
Indian Ocean facilitated commerce. It built a common bond between rulers and trading families
and allowed them to operate under the cover of a common culture. Apart from rulers and
merchants, most of the population, even in the towns, retained African beliefs. A dynamic
culture developed, using Swahili as its language, and incorporating African and Islamic
practices. Lineage passed through both maternal and paternal lines. There was not a significant
penetration of Islam into the interior.
109
Peoples of the Forest and Plains. Apart from the peoples of the savanna and eastern coast, by
1000 C.E. most Africans were following their own lines of development. Agriculture, herding,
and the use of iron implements were widespread. Some large and complex states formed; most
were preliterate and transmitted knowledge by oral methods.
In Depth: Two Transitions in the History of World Population. Even though determining the
size and structure of historical populations is very difficult, their study has become a valued tool
for better understanding the past. Demographic research presents an opportunity for uncovering
aspects of the politics and economy of past societies. Regular census taking became common
only in some societies during the 18th century. Until then, the human population grew slowly,
increasing as agriculture and other discoveries opened new resources. By 1750 C.E., the Earth
had about 500 million inhabitants. Premodern economies maintained a rough equality between
births and deaths, with most individuals not reaching the age of 35. Since 1750, with the onset
of the Industrial Revolution and other developments, a demographic transition, occurring first in
Europe, sent world population to more than 5 billion at the end of the 20th century.
Artists and Kings: Yoruba and Benin. In the central Nigerian forests, the Nok culture
flourished between 500 B.C.E. and 200 C.E. Its members developed a realistic art style; they
practiced agriculture and used iron tools. After the Nok disappeared, there was a long hiatus
before the reappearance of regional artistic traditions after 1000 C.E. Non-Bantu-speaking
peoples, the Yoruba, were highly urbanized agriculturists organized into small city-states, each
controlling a radius of about 50 miles. The city-states were under the authority of regional
divine kings presiding over elaborate courts. The kings’ power was limited by other societal
forces. At Oyo, for example, local lineages controlled provinces while paying tribute to the
ruler. In the capital, a council of state and a secret society advised the ruler. Ile-Ife was the
holiest Yoruba city; its subjects after 1200 created terra-cotta and bronze portrait heads that rank
among the greatest achievements of African art. Similar organizational patterns are found
among the Edo peoples to the east. They formed the city-state of Benin in the 14th century
under the ruler Ewuare. They ruled from the Niger River to the coast near Lagos. Benin’s artists
are renowned for their work in ivory and cast bronze.
Central African Kingdoms. By the 13th century C.E., Bantu speakers were approaching the
southern tip of Africa. By around 1000, they were forming states where kinship patterns were
replaced by political authority based on kingship. The Luba peoples, in Katanga, created a form
of divine kingship in which the ruler had powers ensuring the fertility of people and crops. A
hereditary bureaucracy formed to administer the state, thus allowing the integrating of many
people into one political unit.
The Kingdoms of the Kongo and Mwene Mutapa. The kingdom of the Kongo flourished
along the lower Congo River by the late 15th century. It was an agricultural society whose
people were skilled in weaving, potterymaking, blacksmithing, and carving. There was a sharp
gender division of labor: Women dominated crop cultivation and domestic tasks; men cleared the
forest, hunted, and traded. The population resided in small, family-based villages; the area
around the capital, Mbanza Kongo, by the 16th century included up to 100,000 people. A
hereditary central kingship ruled over local nonhereditary chiefs. The Kongo was a federation of
states grouped into eight major provinces. To the east, in central Africa, Shona-speaking peoples
in the region between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers by the 9th century began building royal
stone courts (zimbabwe). The largest, Great Zimbabwe, was the center of a state flourishing by
the 11th century. Massive stone buildings and walls were constructed. Its ruler, the Mwene
110
Mutapa, controlled a large territory reaching to the Indian Ocean. Zimbabwe dominated gold
sources and trade with coastal ports of the Indian Ocean network. Internal divisions split
Zimbabwe during the 16th century.
Global Connections: Internal Development and External Contacts. The spread of Islam had
brought large areas of Africa into the global community. The most pronounced contacts south of
the Sahara were in the Sudanic states and east Africa, where a fusion of Islamic and African
cultures created an important synthesis. Most of Africa evolved in regions free of Islamic
contact. In Benin, the Yoruba states, Great Zimbabwe, and the Kongo, Africans developed their
own concepts of kingship and the state. Many other Africans organized their lives in stateless
societies.
KEY TERMS
Stateless societies: Societies of varying sizes organized through kinship and lacking the
concentration of power found in centralized states.
Maghrib: Arabic term for western north Africa.
Almoravids: A puritanical Islamic reform movement among the Berbers of northwest Africa;
built an empire reaching from the African savanna into Spain.
Almohads: A later puritanical Islamic reform movement among the Berbers of northwest Africa;
also built an empire reaching from the African savanna into Spain.
Ethiopia: A Christian kingdom in the highlands of eastern Africa.
Lalibela: 13th-century Ethiopian ruler; built great rock churches.
Sahel: The extensive grassland belt at the southern edge of the Sahara; an exchange region
between the forests to the south and north Africa.
Sudanic states: States trading to north Africa and mixing Islamic and indigenous ways.
Mali: State of the Malinke people, centered between the Senegal and Niger rivers.
Juula: Malinke merchants who traded throughout the Mali Empire and west Africa.
Mansa: Title of the ruler of Mali.
Mansa Kankan Musa: Made a pilgrimage to Mecca during the 14th century that became
legendary because of the wealth distributed along the way.
Ishak al-Sahili: An architect who returned with Kankan Musa to Mali; created a distinctive
Sudanic architecture using beaten clay.
Sundiata: Created a unified state that became the Mali Empire; died in 1260.
111
Griots: Professional oral historians who served as keepers of traditions and advisors to kings.
Timbuktu: Niger River port city of Mali; had a famous Muslim university.
Songhay: Successor state to Mali; dominated middle reaches of the Niger valley; capital at Gao.
Muhammad the Great: Extended the boundaries of Songhay in the mid-16th century.
Hausa states: States, such as Kano, among the Hausa of northern Nigeria; combined Islamic and
indigenous beliefs.
Zenji: Arabic term for the people and coast of east Africa.
East African trading ports: Urbanized commercial centers mixing African and Arab cultures;
included Mogadishu, Mombasa, Malindi, Kilwa, Pate, Zanzibar.
Ibn Batuta: Muslim traveler who described African societies and cultures.
Demographic transition: The change from slow to rapid population growth; often associated
with industrialization; occurred first in Europe and is more characteristic of the “developed
world.”
Nok: Central Nigerian culture with a highly developed art style flourishing between 500 B.C.E.
and 200 C.E.
Yoruba: Highly urbanized Nigerian agriculturists organized into small city-states, as Oyo, under
the authority of regional divine kings presiding over elaborate courts.
Ile-Ife: The holiest Yoruba city; inhabitants created terra-cotta and bronze portrait heads that
rank among the greatest achievements of African art.
Benin: Nigerian city-state formed by the Edo people during the 14th century; famous for its
bronze art work.
Luba: Peoples in Katanga; created a form of divine kingship where the ruler had powers
ensuring fertility of people and crops.
Kongo Kingdom: Large agricultural state on the lower Congo River; capital at Mbanza Kongo.
Zimbabwe: Central African royal stone courts.
Great Zimbabwe: With massive stone buildings and walls, incorporates the greatest early
buildings in sub-Saharan Africa.
Mwene Mutapa: Ruler of Great Zimbabwe; controlled a large territory reaching to the Indian
Ocean.
Islamization: The spread of the Islamic faith across the Middle East, southwestern Asia, and
northern Africa.
112
Bantu migration: (100 C.E. – 900 C.E.) Group of people and associated language which
originated in Nigeria; migrated south over much of the African continent and made up a majority
of the African language groups.
Ifriqiya: Term used by the Romans for Africa.
Jihad: An Islamic term used for holy war waged to purify, spread, or protect the faith.
