World History Era 5

Standard 4: The growth of states, towns, and trade in Sub-Saharan Africa between the 11th and 15th centuries

Standard 5: Patterns of crisis and recovery in Afro-Eurasia, 1300-1450

Standard 6: The expansion of states and civilizations in the Americas, 1000-1500

Standard 7: Major global trends from 1000-1500 CE

In this era the various regions of Eurasia and Africa became more firmly interconnected than at any earlier time in history. The sailing ships that crossed the wide sea basins of the Eastern Hemisphere carried a greater volume and variety of goods than ever before. In fact, the chain of seas extending across the hemisphere–China seas, Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf, Red Sea, Black Sea, Mediterranean, and Baltic–came to form a single interlocking network of maritime trade. In the same centuries caravan traffic crossed the Inner Asian steppes and the Sahara Desert more frequently. As trade and travel intensified so did cultural exchanges and encounters, presenting local societies with a profusion of new opportunities and dangers. By the time of the transoceanic voyages of the Portuguese and Spanish, the Eastern Hemisphere already constituted a single zone of intercommunication possessing a unified history of its own.

A global view reveals four “big stories” that give shape to the entire era:

China and Europe–Two Centers of Growth

In two regions of the Eastern Hemisphere, China and Europe, the era witnessed remarkable growth. China experienced a burst of technological innovation, commercialization, and urbanization, emerging as the largest economy in the world. As China exported its silks and porcelains to other lands and imported quantities of spices from India and Southeast Asia, patterns of production and commerce all across the hemisphere were affected. At the opposite end of Eurasia, Western and Central Europe emerged as a new center of Christian civilization, expanding in agricultural production, population, commerce, and military might. Powerful European states presented a new challenge to Muslim dominance in the Mediterranean world. At the same time Europe was drawn more tightly into the commercial economy and cultural interchange of the hemisphere.

The Long Reach of Islam

In this era Islamic faith and civilization encompassed extensive new areas of Eurasia and Africa. The continuing spread of Islam was closely connected to the migrations of Turkic conquerors and herding folk and to the growth of Muslim commercial enterprise all across the hemisphere. By about 1400 CE Muslim societies spanned the central two-thirds of Afro-Eurasia. New Muslim states and towns were appearing in West Africa, the East African coast, Central Asia, India, and Southeast Asia. Consequently, Muslim merchants, scholars, and a host of long-distance travelers were the principal mediators in the interregional exchange of goods, ideas, and technical innovations.

The Age of Mongol Dominance

The second half of the era saw extraordinary developments in interregional history. The Mongols under Chinggis Khan created the largest land empire the world had ever seen. Operating from Poland to Korea and Siberia to Indonesia, the Mongol warlords intruded in one way or another on the lives of almost all peoples of Eurasia. The conquests were terrifying, but the stabilizing of Mongol rule led to a century of fertile commercial and cultural interchange across the continent. Eurasian unification, however, had a disastrous consequence in the 14th century–the Black Death and its attendant social impact on Europe, the Islamic world, and probably China.

Empires of the Americas

In the Western Hemisphere empire building reached an unprecedented scale. The political styles of the Aztec and Inca states were profoundly different. Even so, both enterprises demonstrated that human labor and creative endeavor could be organized on a colossal scale despite the absence of iron technology or wheeled transport.

Why Study This Era?

• The civilizations that flourished in this era–Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Islamic, European, West African, Mesoamerican, and others–created a legacy of cultural and social achievements of continuing significance today. To understand how cultural traditions affect social change or international relations in the contemporary world requires study of the specific historical contexts in which those traditions took form.
• The modern world with all its unique complexities did not emerge suddenly in the past 500 years but had its roots in the developments of the 1000-1500 era, notably the maturing of long-distance trade and the economic and social institutions connected with it.
• To understand both the history of modern Europe and the United States requires a grasp of the variety of institutions, ideas, and styles that took shape in western Christendom during this era of expansion and innovation.

Each standard was developed with historical thinking standards in mind. The relevant historical thinking standards are linked in the brackets, [ ], below.

STANDARD 1

The maturing of an interregional system of communication, trade, and cultural exchange in an era of Chinese economic power and Islamic expansion.

Standard 1A

The student understands China’s extensive urbanization and commercial expansion between the 10th and 13th centuries.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
7-12	Explain the major dynastic transitions in China and how Confucianism changed. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
7-12	Analyze how improved agricultural production, population growth, urbanization, and commercialization were interconnected. [Analyze multiple causation]
5-12	Identify major technological and scientific innovations and analyze their effects on Chinese life. [Examine the influence of ideas]
5-12	Analyze the expansion of China’s external trade with peoples of Southeast Asia and the lands rimming the Indian Ocean. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
7-12	Analyze the growth of an economically powerful merchant class in China. [Formulate historical questions]
9-12	Assess the importance of women of gentry families in preserving and transmitting Chinese cultural values. [Interrogate historical data]

