Unit 1.1 East Asia 1200-1450

• Song Dynasty


  Most wealthiest empire in 1220-1450
• Large empires emerged around the world

  • Shaped by the context of regional trade
• Mesoamérica


  • Rise of Aztec influenced by an empire under Mayans
• Spain and Baghdad


  • Centers of great achievement in the learning of Islamic world
• Parts of Africa and Southeast Asia

  • Growth of regional trade
• Trade across Sahara


  • Resulted in West African empires of Ghana and Mali
• Trade in Indian ocean

  • Context for Zimbabwe in East Africa and states of India and Southeast Asia
• Central Eurasia


  • Emergence of Mongols, a group of nomads from Central Asia who conquered lands from central Europe to the Pacific Ocean, creating the largest land empire
• Trade flourished across Eurasia due to the unity of a large territory under Mongol rule
• We see global interactions and new ideas and technology
• Japan installs a shogun

  1192
• King John of England signs the Magna Carta


  1215
• The Delhi Sultanate takes power in India

  1206
• Mongols conquered Abbasid Empire


  1258
• Delhi Sultanate takes power in India

  1279
• Mansa Musa of Mali takes pilgrimage to Mecca


  1324
• Developments in East Asia


  How did developments in China and the rest of East China between c.1200-1450 reflect continuity, innovation, and diversity?
• Song Dynasty (960-1279)


  • Example of diversity/innovation in Afro Eurasia and Americas in 13th century
• China


  • Liked wealth, political stability, intellectual achievements, Neo-Confucian teachings supported government and shaped social classes and family system
• China developed the greatest manufacturing capability in the world
• Spread of Confucianism and Buddhism testimony to Chinese influence
• Song Dynasty government


  • Song replaced Tang, ruled for 3 centuries, lost control of northern lands from Manchuria (Pastoralist)
• China's strength


  • Partially because of its imperial bureaucracy, a vast organization in which appointed officials carried out the empire's policies
• Bureaucracy a feature of Chinese government since Qin dynasty (221 B.C.E), showing continuity
• Meritocracy and the Civil Service Exam

  • Song Taizu expanded educational opportunities to young men in lower economic classes so they could do well on Civil Service Exam, allowing upward mobility
• Exams based on knowledge of Confucian texts
• Meritocracy


  Chinese bureaucratic system that allowed for upward mobility
• Bureaucracy


  • Both a strength and weakness to the Song Empire
• Many jobs and high pay in the bureaucracy drove up the cost of government, draining China's surplus wealth
• Economic Developments in Post Classical China

  • Song dynasty grew in population and had rapid prosperity due to accomplishments like improved roads and canals, promoted agricultural development, encouraged foreign trade, and spread of technology
• Grand Canal


  Efficient internal waterway transportation system that extended 30,000 miles
• Expansion of the Grand Canal enabled China under Song to be the most populous trading area
• Gunpowder


  • Innovators in the Song Dynasty made the first guns, and the technology spread to Eurasia through the Silk Roads
• Champa Rice


  • A fast ripening and drought resistant strain of rice from the Champa kingdom in present day Vietnam, greatly expanded agricultural production in China
• Changes in agricultural productivity


  • Building irrigation systems using ditches, water wheels, pumps, and terraces to increase productivity, new heavy plows pulled by water buffalo allowed for unusable land to be cultivated, causing population growth
• Manufacturing and Trade


  • Chinese learned to take carbon out of cast iron and began manufacture steel, an important resource used for bridges, gates, religious items, and agricultural equipment; increase in food production
• Proto-industrialization


  A set of economic changes in which people in rural areas made more goods than they could sell
• Porcelain


  • Desired because it was lightweight yet strong, convenient, and easily painted; artisans produced steel under imperial government and expanded trade networks through porcelain and silk
• Chinese use of compass

  • In maritime navigation
• Print paper navigation charts

  • Made seafaring possible in open waters, sailors became less reliant on the sky for direction