Axum: (1st-6th centuries C.E.) Developing in the Ethiopian highlands and traded with India and
the Mediterranean areas to gain Greek and Arabian cultural influences; conversion of the king to
Christianity in 350 C.E. laid the basis for Ethiopian Christian culture.
Ghana: Territory in east African north of the Senegal and Niger rivers; inhabited by the Soninke
people in the 5th century C.E.; Sonike called their ruler “Ghana,” thus was created the name of
the kingdom.
Juula: Malinke merchants who formed small partnerships and groups to carry out trade in west
Africa.
Sunni Ali Ber: (1464 – 1492) Ruler of Songhay who led forces to dominate the regions along
the Niger River; once conquering the region he presided over an efficient hierarchical
bureaucracy of ministers and advisors.
Caliph: Term meaning supreme ruler; used by Mohammad’s successors as secular and religious
heads of Islam.
Matrilineal: Designating of kinship through the mother.
Sharia: Codified Islamic law which is ethically based on the Qur’an and the Hadith.
LESSON SUGGESTIONS
Leader Analysis Sundiata, Ibn Batuta, Mansa Musa Peoples Analysis Various African societies
Change Analysis Arrival of Islam to Africa
Societal Comparison Compare: African Christian kingdoms, Sudanic states, North Africa,
East Africa, Central Africa
Document Analysis The Great Oral Tradition and the Epic of Sundiata
Inner/Outer Circle In Depth: Two Transitions in the History of World Population
122
CHAPTER 9
Civilization in Eastern Europe: Byzantium and Orthodox Europe
CHAPTER SUMMARY
In addition to the great civilizations of Asia and north Africa forming during the postclassical
period, two related major civilizations formed in Europe. The Byzantine Empire, in western
Asia and southeastern Europe, expanded into eastern Europe. The other was defined by the
influence of Catholicism in western and central Europe. The Byzantine Empire, with territory in
the Balkans, the Middle East, and the eastern Mediterranean, maintained very high levels of
political, economic, and cultural life between 500 and 1450 C.E. The empire continued many
Roman patterns and spread its Orthodox Christian civilization through most of eastern Europe,
Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. Catholic Christianity, without an imperial center, spread in
western Europe. Two separate civilizations emerged from the differing Christian influences.
The Byzantine Empire. The Byzantine Empire, once part of the greater Roman Empire,
continued flourishing from an eastern Mediterranean base after Roman decline. Although it
inherited and continued some of Rome’s patterns, the eastern Mediterranean state developed its
own form of civilization.
The Origins of the Empire. Emperor Constantine in the 4th century C.E. established a capital
at Constantinople. Separate emperors ruled from it even before Rome fell. Although Latin
served for a time as the court language, Greek became the official tongue after the 6th century.
The empire benefited from the high level of civilization in the former Hellenistic world and from
the region’s prosperous commerce. It held off barbarian invaders and developed a trained
civilian bureaucracy.
Justinian’s Achievements. In the 6th century, Justinian, with a secure base in the East,
attempted to reconquer western territory but without lasting success. The military efforts
weakened the empire as Slavs and Persians attacked frontiers, and they also created serious
financial pressures. Justinian rebuilt Constantinople in classical style; among the architectural
achievements was the huge church of Hagia Sophia. His codification of Roman law reduced
legal confusion in the empire. The code later spread Roman legal concepts throughout Europe.
Arab Pressure and the Empire’s Defenses. Justinian’s successors concentrated on the defense
of their eastern territories. The empire henceforth centered in the Balkans and western and
central Turkey, a location blending a rich Hellenistic culture with Christianity. The revived
empire withstood the 7th-century advance of Arab Muslims, although important regions were
lost along the eastern Mediterranean and the northern Middle Eastern heartland. The wars and
the permanent Muslim threat had significant cultural and commercial influences. The free rural
population, the provider of military recruits and taxes, was weakened. Aristocratic estates grew
larger, and aristocratic generals became stronger. The empire’s fortunes fluctuated as it resisted
pressures from the Arabs and Slavic kingdoms. Bulgaria was a strong rival, but Basil II defeated
and conquered it in the 11th century. At the close of the 10th century, the Byzantine emperor
may have been the strongest contemporary ruler.
Byzantine Society and Politics. Byzantine political patterns resembled the earlier Chinese
system. An emperor, ordained by God and surrounded by elaborate court ritual, headed both
123
church and state. Women occasionally held the throne. An elaborate bureaucracy supported the
imperial authority. The officials, trained in Hellenistic knowledge in a secular school system,
could be recruited from all social classes, although, as in China, aristocrats predominated.
Provincial governors were appointed from the center, and a spy system helped to preserve
loyalty. A careful military organization defended the empire. Troops were recruited locally and
given land in return for service. Outsiders, especially Slavs and Armenians, accepted similar
terms. Over time, hereditary military leaders developed regional power and displaced aristocrats
who were better educated. The empire socially and economically depended on Constantinople’s
control of the countryside. The bureaucracy regulated trade and food prices. Peasants supplied
the food and provided most tax revenues. The large urban class was kept satisfied by low food
prices. A widespread commercial network extended into Asia, Russia, Scandinavia, western
Europe, and Africa. Silk production techniques brought from China added a valuable product to
the luxury items exported. Despite the busy trade, the large merchant class never developed
political power. Cultural life centered on Hellenistic secular traditions and Orthodox
Christianity. Little artistic creativity resulted, except in art and architecture. Domed buildings,
colored mosaics, and painted icons expressed an art linked to religion.
The Split between Eastern and Western Christianity. Byzantine culture, political
organization, and economic orientation help to explain the rift between the eastern and western
versions of Christianity. Different rituals grew from Greek and Latin versions of the Bible.
Emperors resisted papal attempts to interfere in religious issues. Hostility greeted the effort of
the Frankish king, Charlemagne, to be recognized as Roman emperor. The final break between
the two churches occurred in 1054 over arguments about the type of bread used in the mass and
the celibacy of priests. Even though the two churches remained separate, they continued to share
a common classical heritage.
The Empire’s Decline. A long period of decline began in the 11th century. Muslim Turkish
invaders seized almost all of the empire’s Asian provinces, removing the most important sources
of taxes and food. The empire never recovered from the loss of its army at Manzikert in 1071.
Independent Slavic states appeared in the Balkans. An appeal for western European assistance
did not help the Byzantines. Crusaders, led by Venetian merchants, sacked Constantinople in
1204. Italian cities used their navies to secure special trading privileges. A smaller empire
struggled to survive for another two centuries against western Europeans, Muslims, and Slavic
kingdoms. In 1453, the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople.
The Spread of Civilization in Eastern Europe. The Byzantine Empire’s influence spread
among the people of the Balkans and southern Russia through conquest, commerce, and
Christianity. In the 9th century, missionaries Cyril and Methodius devised a written script,
Cyrillic, for the Slavic language, providing a base for literacy in eastern Europe. Unlike western
Christians, the Byzantines allowed the use of local languages in church services.
The East Central Borderlands. Both eastern and western Christian missionaries competed in
eastern Europe. Roman Catholics, and their Latin alphabet, prevailed in Czechoslovakia,
Hungary, and Poland. The region became a long-standing site of competition between the two
influences. A series of regional monarchies—Poland, Bohemia, Lithuania—with powerful
land-owning aristocracies developed. Eastern Europe also received an influx of Jews from the
Middle East and western Europe. They were often barred from agriculture but participated in
local commerce. They maintained their own traditions and emphasized education for males.
124
The Emergence of Kievan Rus’. Slavic peoples from Asia migrated into Russia and eastern
Europe during the period of the Roman Empire. They mixed with and incorporated earlier
populations. They possessed iron and extended agriculture in Ukraine and western Russia.
Political organization centered in family tribes and villages. The Slavs followed an animist
religion and had rich traditions of music and oral legends. Scandinavian traders during the 6th
and 7th centuries moved into the region along its great rivers and established a rich trade
between their homeland and Constantinople. Some traders won political control. A monarchy
emerged at Kiev around 855 under the legendary Danish merchant, Rurik. The loosely
organized state flourished until the 12th century. Kiev became a prosperous commercial center.
