Download States and Empires in 1237 CE - Fort Thomas Independent Schools

Unit 3: the Post-Classical World
600 – 1450 CE
 Era of Disunity
 Technological advances continued
 Gunpowder, wheelbarrow
 Buddhism displaced Confucianism
 Trade continued, but central government and
bureaucracy declined
 Chinese worried about foreign invaders and influence
of their cultures
Frankish
Kingdoms
Parhae
Byzantine Empire
Sassanid
Empire
Sui China
Harsha’ Empire
Chalukya
Ghana
Axum
Silla
Yamoto
Japan
 Goal: Rebuild and reorganize China after the fall of the
Han Dynasty
 Methods of Change
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“Land Equalization” System
Reorganize Confucianism and civil service
Drive out nomadic invaders
Established army of professional soldiers
Conscripted labor for lavish projects
 Fall:
 People were overworked and overtaxed
 Assassinate emperor to start Tang dynasty
 South: majority population, rice production
 North: millet production; less populated than the
South
 Rivers ran east to west
 Built Grand Canal to connect North and South
 Oldest and largest canal in the World
 People migrate to the North, make trade easier
Carolingian
Parhae
Byzantine
Cordoba
Caliphate
Abbasid
Caliphate
GurjaraPratihara
Tang China
Silla
Heian
Japan
Ghana
Axum
States and Empires in 800 CE
Tang Dynasty 618-906 CE
GOAL: Conquest and Expansion
• Uses armies to unite China
• Extends borders to
Afghanistan
Efforts to Improve Chinese
Government:
 Imperial examination system
perfected
 Tolerant attitude toward all
religions (in the beginning)
 Golden Age of foreign relations
with other countries

Aristocracy weakened
Scholar-gentry elite re-established
 Educated civil servants
 5% could become officials; rest stayed local as
social leaders
 Performed Confucian rituals, helped collect
taxes, keep paperwork
 Created meritocracy with best students
running country
 The Growing Importance of the
Examination System
 Birth, connections important for office
 Under influence of Buddhism, women enjoy relatively
higher status
 Rise of neo-Confucianism stops this trend
 Began in Tang, but not common until Song
 New technologies
 More cosmopolitan culture
 Cities growing
 Some have population as large as
2 million
 Reestablish safety and
importance of Silk Road
 Imported tea, wood and spices
 Exported manufactured goods
 High taxation
 Peasant rebellions led to more independent local rule
around 907 CE
 For 50 years, regional war lords ruled
 By 960, Song Dynasty centralized but not able to unify
due to outside groups challenging power
Scandanavian
Kingdoms
Russia
England
France
Spain
H.R.E.
Poland
Mongol Empire
Hungary
Rum
Portugal Almohad
Caliphate Ayyubid
Caliphate
Koryo
Song
Delhi
Sultanate
China
Kamakura
Japan
Mali
Ethiopia
Oyo
Benin
Angkor
States and Empires in
1237 CE
Zimbabwe
Song China 960 – 1279 CE
Not able to unite as much as
Tang Dynasty
Strengthen Confucianism and
civil service
Established gov’t monopoly
on tea trade
Become sea power
Create middle/merchant class
Merchants gain a bit more
esteem in Chinese society
Deemphasize military and
reestablished tribute system
 Libraries established; old texts recovered
 Neo-Confucians reduce role of women
 Promote arranged marriage and foot-binding
 Stress on personal morality, rational and secular thought
 Importance of philosophy in everyday life
• Hostility to foreign ideas
• Gender, class, age
distinctions reinforced
 Never that strong to begin
with
 Never able to unify all parts
 Warlords control large parts in
the north
 Military and economic
weakness
 Scholar-gentry given control
of army; ineffective
 Paper money caused inflation
 Mongol invasion
 Establish the Yuan Dynasty