The Post Classical period from 600-1450 CE saw the rise of new empires and political systems across Afro-Eurasia including the Umayyad Caliphate, Abbasid Caliphate, Byzantium, Tang and Song Dynasties in China, and the Delhi Sultanate. Trade networks expanded greatly along routes like the Silk Road, and the rise of the Islamic world united a large region culturally and economically. Major epidemics like the Black Death impacted populations, while nomadic groups like the Mongols had profound effects through their invasions and military power.

1. 600 c.e.-1450
Post Classical Era
Overview of Chapters 12-20
Gazdzik’s AP World History

2. Each period in history has
major developments that
are dominant at the time.
Periodization simply
1. What is means to name these
Periodization? characteristics and later
classify the historical
evidence we learn to the
generalization we made
before studying the
period.

3. Opening and Ending-Post Classical Era
End
Invasions by the nomadic
Mongols ended the Post
Classical Period
Collapse of two political
units
Middle East
Byzantine Empire

4. 1. What sets this time apart?
Emergence of new empires
Continuities and breaks
and political systems within the period
Umayyad
(e.g., the effects of the Mongols
‘Abbasid on international contacts and on
Byzantium specific societies)
Russia
Sudanic States
A key questions of interest in
Swahili Coast the AP Exam is movement of
Tang, Song, and Ming China, people, nomadic exchanges,
Delhi Sultanate and its impact on cultural
Mongol change.
Turkish
Aztec
Inca
How to study these groups?

5. 2. Rise of the Islamic world
The rise and role of Dar al-Islam as a unifying cultural
and economic force in Eurasia and Africa
Islamic political structures, notably the caliphate Arts,
sciences, and technologies

6. 3. Economic and
Environmental
Developments

7. Interregional networks and contacts
Development and shifts in interregional trade, technology, and cultural
exchange
Trans-Sahara trade
Indian Ocean trade
Silk Roads
Economic innovations
(e.g., Tang, Song, and early Ming China, Swahili, economic systems
in the Americas)
Missionary outreach of major religions
Contacts between major religions
e.g., Islam and Buddhism, Christianity and Islam
Impact of the Mongol empire

8. Trade and commerce-and
Economic
even banking- were becoming
a basic part of economic life.
Environment
Made merchant classes larger
Cont.
and more influential in most
societies.
Creation of Trade Routes
Most Societies remained Examples:
fundamentally agricultural
Med.
Artisanry and craftsmanship were
Hanseatic League
becoming increasing important.
Silk Roads
trans-Saharan caravan
Give rise to a slow (but steady) routes
trend: URBANIZATION, or the
growth of cities.
Gold trade along the Niger
river
Important Cities: Venice, Cairo,
Indian-Persian economic
Mombasa, Zanzibar, Samarkand, exchange
Canton (Guangzhou), Melacca
(Melaka), Timbuktu, and Calicut.
Indian Ocean
Pacific trade networks.

9. Environment/Disease
Massive epidemics (pandemics), in the form of great
plagues, struck Eurasia.
The most famous was the wave of bubonic plague that
swept China, the Middle East, and Europe (the “Black
Death”) in the 1300s.

10. 4. Political systems and
cultural patterns

11. Regionally
East Asia
Restructuring of Europe
Decentralization—medieval
China’s expansion society
Chinese influence on
Division of Christianity
surrounding areas and its
Revival of cities
limits (Japan, Vietnam,
Africa
and Korea)
Sudanic empires
Change and continuities in
(Mali, Ghana, Songhay)
Confucianism
Swahili coast
The Americas
South Asia and Southeast Asia
Delhi Sultanate
Apex and decline of the
Vietnam
Maya
Arts, sciences, and
Rise of the Aztec technologies
Rise of the Inca

12. The world was coming
Global Power into increased contact
with each other-Exception
and is the Americas
International
The most advanced and
politically influential
Relations civilizations during these
years were China
(especially during the
Nomadic and migratory Tang, Song, Yuan, and
populations (Especially the Ming periods) and the
Vikings, Mongols, and Polynesians) Ottoman Empire
continued to have a profound
impact on large parts of the world.
Nations of medieval
Europe, particularly in the
west, gained in power and
sophistication.

13. Mongols radically
Global Power altered the balance of
power in Eurasia.
and
Imposed not political
International unity, but a measure of
Relations economic and cultural
connectedness not seen
since the days of
Major states and empires- such as ancient Rome or Han
Mali, Ghana, Great Zimbabwe, China.
the Delhi Sultanate, the Aztecs,
and the Incas- flourished, but
Gunpowder would
only for a comparatively short gradually start to change
time. the equation of world
power.