Contacts with the Byzantines resulted in the conversion of Vladimir I (980-1015) to Orthodox
Christianity. The ruler, on the Byzantine pattern, controlled church appointments. Kiev’s rulers
issued a formal law code. They ruled the largest single European state.
Institutions and Culture in Kievan Rus’. Kiev borrowed much from Byzantium, but it was
unable to duplicate its bureaucracy or education system. Cultural, social, and economic patterns
developed differently from the western European experience. Rulers favored Byzantine
ceremonials and the concept of a strong central ruler. Orthodox Christian practices entered
Russian culture—devotion to God’s power and to saints, ornate churches, icons, and
monasticism. Polygamy yielded to Christian monogamy. Almsgiving emphasized the obligation
of the wealthy toward the poor. Literature focused on religious and royal events, while art was
dominated by icon painting and illuminated religious manuscripts. Church architecture adapted
Byzantine themes to local conditions. Peasants were free farmers, and aristocratic landlords
(boyars) had less political power than similar Westerners.
Kievan Decline. Kievan decline began in the 12th century. Rival princes established competing
governments while the royal family quarreled over the succession. Asian invaders seized
territory as trade diminished because of Byzantine decay. The Mongol invasions of the 13th
century incorporated Russian lands into their territories. Mongol (Tatar) dominance further
separated Russia from western European developments. Commercial contacts lapsed. Russian
Orthodox Christianity survived because the tolerant Mongols did not interfere with Russian
religious beliefs or daily life as long as tribute was paid. Thus, when Mongol control ended in
the 15th century, a Russian cultural and political tradition incorporating the Byzantine
inheritance reemerged. The Russians claimed to be the successors to the Roman and Byzantine
states, the “third Rome.”
The End of an Era in Eastern Europe. With the Mongol invasions, the decline of Russia, and
the collapse of Byzantium, eastern Europe entered into a difficult period. Border territories, such
as Poland, fell under Western influence, while the Balkans fell to the Islamic world of the Turks.
Western and eastern Europe evolved separately, with the former pushing ahead in power and
cross-cultural sophistication.
In Depth: Eastern and Western Europe: The Problem of Boundaries. Determining where
individual civilizations begin and end is a difficult exercise. The presence of many rival units
and internal cultural differences complicates the question. If mainstream culture is used for
definition, Orthodox and Roman Catholic religion, each with its own alphabet, offers a logical
answer. Political organization is more complicated because of loosely organized regional
kingdoms. Commercial patterns and Mongol and Russian expansion also influenced cultural
identities.
125
Global Connections: Eastern Europe and the World. The Byzantine Empire was active in
interregional trade; Constantinople was one of the world’s great trading cities, and the empire
served as a link between northern Europe and the Mediterranean. When Byzantium declined and
the Mongols conquered Russia, a period of isolation began. By the 15th century, Russia began
to regain independence and faced decisions about how to re-engage with the West.
KEY TERMS
Justinian: 6th-century Byzantine emperor; failed to reconquer the western portions of the
empire; rebuilt Constantinople; codified Roman law.
Hagia Sophia: Great domed church constructed during the reign of Justinian.
Body of Civil Law: Justinian’s codification of Roman law; reconciled Roman edicts and
decisions; made Roman law a coherent basis for political and economic life.
Bulgaria: Slavic kingdom in the Balkans; put constant pressure on the Byzantine Empire;
defeated by Basil II in 1014.
Icons: Images of religious figures venerated by Byzantine Christians.
Iconoclasm: The breaking of images; religious controversy of the 8th century; Byzantine
emperor attempted, but failed, to suppress icon veneration.
Battle of Manzikert: Seljuk Turk victory in 1071 over Byzantium; resulted in loss of the
empire’s rich Anatolian territory.
Cyril and Methodius: Byzantine missionaries sent to convert eastern Europe and the Balkans;
responsible for creating the Slavic written script called Cyrillic.
Kiev: Commercial city in Ukraine established by Scandinavians in 9th century; became the
center for a kingdom that flourished until the 12th century.
Vladimir I: Ruler of Kiev (980-1015); converted kingdom to Orthodox Christianity.
Russian Orthodoxy: Russian form of Christianity brought from the Byzantine Empire.
Boyars: Russian landholding aristocrats; possessed less political power than their western
European counterparts.
Tatars: Mongols who conquered Russian cities during the 13th century; left Russian church and
aristocracy intact.
Byzantine Empire: (500 C.E. – 1453 C.E.) The eastern portion of the Roman Empire which
survived beyond the collapse of the Roman Empire with its capital at Constantinople; retained
Mediterranean culture, particularly Greek; later lost Palestine, Syria, and Egypt to Islam.
Constantinople: Capital of the Byzantine Empire; constructed on the site of Byzantium, an old
Greek city on the Bosporus.
126
Orthodox Christian Church: Eastern church which was created in 1053 after the schism from
the western Roman church; its head is the patriarch of Constantinople.
Constantine: (312 – 337) Strong emperor toward the end of the Roman Empire who tried with
some success to reverse the tide of its ultimate fall. Constantine moved the capital away from
Rome to Constantinople and allowed freedom of worship for Christians with the Edict of Milan.
Huns: Group of nomadic tribes that pushed through central Europe in the 4th and 5th centuries
C.E., instigating the migration of the Germanic tribes into the Roman Empire.
Sassanian Empire: (227 – 651) Persian Empire which continued Persian traditions but
instituted the Zoroastrian religion as the state religion.
Procopius: Historian of the Byzantine Empire who in his Secret History revealed the cruelty of
the autocratic system in which the emperor ruled by divine providence.
Hellenistic culture: After Alexander’s death, Greek art, education, and culture merged with
those in the Middle East. Trade and important scientific centers were established, such as
Alexandria, Egypt.
Greek fire: incendiary material used by the Byzantines described as able to burn in water.
Tsar: Term used for the emperors of the Russia; literally means Caesar.
Cyrillic alphabet: Alphabet named after Saint Cyril who used it to help convert the Slavs to
Christianity.
Rurik: Legendary Scandinavian regarded as founder of the first kingdom of Russia based in
Kiev in 855 C.E.
LESSON SUGGESTIONS
Leader Analysis Justinian, Theodora
Peoples Analysis Byzantines, early Russians
Conflict Analysis Arab incursions, Catholicism and Orthodoxy
Change Analysis Byzantine Empire: 565-1200
Societal Comparison Byzantine Empire and early Russia
Document Analysis Russia Turns to Christianity Dialectical Journal The Problem of Boundaries between Eastern and Western Europe
135
CHAPTER 10
A New Civilization Emerges in Western Europe
CHAPTER SUMMARY
The postclassical period in western Europe, known as the Middle Ages, stretches between the
fall of the Roman Empire and the 15th century. Typical postclassical themes prevailed.
Civilization spread gradually beyond the Mediterranean zone. Christian missionaries converted
Europeans from polytheistic faiths. Medieval Europe participated in the emerging international
community. New tools and crops expanded agricultural output; advanced technologies improved
manufacturing. Mathematics, science, and philosophy were stimulated by new concepts.
Two Images. Although western European society was not as commercially or culturally
developed as the great world civilizations, it had its own distinctive characteristics. Western
political structures had many similarities with those of the other more recent civilizations of
Japan, Russia, and sub-Saharan Africa. Europeans long lived under the threat of incursions from
the stronger Islamic world. There were many indications of a developing, vital society:
population growth, economic productivity, increased political complexity, technological
innovation, and artistic and intellectual complexity. Major contributions to the development of
Western civilization occurred in politics and social structure; in intellectual life, medieval
striving produced the university and Gothic architectural forms.
Stages of Postclassical Development. From the middle of the 6th century C.E. until about 900,
disorder prevailed in western Europe. Rome’s fall left Italy in economic, political, and
intellectual decline. The Catholic church remained strong. Muslim-controlled Spain maintained
a vibrant intellectual and economic life but only later influenced European development. The
center of the postclassical West was in France, the Low Countries, and southern and western
Germany. England later joined the core. Continual raids by Scandinavian Vikings hindered
political and economic development. Intellectual activity sharply diminished; most literate
individuals were Catholic monks and priests.
