11/21

For the past two weeks in AP World, we have talked about India, Christianity in Western Europe,  Nomads, and Africa.

India and Africa were not the best parts of the past two weeks for me and Western Europe was alright. Im getting tired of learning about the old stuff.

In India, things were almost the same as usual. The whole civilization was in disunity. North having the most conflict and the South being a little more peaceful. Mahmud Ghazni  an Islamic Turk from Afghanistan swept into northern India and united it by using the sultanates to overrule the land. He was not strong enough to go south. The south received the most benefits economically due to trade. Traders usually avoided trade with the north due to northern India’s constant fighting. There was a lost of interest in Buddhism in India. Shrines and temples were destroyed when the Muslims came in but Hinduism still stayed strong. Much of south-east asia became Islamic but mostly Hindu. Many countries looked past the influence and still kept old ways.

Western Europe was in pieces after the fall of the roman empire. The dominating race were the Germans which were not united but were divided into different tribes. The Franks were most influential in mainland Europe. Clovis brought religious attention to the Franks when he converted to Roman Catholicism. Charlemagne united most of western Europe during his rule but all was in vain once his son Louis the Pious inherited the throne. He was a terrible controller. Soon Louis’s son divided the empire into pieces. Western Europe suffered many invasions by the Vikings. Their boats were able to navigate up and down rivers quietly and stealthily. They were known for disrupting agriculture. Western Europe and Byzantium fell into conflict once the Pope crowned Charlemagne as emperor. After the division of the Frankish empire, societies took place in manors. They were run by nobility who had people under them who ruled and so on. Monasticism became influential during this time period because of St. Benedict.

Mongolians and Turks were a roaming people but they were rather strong. They were able to conquer any people who got in their way. Mongolians had the largest empire. Their military was very strong due to their horses and versatile bows nad arrows. The greatest of the khans were Chinggis Khan. He united all of the Mongol tribes. Mongolians held mostly to their shaman beliefs but were also Islamic. They didn’t look down on the other religious beliefs but allowed them to live on.

Africa was the confusing of all the chapters. They did not have a large central government but had kinship and chiefdoms. The kingdom of Axum was a Christian Kingdom of Africa. The Africans were mostly either Christians or Islamic. I believe that they were Christians because of the Eunuch that Philip in the Bible converted. I believe this man went out and furthered Gods word and salvation to his race.

 

11/07

During the Postclassical Era, it seems as if many of the regions we have talked about changed politically, socially and economically. Byzantine definitely changed its political system after the fall of the Roman Empire. Church and state was more connected. It was not as conquering as the Romans were. The middle easy changed a lot. It changed because again church and state were connected. The rulers of the dynasties were Muslim and ruled according to ways that will not disobey they’re religion. China seems very inconsistent with its government. During the Sui dynasty, China was reunified but then again if falls many years later because of internal failure. People were taxed too much. Before its fall, China had many projects such as building palaces, repairing the Great Wall, and Building the Grand Canal. These projects probably resulted in high taxes. The tang dynasty comes in and tries to make the people content by equally distributing land which the Byzantine were unable to do. This equal distribution of land kept the people content for a very long time. The dynasty again falls but this time it was the because the emperor lost interest in political matters and grew an affinity towards worldly plearsures. The Song dynasty came along but boy was there way of governing terrible. They ended they’re reputation of being the “Middle Kingdom.” China became very decentralized at this point in time and were soon kicked out of they’re own land y the Jurchen which were nomads. Disorganized nomads defeating a people that are suppose to be well structured? That is odd. This was mainly due to the fact that the army had non experienced people leading the fight.
Economically, all three regions experience trade with another because the expanse of their empires. It seemed that trade again boomed because of the existence of the silk roads.
Social change was not really prominent in Byzantium and Islamic areas. In Chin it was kind of shown through land distribution, but to me its mostly prominent in the caste systems of India.