14. Political Developments
Post Classical Period

15. Political Developments
Government forms were non-representative
Only a few placed limitations on kings
England, with its Magna Carta and Parliament, is an excellent example.
Most states were decentralized or where multi-cultural empires joined only
by the fact that a single civilization had conquered them all.
Feudalism became a common form of political organization in areas that
decentralized.
Medieval Europe
Japanese Shogunates.
Urban centers played a larger role in the political life of most cultures.

16. 5. Demographic and environmental change
Impact of migrations on Afro-Eurasia and the
Americas (e.g., Aztecs, Mongols, Turks, Vikings,
and Arabs)
Consequences of plague pandemics in the
fourteenth century Growth and role of cities
(e.g., the expansion of urban commercial centers
in Song China and administrative centers in
Africa and the Americas)

17. Gender Issues

18. Patterns of Gender Change
Conditions of women deteriorate
Ironic since religions change by
recognizing equality of souls
i.e., foot-binding in China, suttee in
India, seclusion & complete veiling of
women in Middle East – although
isolated

19. 1 possible cause: use prosperity to make
women ornamental, don’t need
women’s work as much
Earlier patriarchy – men controlled
women to make sure they have sons as
heirs
Involvement in religion may have
marginalized them in other aspects of
society

20. Gender Continued
Occupy a secondary role in most societies
Political rights were minimal or nonexistence.
Sharply defined occupational roles.
Domestic sphere: child-bearers and homemakers
In Civilization:
Right to divorce abusive husbands
Right to dowry
Right to inherit and own property.
Informal Roles:
Managed households and family finances, supervised the
education of children, and influenced their husbands.

21. Gender Continued
African States Class Divisions and Gender
Women enjoyed a great
In most societies, upper class
women, lived easier lives but
deal of respect, and found themselves more
constrained by religious and
family trees were cultural restrictions on their
matriliniear (traced behavior. Lower class
women, whose lives were
through the mother), much harder, were often less
bound by those restrictions
rather than patrilinear. because the rules of “proper”
behavior applied to them.
Societies that feared magic or
witchery tended to blame
women (especially elderly
ones) disproportionately for
such things.

22. Cultural Developments

23. Distinct artistic and cultural traditions were
developing in each major region of the world.
The civilizations that possessed the greatest
degree of scientific knowledge and cultural
sophistication were China, the Middle East,
Japan, and Muslim Spain.
Europe underwent great cultural development,
especially during the Renaissance.
Travelers and Explorers linked societies and
gathered increased knowledge of the world

24. Printing!
The invention of block printing in China
began to alter cultural life not only in Asia but
elsewhere as this new innovation spread.
Even more dramatically, the invention of the
movable-type printing press in Europe, during
the 1430’s, led to an information explosion,
the rapid spread of knowledge and ideas, and a
revolution in intellectual life.

25. Diverse interpretations
What are the issues involved in using cultural areas rather
than states as units of analysis?
What are the sources of change: nomadic migrations versus
urban growth?
Was there a world economic network in this period?
Were there common patterns in the new opportunities
available to and constraints placed on elite women in this
period?
To what extent was Dar al-Islam a unified cultural/political
entity?

26. Major Comparisons and Analyses
Compare the role and function of cities in major societies
Analyze gender systems and changes, such as the effects of Islam
Analyze the interactions between Jews, Christians, and Muslims
Compare developments in political and social institutions in both
eastern and western Europe
Compare Japanese and European feudalism
Compare European and sub-Saharan African contacts with the
Islamic world
Analyze the Chinese civil service exam system and the rise of
meritocracy

27. How important is the nation-
state (as opposed to larger
Questions and cultural units) as an object of
study during this historical
period?
Comparisons
How did political and social
to Consider
developments in western
Europe resembles and/or differ
from that in Eastern Europe?
Consider the differences and
Comparisons and contrasts
likenesses of various world trading between European and
systems
Japanese feudalism
Intellectual and cultural developments
Comparisons and contrasts
in different societies, and the ways in between on of the major
which societies influence each other European states (or Western
(for example, the Middle Eastern Europe as a whole) and one of
influence on medieval Europe, or the major African States,.
India’s influence on Southeast Asian
religion, art, and architecture).
How did Europe’s encounter
with sub-Saharan Africa differ
from and or resemble the
Islamic world’s encounter with
it?

28. Comparison and
contrast between Islam,
Questions and Christianity, not just in
terms of doctrine, but
Comparisons also in both faith’s
impact on social and
political organization,
to Consider gender relations, and
views of how
The differences and likenesses between
nonbelievers should be
the Mongol Empire and earlier conquest treated.
states, such as Rome or Han China.
The role of nomadic
The successes and failures of the Roman
Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox
movement as cause of
Church, and the Islamic caliphates in historical change
their attempts to cerate a large, during these years
multinational civilization united by compared with the role
religion.
played by the growth of
cities during the same
time frame.