The Manorial System: Obligations and Allegiances. Until the 10th century, most political
organization was local. Manorialism was a system of reciprocal economic and political
obligations between landlords and peasants. Most individuals were serfs living on self-sufficient
agricultural estates (manors). In return for protection, they gave lords part of their crops and
provided labor services. Inferior technology limited agricultural output until the 9th-century
introduction of the moldboard plow and the three-field cultivation system increased yields. Serfs
bore many burdens, but they were not slaves. They had heritable ownership of houses and land
as long as they met obligations. Peasant villages provided community life and limited self-
government.
The Church: Political and Spiritual Power. The Catholic church in the first centuries after
500 was the single example of firm organization. The popes headed a hierarchy based on the
Roman imperial model; they appointed some bishops, regulated doctrine, and sponsored
missionary activity. The conversion of Germanic kings, such as Clovis of the Franks, around
496, demonstrated the spiritual and political power of the church. It also developed the monastic
movement. In Italy, Benedict of Nursia created the most important set of monastic rules in the
6th century. Monasteries had both spiritual and secular functions. They promoted Christian
136
unity, served as examples of holy life, improved cultivation techniques, stressed productive
work, and preserved the heritage of Greco-Roman culture.
Charlemagne and His Successors. The Carolingian dynasty of the Franks ruling in France,
Belgium, and Germany grew stronger during the 8th century. Charles Martel defeated Muslim
invaders at Tours in 732. Charlemagne built a substantial empire by 800. He helped to restore
church-based education and revived traditions of Roman imperial government. The empire did
not survive Charlemagne’s death in 814. His sons divided the territory and later rulers lacked
talent. Subsequent political history was marked by regional monarchies existing within a
civilization with strong cultural unity initially centered on Catholic Christianity. French,
German, English, and other separate languages emerged, providing a beginning for national
identity. The rulers reigning in Germany and northern Italy initially were the strongest; they
called themselves Holy Roman emperors, but they failed to create a solid monarchy. Local lords
and city-states went their own way.
New Economic and Urban Vigor. During the 9th and 10th centuries, new agricultural
techniques—the moldboard plow, the three-field system—significantly increased production.
Horse collars, also useful for agriculture, and stirrups confirmed lordly dominance. Viking
incursions diminished as the raiders seized territorial control or regional governments became
stronger. Both factors allowed population growth and encouraged economic innovation.
Expanding towns emerged as regional trade centers with a merchant class and craft production.
The need for more food led to colonization to develop new agricultural land. The demand for
labor resulted in less harsh conditions for serfs. The growing urban centers increased the spread
of literacy, revitalized popular culture, and stimulated religious life. By the 11th century,
cathedral schools evolved into universities. Students studied medicine and law; later theology
and philosophy became important disciplines. Art and architecture reached new peaks.
Feudal Monarchies and Political Advances. From the 6th century, feudalism, a system of
political and military relationships, evolved in western Europe. Military elites of the landlord
class could afford horses and iron weapons. The greater lords provided protection to lesser lords
(vassals) who in return supplied military and other service. Feudal relationships first served
local needs, but they later were extended to cover larger regions. Charlemagne acted in that
fashion. Later rulers, notably the Capetian kings of France from the 10th century, used
feudalism to evolve from regional lords to rulers controlling a larger territory. In their feudal
monarchy, they began bureaucratic administration and specialization of official functions.
William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066 and merged feudal techniques with a more
centralized government. Royal officials, sheriffs, supervised local justice. The growth of feudal
monarchies independently duplicated measures followed in other centralizing societies.
Limited Government. Western Europe remained politically divided. The Holy Roman
Empire’s territories in Germany and Italy were controlled by local lords and city-states. The
pope ruled in central Italy. Regional units prevailed in the Low Countries. In strong feudal
monarchies, power was limited by the church, aristocratic military strength, and developing
urban centers. King John of England in 1215 was forced to recognize feudal rights in the Magna
Carta. Parliaments, bodies representing privileged groups, emerged in Catalonia in 1000. In
England a parliament, operating from 1265, gained the right to rule on taxation and related
policy matters. Most members of societies were not represented, but the creation of
representative bodies was the beginning of a distinctive political process not present in other
civilizations. Despite the checks, European rulers made limited progress in advancing central
137
authority. Their weakness was demonstrated by local wars turning into larger conflicts, such as
the Hundred Years War of the 14th century between the French and English.
The West’s Expansionist Impulse. The ongoing political and economic changes spurred
European expansion beyond initial postclassical borders. From the 11th century, Germanic
knights and agricultural settlers changed the population and environmental balance in eastern
Germany and Poland. In Spain and Portugal, small Christian states in the 10th century began the
reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula from Muslims. Viking voyagers crossed the Atlantic to
Iceland, Greenland, and Canada. The most dramatic expansion occurred during the Crusades
against Muslims in the Holy Land. Pope Urban II called the first in 1095. Christian warriors
seeking salvation and spoils established kingdoms in the Holy Land enduring into the 13th
century. Their presence helped to expose Europeans to cultural and economic influences from
Byzantium and Islam.
Religious Reform and Evolution. The Catholic church went through several periods of decline
and renewal. The church’s wealth and power often led its officials to become preoccupied with
secular matters. Monastic orders and popes from the 11th century worked to reform the church.
Leaders, such as St. Francis and St. Clare, both from Assisi, purified monastic orders and gave
new spiritual vigor to the church. Pope Gregory VII attempted to free the church from secular
interference by stipulating that priests remain unmarried and that bishops not be appointed by the
state. Independent church courts developed to rule on religious concerns.
The High Middle Ages. Postclassical Western civilization reached its high point during the
12th and 13th centuries. Creative tensions among feudal political forms, emerging monarchies,
and the authority of the church produced major changes in political, religious, intellectual, social,
and economic life.
Western Culture in the Postclassical Era. Christianity was the clearest unifying cultural
element in western Europe, even though it changed as European society matured.
Theology: Assimilating Faith and Reason. Before 1000 C.E., a few church members had
attempted to preserve and interpret the ideas of earlier thinkers, especially Aristotle and
Augustine. The efforts gradually produced a fuller understanding of the past, particularly in
philosophy, rhetoric, and logic. After 1000, the process went to new levels. Absolute faith in
God’s word was stressed, but it was held that human reason contributed to the understanding of
religion and the natural order. Peter Abelard in 12th-century Paris used logic to demonstrate
contradictions in doctrine. Many church leaders opposed such endeavors and emphasized the
role of faith for understanding religious mysteries. St. Bernard of Clairvaux successfully
challenged Abelard and stressed the importance of mystical union with God. The debates
matched similar tensions within Islam concerning philosophical and scientific traditions. In
Europe, there were increasing efforts to bridge this gap. By the 12th century, the debate
flourished in universities, opening intellectual avenues not present in other civilizations. In
China, for example, a single path was followed. The European universities produced men for
clerical and state bureaucracies, but they also motivated a thirst for knowledge from other past
and present civilizations. By the 13th century, Western thinkers had created a synthesis of
medieval learning. St. Thomas Aquinas of Paris in his Summas held that faith came first but that
human reason allowed a greater understanding of natural order, moral law, and the nature of
138
God. Although scholasticism deteriorated after Thomas, it had opened new paths for human
understanding. Medieval philosophy did not encourage scientific endeavor, but a few scholars,
such as Roger Bacon, did important experimental work in optics and other fields.
Popular Religion. Although we do not know much about popular beliefs, Christian devotion
ran deep within individuals. The rise of cities encouraged the formation of lay groups. The cults
of the Virgin Mary and sundry saints demonstrated a need for intermediaries between people and
God. Pagan practices endured and blended into Christianity.
Religious Themes in Art and Literature. Christian art and architecture reflected both popular
and formal themes. Religious ideas dominated painting, with the early stiff and stylized figures
changing by the 14th and 15th centuries to more realistic portrayals that included secular scenes.