Standard 1B

The student understands developments in Japanese and Southeast Asian civilization.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
5-12	Describe Japanese government in the Kamakura and early Ashikaga periods and assess the applicability of the concept of feudalism to Japan. [Interrogate historical data]
5-12	Analyze the rise of the warrior class and how changes in inheritance laws and patterns of land ownership affected peasants and both upper-class and commoner women in the context of feudal society. [Reconstruct patterns of historical succession and duration]
7-12	Explain the development of distinctive forms of Japanese Buddhism. [Examine the influence of ideas]
5-12	Evaluate the arts and aesthetic values in warrior culture. [Appreciate historical perspectives]
7-12	Explain the sources of wealth of the Southeast Asian states of Vietnam (Dai Viet), Champa, and Angkor (Cambodia) and analyze the role of Islam and Buddhism in the decline of classical states. [Compare and contrast differing institutions]
9-12	Explain the struggle for Vietnamese independence from China and the subsequent reconstruction of Vietnamese society and government. [Marshal evidence of antecedent circumstances]

Standard 1C

The student understands how pastoral migrations and religious reform movements between the 11th and 13th centuries contributed to the rise of new states and the expansion of Islam.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
7-12	Analyze how the migrations of Turkic peoples from Turkestan into Southwest Asia and India in the 11th and 12th centuries contributed to Islamic expansion and the retreat of Byzantium and Greek Christian civilization. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
9-12	Assess the growth of North African Islamic reform movements and the success of the Almoravids and Almohads in creating empires spanning Iberia and North Africa. [Examine the influence of ideas]
5-12	Evaluate scientific, artistic, and literary achievements of Islamic civilization. [Appreciate historical perspectives]
9-12	Assess Sufism as an important dimension of Islamic faith and practice and how it enriched Muslim life and contributed to Islamic expansion. [Examine the influence of ideas]

Standard 1D

The student understands how interregional communication and trade led to intensified cultural exchanges among diverse peoples of Eurasia and Africa.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
5-12	Identify the maritime routes extending from East Asia to northern Europe and assess the importance of trade across the Indian Ocean for societies of Asia, East Africa, and Europe. [Draw upon data in historical maps]
5-12	Explain how camel caravan transport facilitated long-distance trade across Central Asia and the Sahara Desert. [Interrogate historical data]
7-12	Compare the importance of such cities as Canton (Kuang-Chou), Melaka, Calicut, Samarkand, Kilwa, Cairo, Constantinople, and Venice as centers of international trade and cosmopolitan culture. [Clarify information on the geographical setting]
7-12	Explain connections between trade and the spread of Islam in Central Asia, East Africa, West Africa, the coasts of India, and Southeast Asia. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]

STANDARD 2

The redefining of European society and culture, 1000-1300 CE.

Standard 2A

The student understands feudalism and the growth of centralized monarchies and city-states in Europe.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
5-12	Describe feudal lordship and explain how feudal relationships provided a foundation of political order in parts of Europe. [Interrogate historical data]
5-12	Describe manorialism and serfdom as institutions of medieval Europe and analyze how population growth and agricultural expansion affected the legal position and working lives of peasant men and women. [Appreciate historical perspective]
7-12	Analyze how European monarchies expanded their power at the expense of feudal lords and assess the growth and limitations of representative institutions in these monarchies. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
5-12	Analyze the significance of developments in medieval English legal and constitutional practice and their importance for modern democratic thought and institutions. [Identify relevant historical antecedents]
7-12	Explain the changing political relationship between the Catholic Church and secular states. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
7-12	Explain the importance of inheritance laws, arranged marriages, dowries, and family alliances for dynastic and aristocratic politics. [Formulate historical questions]
9-12	Analyze how prosperous city-states arose in Italy and northern Europe and compare the political institutions of city-states with those of centralizing monarchies. [Compare and contrast differing institutions]

Standard 2B

The student understands the expansion of Christian Europe after 1000.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
7-12	Analyze connections between population growth and increased agricultural production and technological innovation. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
9-12	Explain urban growth in the Mediterranean region and northern Europe and analyze causes for the expansion of manufacturing, interregional trade, and a money economy in Europe. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
5-12	Analyze the success of Christian states in overthrowing Muslim powers of central and southern Iberia. [Interrogate historical data]
5-12	Analyze the causes and consequences of the European Crusades against Syria and Palestine. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
7-12	Assess the consequences of German military and cultural encounters with the peoples of Poland and the Baltic region. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]

Standard 2C

The student understands the patterns of social change and cultural achievement in Europe’s emerging civilizations.

GRADE LEVEL	THEREFORE, THE STUDENT IS ABLE TO
5-12	Analyze ways in which ideals of chivalry and courtly love affected feudal society. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
5-12	Describe the life of Jewish communities and their contributions to Europe’s cultural and economic development. [Examine the influence of ideas]
5-12	Analyze how the rise of schools and universities in Italy, France, and England contributed to literacy, learning, and scientific advancement. [Analyze cause-and-effect relationships]
7-12	Evaluate major works of art, architecture, and literature and analyze how they shed light on values and attitudes in Christian society. [Draw upon visual sources]
9-12	Assess the importance of the Islamic states of Iberia and Sicily as well as the Byzantine empire in transmitting scientific and philosophical knowledge to and influencing the literature and arts of Western and Central Europe. [Analyze the importance of ideas]
9-12	Assess the importance of Orthodox and Latin Christianity in the cultural and social life of Eastern Europe and Russia. [Examine the importance of ideas]

STANDARD 3

The rise of the Mongol empire and its consequences for Eurasian peoples, 1200-1350.

Standard 3A

The student understands the world-historical significance of the Mongol empire.

Standard 3B

STANDARD 4

Standard 4B

The student understands the development of towns and maritime trade in East and Southern Africa.

STANDARD 5

Patterns of crisis and recovery in Afro-Eurasia, 1300-1450.

Standard 5B

Standard 5C