Architecture followed Roman models. A Romanesque style had rectangular buildings
surmounted by domes. During the 11th century, the Gothic style appeared, producing soaring
spires and arched windows requiring great technical skills. Literature and music equally
reflected religious interest. Latin writings dealt with philosophy, law, and politics. Vernacular
literature developed, incorporating themes from the past, such as the English Beowulf and the
French Song of Roland. Contemporary secular themes were represented in Chaucer’s
Canterbury Tales. Courtly poets (troubadours) in 14th-century southern France portrayed
courtly love.
Changing Economic and Social Forms in the Postclassical Centuries. Apart from the cultural
cement formed by the Catholic church, Western society had other common features in economic
activity and social structure. The postclassical West demonstrated great powers of innovation.
When trade revived in the 10th century, the West became a kind of common commercial zone as
merchants moved commodities from one region to another.
New Strains in Rural Life. Agricultural improvements after 800 C.E. allowed some peasants to
shake off the most severe manorial constraints. Noble landlords continued their military
functions but used trade to improve their living styles. The more complex economy increased
landlord-peasant tensions. From then until the 19th century, there were recurring struggles
between the two groups. Peasants wanted more freedom and control of land, while landlords
wanted higher revenues. In general, peasant conditions improved and landlord controls
weakened. Although agriculture remained technologically backward when compared with that
in other societies, it had surpassed previous levels.
Growth of Trade and Banking. Urban growth promoted more specialized manufacturing and
commerce. Banking was introduced by Italian businessmen. The use of money spread rapidly.
Large trading and banking operations clearly were capitalistic. Europeans traded with other
world regions, particularly via Italian Mediterranean merchants, for luxury goods and spices.
Within Europe, raw materials and manufactured items were exchanged. Cities in northern
Germany and southern Scandinavia formed the Hanseatic League to encourage commerce.
European traders, although entering into many economic pursuits as demonstrated in the 15th-
century career of Jacques Coeur, still generally remained less venturesome and wealthy than
their Islamic counterparts. The weakness of western governments allowed merchants a freer
hand than in many civilizations. Cities were ruled by commercial leagues, and rulers allied with
them against the aristocracy. Apart from taxation and borrowing, governments left merchants
alone, allowing them to gain an independent role in society. Most peasants and landlords were
not enmeshed in a market system. In cities, the characteristic institution was the merchant or
139
artisan guild. Guilds grouped people in similar occupations, regulated apprenticeships,
maintained good workmanship, and discouraged innovations. They played an important political
and social role in cities. Manufacturing and commercial methods in Europe improved, but they
did not attain Asian levels in ironmaking and textile production. Only in a few areas, such as
clock making, did they take the lead. By the late Middle Ages, the western medieval economy
contained contradictory elements. Commercial and capitalistic trends jostled the slower rural
economy and guild protectionism.
Limited Sphere for Women. As elsewhere, increasing complexity of social and economic life
limited women’s roles. Women’s work remained vital to families. Christian emphasis on
spiritual equality remained important, while female monastic groups offered a limited alternative
to marriage. Veneration of the Virgin Mary and other female religious figures provided positive
role models for women. Still, even though women were less restricted than those within Islam,
they lost ground. They were increasingly hemmed in by male-dominated organizations. By the
close of the Middle Ages, patriarchal structures were firmly established.
The Decline of the Medieval Synthesis. After 1300, postclassical Western civilization
declined. A major war embroiled France and England during the 14th and 15th centuries. The
sporadic fighting spread economic distress and demonstrated the weaknesses of the feudal order.
At the same time, key sources of Western vitality degenerated. Agriculture could not keep up
with population growth. Famines followed. Further losses came from the Black Death in 1348
and succeeding plagues. Tensions between landlord and peasants, and artisans and their
employees, intensified.
Signs of Strain. There were increasing challenges to medieval institutions. The land-owning
aristocracy, the ruling class, lost its military role as professional armies and new weapons
transformed warfare. Aristocrats retreated into a ceremonial style of life emphasizing chivalry.
The balance of power between church and state shifted in favor of the state. As the church
leaders struggled to retain secular authority, they lost touch with individual believers who turned
to popular religious currents emphasizing direct experience of God. Intellectual and artistic
synthesis also declined. Church officials became less tolerant of intellectual boldness and
retreated from Aquinas’ blend of rationalism and religion. In art, styles became more realistic.
In Depth: Western Civilization. Western civilization is hard to define, since the classical
Mediterraneans did not directly identify what “Western” was and because of the lack of political
unity in Western Europe in the postclassical era. However, western Europeans certainly would
have recognized Christianity as a common element. The rapid spread of universities and trade
patterns increasingly joined much of western Europe. Furthermore, defining Western
civilization is complicated because Europe borrowed so much from Asian civilizations.
The Postclassical West and Its Heritage. The Middle Ages has been regarded as a backward
period between the era of Greece and Rome and the vigorous new civilization of the 15th
century. This view neglects the extent of medieval creativity. Much of Europe had not
previously been incorporated into a major civilization. Europeans, for the first time, were
building appropriate institutions and culture. Medieval thinkers linked classical rationalism
within a strong Christian framework. Classical styles were preserved but were surpassed by new
expressive forms. Medieval economics and politics established firm foundations for the future.
Western European civilization shared many attributes with other emerging regions; among its
distinctive aspects was an aggressive interest in the wider world.
140
Global Connections: Medieval Europe and the World. Western Europe in the Middle Ages
had a love-hate relationship with the world around it. Early on, Europe seemed threatened by
Vikings, Asian nomads, and Islam. At the same time, Europeans actively copied many features
from Islam and traded with Asians. Through selective acceptance of benefits from the world
around them, this civilization developed a global awareness.
KEY TERMS
Middle Ages: The period in western European history between the fall of the Roman Empire
and the 15th century.
Gothic: An architectural style developed during the Middle Ages in western Europe; featured
pointed arches and flying buttresses as external support on main walls.
Vikings: Seagoing Scandinavian raiders who disrupted coastal areas of Europe from the 8th to
11th centuries; pushed across the Atlantic to Iceland, Greenland, and North America.
Manorialism: System of economic and political relations between landlords and their peasant
laborers during the Middle Ages; involved a hierarchy of reciprocal obligations that exchanged
labor for access to land.
Serfs: Peasant agricultural laborers within the manorial system.
Moldboard: Heavy plow introduced in northern Europe during the Middle Ages; permitted
deeper cultivation of heavier soils.
Three-field system: One-third of the land left unplanted each year to increase fertility.
Clovis: King of the Franks; converted to Christianity circa 496.
Carolingians: Royal house of the Franks from the 8th to the 10th centuries.
Charles Martel: Carolingian monarch of the Franks; defeated Muslims at Tours in 732.
Charlemagne: Carolingian monarch who established a large empire in France and Germany
circa 800.
Holy Roman emperors: Rulers in northern Italy and Germany following the breakup of
Charlemagne’s empire; claimed title of emperor but failed to develop centralized monarchy.
Feudalism: Relationships among the military elite during the Middle Ages; greater lords
provided protection to lesser lords in return for military service.
Vassals: Members of the military elite who received land or a benefice from a lord in return for
military service and loyalty.
141
Capetians: French dynasty ruling from the 10th century; developed a strong feudal monarchy.
William the Conqueror: Invaded England from Normandy in 1066; established tight feudal
system and centralized monarchy in England.
Magna Carta: Great Charter issued by King John of England in 1215; confirmed feudal rights
against monarchical claims; represented principle of mutual limits and obligations between rulers
and feudal aristocracy.
Parliaments: Bodies representing privileged groups; institutionalized the feudal principle that
rulers should consult their vassals.
Hundred Years War: Conflict between England and France (1337-1453).
Pope Urban II: Called First Crusade in 1095; appealed to Christians to free the Holy Land from
Muslim control.
St. Clare of Assisi: 13th-century founder of a women’s monastic order; represented a new spirit
of purity and dedication to the Catholic church.
Gregory VII: 11th-century pope who attempted to free the Catholic church from interference of
feudal lords; quarreled with Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV over the practice of lay investiture
of bishops.
Peter Abelard: Author of Yes and No; a university scholar who applied logic to problems of
theology; demonstrated logical contradictions within established doctrine.
St. Bernard of Clairvaux: Emphasized role of faith in preference to logic; stressed importance
of mystical union with God; successfully challenged Abelard and had him driven from the
universities.
Thomas Aquinas: Creator of one of the great syntheses of medieval learning; taught at
University of Paris; author of Summas; believed that through reason it was possible to know
much about natural order, moral law, and the nature of God.
Scholasticism: Dominant medieval philosophical approach, so called because of its base in the
schools or universities; based on the use of logic to resolve theological problems.
Troubadours: Poets in 14th-century southern France; gave a new value to the emotion of love
in the Western tradition.
Hanseatic League: An organization of north German and Scandinavian cities for the purpose of
establishing a commercial alliance.
Jacques Coeur: 15th-century French merchant; his career demonstrates new course of medieval
commerce.
142
Guilds: Associations of workers in the same occupation in a single city; stressed security and
mutual control; limited membership, regulated apprenticeship, guaranteed good workmanship,
discouraged innovations; often established franchise within cities.
Black Death: Plague that struck Europe in the 14th century; significantly reduced Europe’s
population; affected social structure.
Roman Catholic church: Church established in western Europe during the Roman Empire and
the Middle Ages with its head being the bishop of Rome or pope.
Pope: Meaning papa or father; bishop of Rome and head of Catholic church.
Franks: One of the principal tribes of the Germanic peoples; settled in area of France during the
folk migrations of the 4th and 5th centuries.
Benedict of Nursia: (480 – 550) Italian abbot who founded the monastery at Monte Cassino and
the Benedictine order based on his teachings.
Three estates: The three social groups considered most powerful in Western countries; church,
nobles, and urban leaders.
Ferdinand and Isabella: King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile married in
1469 to bring the kingdoms of Spain together to complete the reconquest of Spain from the
Muslims.
First Crusade: (1096 – 1099) Crusade called by Pope Urban II which captured Jerusalem.
Third Crusade: (1189 – 1192) Crusade led by King Richard the Lionhearted to recapture the
city of Jerusalem from Islamic forces led by Saladin; failed in attempt.
Fourth Crusade: (1202 – 1204) Crusade which by a strange series of events attacked and
sacked Constantinople.
Francis of Assisi: (1181 – 1226) Son of wealthy merchant; he renounced his wealth and chose a
harsh life of poverty; later founded the Holy Order of St. Francis.
Investiture: A formal conferring of power to clergy usually with robes or other Christian
symbols.
Augustine of Hippo: (354 – 430) Bishop of Hippo who wrote Confessions and City of God,
which formed the basis for the doctrine of man’s salvation by divine grace for the church.
Roger Bacon: (1214 – 1292) English philosopher and scientist who withdrew from medieval
scholasticism and focused on experimental science; influenced later thinkers of the
Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution.
Geoffrey Chaucer: English author who wrote The Canterbury Tales, a literary masterpiece
written in the vernacular in which pilgrims were going to worship at the shrine of Thomas
Becket at Canterbury.
153
153
CHAPTER 11
The Americas on the Eve of Invasion
CHAPTER SUMMARY
American societies during the postclassical era remained isolated from other civilizations. The
societies continued to show great diversity, but there were continuities. American civilizations
were marked by elaborate cultural systems, highly developed agriculture, and large urban and
political units. Columbus’s mistaken designation of the inhabitants of the Americas as Indians
implies a nonexistent common identity. The great diversity of cultures requires concentration on
a few major civilizations, the great imperial states of Mesoamerica (central Mexico) and the
Andes, plus a few other independently developing peoples.
Postclassical Mesoamerica, 1000-1500 C.E. The collapse of Teotihuacan and the abandonment
of Mayan cities in the 8th century C.E. was followed by significant political and cultural
changes. The nomadic Toltecs built a large empire in central Mexico. They established a capital
at Tula in about 968 and adopted many cultural features from sedentary peoples. Later peoples
thought of the militaristic Toltecs as givers of civilization. The Aztecs organized an equally
impressive successor state.
The Toltec Heritage. The Toltecs created a large empire reaching beyond central Mexico.
Around 1000, they extended their rule to Yucatan and the former Mayan regions. Toltec
commercial influence extended northward as far as the American Southwest, and perhaps to
Hopewell peoples of the Mississippi and Ohio valleys. Many cultural similarities exist, but no
Mexican artifacts have been found.
The Aztec Rise to Power. Northern nomadic invasions probably caused the collapse of the
Toltec Empire around 1150. The center of population and political power shifted to the valley
of Mexico and its large chain of lakes. A dense population used the water for agriculture,
fishing, and transportation. The region became the cultural heartland of postclassical Mexico.
It was divided politically into many small competing units. The militant Aztecs (Mexica)
migrated to the region during the early 14th century and initially served the indigenous
inhabitants as allies or mercenaries. Around 1325 they founded the cities of Tenochtitlan and
Tlatelolco on lake islands. By 1434, the Aztecs had become the dominant regional power.
The Aztec Social Contract. The Aztecs were transformed by the process of expansion and
conquest from an association of clans to a stratified society under a powerful ruler. Central to
the changes was Tlacaelel, an important official serving rulers between 1427 and 1480. The
Aztecs developed a self-image as a people chosen to serve the gods. The long-present religious
practice of human sacrifice was greatly expanded. The military class had a central role as
suppliers of war captives for sacrifice. The rulers used sacrifice as an effective means of
political terror. By the time of Moctezuma II, the ruler, with civil and religious power,
dominated the state.
154
154
Religion and the Ideology of Conquest. In the Aztec religion, little distinction was made
between the world of the gods and the natural order. Hundreds of male and female gods
representing rain, fire, etc., were worshiped. They can be arranged into three major divisions.
The first included gods of fertility, the agricultural cycle, maize, and water. The second group
centered on creator deities: Tonatiuh, warrior god of the sun, and Tezcatlipoca, god of the night
sky, were among the most powerful. The third division had the gods of warfare and sacrifice,
among them Huitzilopochtli, the tribal patron. He became the paramount deity and was
identified with the old sun god; he drew strength from the sacrifice of human lives. The Aztecs
expanded the existing Mesoamerican practice of human sacrifice to an unprecedented scale.
Symbolism and ritual, including ritual cannibalism, accompanied the sacrifices. The balance
between sacrifice motivated by religion and sacrifice motivated by terror is still under debate.
The Aztecs had other religious concerns besides sacrifice. They had a complex mythology that
explained the birth and history of the gods and their relation to humans. Religious symbolism
infused all aspects of life. The Aztecs had a cyclical, fatalistic view of history; they believed
the world had been destroyed before and, despite the sacrifices, would be destroyed again.
Feeding the People: The Economy of the Empire. Feeding the Aztec confederation depended
both on traditional agricultural forms and innovations. Conquered peoples lost land and gave
food as tribute. In and around the lake, the Aztecs developed a system of irrigated agriculture.
They built chinampas, artificial floating islands, that permitted the harvesting of high-yield
multiple yearly crops. Aztec peasant production and tribute supplied the basic foods. Clans in
each community apportioned land among people, nobles, and temples. There were periodic
markets for exchange. The great daily market at Tlatelolco was controlled by a merchant class
(pochteca) that specialized in long-distance luxury item trade. The Aztecs had a state-
controlled mixed economy: tribute, markets, commodity use, and distribution were highly
regulated.
Aztec Society in Transition. The society of the expanding Aztec Empire became increasingly
hierarchical. Calpulli organization survived, but different social classes appeared. Tribute from
subject peoples was not enough to maintain the large Aztec population.
Widening Social Gulf. By the sixteenth century, the seven original calpulli had expanded from
kinship groups to become residential groupings including neighbors, allies, and dependents.
The calpulli performed vital local functions in distributing land and labor and maintaining
temples and schools. During wars, they organized military units. Calpulli were governed by
councils of family heads, but all families were not equal. During Aztec expansion, a class of
nobility (pipiltin) had emerged from privileged families in the most distinguished calpulli. The
nobles controlled the military and priesthood. Military virtues infused all society and were
linked to the cult of sacrifice; they justified the nobility’s predominance. Death in battle
ensured eternal life, a reward also going to women dying in childbirth. The social gulf
separating nobles from commoners widened. Social distinctions were formalized by giving the
pipiltin special clothes and symbols of rank. The imperial family members were the most
distinguished of the pipiltin. A new class of workers resembling serfs was created to serve on
the nobility’s private lands. They held a status above slaves. Other groups, scribes, artisans,
and healers, constituted an intermediate social group in the larger cities. Long-distance
merchants had their own calpulli, but restrictions blocked their entry into the nobility.
155
155
Overcoming Technological Constraints. Aztec women had a variety of roles. Peasant
women helped in the fields, but their primary work was in the household; skill in weaving was
highly esteemed. Elder women trained young girls. Marriages were arranged between lineages,
and female virginity was important. Polygamy existed among the nobility; peasants were
monogamous. Women inherited and passed on property, but in political and social life they
were subordinate to men. Mesoamerican New World technology limited social development,
especially for women, when compared with that in other cultures. The absence of milling
technology meant that women spent many hours daily in grinding maize by hand for household
needs. The total Aztec population may have reached more than 20 million.
A Tribute Empire. Each of the Aztec city-states was ruled by a speaker chosen from the
nobility. The ruler of Tenochtitlan, the Great Speaker, surpassed all others in wealth and power.
He presided over an elaborate court. A prime minister, usually a close relative of the ruler, had
tremendous power. There was a governing council, but it lacked real power. During the first
100 years of Aztec expansion, a powerful nobility and emperor had taken over authority
formerly held by calpulli. Military virtues became supreme as the state religion, and the desire
for more tribute and captives for sacrifice drove the Aztecs to further conquests. The empire
was not integrated; defeated local rulers often remained in place as subordinate officials. They
were left alone if tribute and labor obligations were met. Revolts against the exactions were
ruthlessly suppressed. The Aztec system was successful because it aimed at political
domination and not direct control. In the long run, the growing social stresses created by the
rise of the pipiltin and the terror and tribute imposed on subjects contributed to the empire’s
collapse.
Twantinsuyu: World of the Incas. During the period following the disintegration of the states
of Tihuanaco and Huari (c.550-1000 C.E.) smaller regional states exercised power in the Andes.
Some of them were centers of agricultural activity and population density. The considerable
warfare among the states resembled the post-Toltec period in Mesoamerica. The state of
Chimor (900-1465) emerged as most powerful, controlling most of the north coast of Peru.
After 1300, the Incas developed a new civilization.
The Inca Rise to Power. In the southern Andean highlands, many groups fought for
supremacy. Quechua-speaking clans (ayllus) around Cuzco won control of territory formerly
under Huari. By 1438, under Pachacuti, they began campaigns ending with their control of the
region. Pachacuti’s son, Topac Yupanqui (1471-1493), conquered Chimor and extended Inca
rule into Ecuador and Chile. Huayna Capac (1493-1527) consolidated the conquests; by his
death, the Inca Empire—Twantinsuyu—stretched from Colombia to Chile, and eastward to
Bolivia and Argentina. From nine to 13 million people were under Inca rule.
Conquest and Religion. The Inca had other reasons for expansion besides the desire for
economic gain and political power. They adopted from Chimor the practice of “split
inheritance”: all of a ruler’s political power went to the successor, while all wealth and land
passed to male descendants for the eternal support of the cult of the dead ruler’s mummy. The
system created a justification for endless expansion. Inca political and social life was infused
with religious meaning. The sun was the highest deity; the ruler (Inca) was the god’s
representative on earth. The Temple of the Sun at Cuzco was the center of state religion. The
sun cult spread throughout the empire, but the worship of local gods continued. Popular belief
156
156
was based on a profound animism that endowed natural phenomena with spiritual power.
Prayers and sacrifices were offered at holy shrines (huacas), which were organized into
groupings under the authority of ayllus. The temples were served by priests and women
dedicated to preparing the sacrifices and managing important festivals and celebrations.
The Techniques of Inca Imperial Rule. The Inca, considered virtually a god, ruled the empire
from Cuzco. It also was the site of the major temple. The empire was divided into four
provinces, each under a governor. The Incas had a bureaucracy in which most of the nobility
served. Local rulers (curacas) continued in office in return for loyalty. They were exempt from
tribute and received labor or produce from their subjects. Their sons were educated in Cuzco.
The Quechua language, the use of colonists (mitmaqs), and the forced transfer of peoples were
important techniques for integrating the empire. A complex system of roads, bridges, and
causeways, with way stations (tambos) and storehouses, helped military movement. Conquered
peoples supplied land and labor. They served in the military and received rewards from new
conquests. The Inca state organized building and irrigation projects beyond the capabilities of
subject peoples. In return, tribute and loyalty were required. All local resources were taken and
redistributed: there were lands for the people, the state, and religion. Labor on state and
religious land was demanded rather than tribute in kind. Women had to weave cloth for the
court and religious use. Some women were taken as concubines for the Inca or as temple
servants. Each community was controlled by the ayllus and aimed at self-sufficiency. Most
men were peasants and herders. Women worked in the household, wove cloth, and aided in
agriculture. Since Andean people recognized parallel descent, property passed in both lines.
Even though an ideology of complementarity of the sexes was strong, the emphasis on military
virtue made men dominant. The idea of gender cooperation was reflected in cosmology. Gods
and goddesses were venerated by both sexes, though women had a special feeling for the moon
and the fertility goddesses of the Earth and corn. The ruler’s senior wife was a link to the
moon. Still, male power within the empire showed in the selection of women for state and
temple purposes. The integration of imperial policy with regional diversity was a political
achievement. Reciprocity between the state and local community allowed the empire to
function efficiently. Within the system, the Inca nobility had many privileges and were
distinguished by dress and custom. There was no distinct merchant class because of the
emphasis on self-sufficiency and state management of the economy. The state remained strong
until it lost control of its subject peoples and government mechanisms. Royal multiple
marriages used to forge alliances eventually created rival claimants for power and civil war.
In Depth: The “Troubling” Civilizations of the Americas. European concepts of civilization
did not match with the practices of American Indians. Judging a civilization different from
one’s own is always a complex proceeding. While some condemn Aztec sacrifice, others
romanticize the Indian past. The arguments about the possible existence of Inca socialism or
the nature of Aztec religion are examples. Moral judgment is probably inevitable, but students
of history must strive to understand a people’s practices in the context of their own time and
culture.
Inca Cultural Achievements. The Inca produced beautiful pottery and cloth. Their metallurgy
was among the most advanced in the Americas. They lacked the wheel and a writing system,
instead using knotted strings (quipu) for accounts and enumeration. The peak of Inca genius
157
157
was in statecraft and architecture. They constructed great stone buildings, agricultural terraces,
irrigation projects, and road systems.
Comparing Incas and Aztecs. Both empires were based on the long development of
civilizations that preceded them. They excelled in imperial and military organization. The two
were based on intensive agriculture organized by the state; goods were redistributed to groups
or social classes. The Aztecs and Incas transformed an older kinship system into a hierarchical
one in which the nobility predominated. In both, the nobility was the personnel of the state.
Although the Incas tried to integrate their empire as a unit, both empires recognized local ethnic
groups and political leaders in return for loyalty. The Aztecs and Incas found their military
power less effective against nomadic frontier people; their empires were based on conquest and
exploitation of sedentary peoples. There were considerable differences between Incas and
Aztecs, many of them the result of climate and geography. Trade and markets were more
developed among the Aztecs. Other differences were present in metallurgy, writing systems,
and social definition and hierarchy. In the context of world civilizations, both can be viewed as
variations of similar patterns, with sedentary agriculture as the most important factor.
The Other Peoples of the Americas. Mesoamerican and Andean civilizations were high
points of Indian cultural development. The rest of the American continents were occupied by
many peoples living in different ways. They can be grouped according to gradations based on
material culture and social complexity. The Incas shared many things with tribal peoples of the
Amazon, including clan divisions. The diversity of ancient America forces a reconsideration of
patterns of human development dependent on examples from other civilizations. Social
complexity based on agriculture was not necessary for fishing and hunting-gathering societies
of the northwest United States and British Columbia: they developed hierarchical societies. In
Colorado and South America, Indians practiced irrigated agriculture but did not develop states.
How Many People? Arguments about the population of the Americas have been going on for a
long time. Most scholars now agree that Mesoamerica and the Andes had the largest
populations. If we accept a total of 67 million, in a world population of about 500 million,
Americans clearly were a major segment of humanity.
Differing Cultural Patterns. There were major cultural patterns in the Americas outside of the
main civilization areas. They shared features with both the Andes and Mesoamerica, perhaps
serving at times as points of cultural and material change between the two regions. In central
Colombia, the Muisca and Tairona peoples had large sedentary agriculture–based chiefdoms
that shared many resemblances with other similarly based states. Along the Amazon, the rich
aquatic environment supported complex populous chiefdoms; other large populations dependent
on agriculture were present on Caribbean islands. Such societies resembled societies in
Polynesia. By 1500, agriculture was widely diffused throughout the Americas. Some societies
combined it with hunting-gathering and fishing. Slash and burn farming caused frequent
movement in societies often not possessing large numbers, strong class divisions, or craft
specialization. There were few nomadic herders. In 1500, about 200 languages were spoken in
North America. By then, the towns of the Mississippi mound builders had been abandoned and
only a few peoples maintained their patterns. In the Southwest, the Anasazi and other cliff
dwellers had moved to pueblos along the Rio Grande and practiced irrigated agriculture. Most
other North American Indians were hunters and gatherers, sometimes also cultivating crops. In
158
158
rich environments, complex social organization might develop without agriculture. There were
sharp differences with contemporary European and Asian societies. Most Indian societies were
kin based, with communal ownership of resources. Material wealth was not important for
social rank. Women were subordinate to men but in many societies held important political and
social roles. They had a central role in crop production. Indians, unlike Europeans and Asians,
viewed themselves as part of the ecological system, not in control of it.
American Indian Diversity in World Context. Two great imperial systems had been created
in Mesoamerica and the Andes. By the close of the 15th century, these militaristic states were
fragile, weakened by internal strains and technological inferiority. American societies ranged
from the Aztec-Inca great civilizations to small bands of hunters. The continued evolution of
all Indian societies was disastrously disrupted by European invasions beginning in 1492.
Global Connections: The Americas and the World. American isolation from Afro-Eurasia
shows in the absence of key technologies like iron working and the wheel, in the small number
of domesticated animals, and in the lack of a great world religion. Most tragically, it shows in
the absence of immunity to contagious diseases from the Old World. However, there were
impressive economic, cultural, and political achievements.
KEY TERMS
Indian: Misnomer created by Columbus when referring to indigenous American peoples;
implies social and ethnic commonalty that did not exist among Native Americans; still used to
describe Native Americans.
Toltecs: Nomadic peoples from beyond the northern frontier of sedentary agriculture in
Mesoamerica; established capital at Tula after migration into central Mesoamerican plateau;
strongly militaristic ethic, including cult of human sacrifice.
Aztecs: The Mexica; one of the nomadic tribes that penetrated into the sedentary zone of the
Mesoamerican plateau after the fall of the Toltecs; established empire after 1325 around shores
of Lake Texcoco.
Tenochtitlan: Founded circa 1325 on a marshy island in Lake Texcoco; became center of
Aztec power.
Pipiltin: Nobility in Aztec society; formed by intermarriage of Aztecs with peoples tracing
lineage back to the Toltecs.
Tlacaelel: Advisor to Aztec rulers (1427-1480); had histories of Mexico rewritten; expanded
cult of human sacrifice as effective means of political terror.
Huitzilopochtli: Aztec tribal patron god; central figure of human sacrifice and warfare;
identified with old sun god.
Calpulli: Clans in Aztec society; evolved into residential groupings that distributed land and
provided labor and warriors.
159
159
Chinampas: Beds of aquatic weeds, mud, and earth placed in frames made of cane and rooted
in lakes to create “floating islands”; system of irrigated agriculture used by Aztecs.
Pochteca: Merchant class in Aztec society; specialized in long-distance trade in luxury items.
Inca socialism: An interpretation describing Inca society as a type of utopia; image of the Inca
Empire as a carefully organized system in which every community collectively contributed to
the whole.
Twantinsuyu: Inca word for their empire; region from Colombia to Chile and eastward
into Bolivia and Argentina.
Inca: Group of clans (ayllu) centered at Cuzco; created an empire in the Andes during the 15th
century; also title of the ruler.
Pachacuti: Inca ruler (1438-1471); began the military campaigns that marked the creation of
the Inca Empire.
Topac Yupanqui: Inca ruler (1471-1493); extended his father’s conquests; seized the northern
coastal kingdom of Chimor and pushed into Equador.
Huayna Capac: Inca ruler (1493-1527); brought the empire to its greatest extent.
Split inheritance: Inca practice of ruler descent; all titles and political power went to the
successor, but wealth and land remained in the hands of male descendants for support of dead
Inca’s mummy.
Temple of the Sun: Inca religious center at Cuzco; center of state religion; held mummies of
past Incas.
Curacas: Local rulers who the Inca left in office in return for loyalty.
Tambos: Way stations used by Incas as inns and storehouses; supply centers for Inca armies;
relay points for system of runners used to carry messages.
Mita: Labor extracted for lands assigned to the state and the religion; all communities were
expected to contribute; an essential part of Inca control.
Quipu: System of knotted strings used by the Incas in place of a writing system; could contain
numerical and other types of information for censuses and financial records.
Hernan Cortés: (1485 – 1547) Led expedition of 600 Spanish soldiers to coast of Mexico in
1519; conquistador responsible for defeat of Aztec Empire; captured Tenochtitlan.
Anasazi: Native American culture which thrived in the Southwest from 200 to 1200 C.E.;
known for cliff dwellings and maize growing.
160
160
Hopewell: Native American culture which centered in the Ohio valley from 200 to 500 C.E.;
known for earthen burial and defensive mounds.
Pochteca: Class of Aztec merchants that had hereditary status.
“Flowery death”: Death while taking prisoners for the sacrificial knife.
Metates: Stone boards used for grinding corn by hand.
Tihuanaco and Huari: Two large cities found on Lake Titicaca which were part of the Moche
culture (200 – 700 C.E.).
Viracucha: Incan creator god.
Huacas: Incan holy shrine were prayers were offered.
Yanas: Incan class of people who were removed from their ayllus and served permanently as
servants, artisans, or workers for the Inca or nobility.
LESSON SUGGESTIONS
Peoples Analysis Toltecs, Aztecs, Incas
Societal Comparison South and Mesoamerican societies with North American societies
Document Analysis Aztec Women and Men
Inner/Outer Circle In Depth: The “Troubling” Civilizations of the Americas
LECTURE SUGGESTIONS
Compare the imperial civilizations of the Andes and Mesoamerica. Both were based on the
long development of preceding civilizations. They represented the success of imperial and
military organization and of extensive agricultural systems controlled by the state. Older
kinship groups had been transformed into a hierarchical system, and the nobility became state
personnel. Both recognized local ethnic groups and political leaders in return for recognition of
sovereignty. There were similarities in belief systems and cosmology. Each power had limited
success against nomadic people on their frontiers. Differences came from climate and
geography: The Andes region was more mountainous and isolated. Trade, markets, and a
merchant class were present in each, although they were more developed among the Aztecs.
The Incas lacked a writing system but had greater metallurgical skills. The Aztecs made
extensive use of human sacrifice.
Compare the civilizations of the Americas and Polynesia. Among the similarities were a
strong emphasis on clan-based societies, a division of resources according to clans, and lack of