Chapter Overviews

Chapter 3: Regional Civilizations

Chapter Overviews

Section 1 The World of Islam
Muhammad, who grew up in Makkah on the Arabian Peninsula, believed that he received revelations from God. Out of these revelations came the Quran, the holy book of Islam. Islam is a monotheistic religion with an ethical code consisting of the Five Pillars of Islam. Muhammad started preaching, and he and his followers eventually moved to Madinah. This journey from Makkah to Madinah is known as the Hijrah. There Muhammad became both a religious and a political leader. After eight years, he led a military force that easily conquered Makkah. After Muhammad's death, the Arab Empire expanded. Islam flourished under the Umayyad and Abbasid dynasties and the Seljuk Turks. The Mongols eventually seized Persia and Mesopotamia and in 1258 destroyed the city of Baghdad. It was through Muslim translations that Europeans recovered the works of Aristotle and others. Islamic scholars developed algebra, and made important contributions in astronomy, navigation, and medicine that would be adopted in Europe. The great works of Middle Eastern literature include the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam and The 1001 Nights. Mosques from Iraq to Spain offered magnificent examples of Islamic art and architecture.

Section 2 Early African Civilizations
The state of Kush was formed when Nubia, a region south of Egypt, broke free of Egyptian control around 1000 B.C. Kush flourished for several hundred years from trade with the Roman Empire, Arabia, and India. Axum, a neighboring trading state, conquered Kush in the fourth century A.D., probably to end competition over the ivory trade. Several powerful trading empires developed in West Africa. Ghana, Mali, and Songhai each enjoyed centuries as a powerful trading empire before being surpassed or conquered. Valuable trading commodities, such as iron and gold, were the basis for their wealth and power. East Africa also saw the emergence of trading empires. Bantu-speaking peoples who migrated from the west gradually began trading along the East African coast. One of the wealthiest and most powerful states in southern Africa was Zimbabwe, which flourished from 1300 to around 1450. Lineage groups formed the basis of African society. Some of the finest artistic achievements were woodcarvings and bronze and iron sculptures of a religious nature.

Section 3 The Asian World
After the Han dynasty ended, the Sui dynasty was established in 581. The Tang dynasty ruled China from 618 to 907. From 960 to 1279, another dynasty known as the Song rose to power. The economy evolved into a complex mix of agriculture, manufacturing, and trade. The Mongol ruler Genghis Khan brought the entire Eurasian landmass under a single rule, creating the largest land empire in history in the early 1200s. Genghis Khan's grandson Kublai Khan conquered the Song and established the Yuan dynasty in China. Under the Sui and Tang dynasties, Buddhism and Daoism had rivaled the influence of Confucianism. During the Song dynasty, Confucianism was revived, which lasted until the twentieth century. The invention of printing made literature more readily available. Poetry flourished, as did painting and porcelain.

Early Japan was a decentralized farming society dominated by aristocratic families. Samurai warriors emerged to serve as guardians of the aristocrats and their property. Although the emperor remained ruler, military leaders called shoguns held actual power. One of the shoguns defended Japan against the ill-fated Mongol invasion of 1281. Manufacturing and foreign trade—particularly with Korea and China—began in the eleventh century. The religion of Shinto evolved, but Buddhism had a strong following. In the 1300s and 1400s, heads of noble families, now called daimyo, controlled vast landed estates. After a disastrous civil war in the mid-1400s, central authority disappeared.

Arab armies reached India in the early 700s. From the eleventh through the sixteenth centuries, India faced a series of invaders—first Muslims from what is today Afghanistan, and later Mongols led by Timur Lenk, Moguls from the north, and Portuguese traders in search of gold and spices. While most Muslim rulers showed tolerance toward the Hindu majority, Muslims and Hindus had a tense relationship.

In Southeast Asia, geographical barriers resulted in the survival of many distinct cultures, races, and religions. Vietnamese rulers modeled their state after the Chinese model of centralized government. Jayavarman united the Khmer people and established a capital at Angkor Thom in Cambodia. The Thai and Burmese people adopted Indian political institutions and culture. Wealth was concentrated in the cities, which were home to rulers and hereditary aristocrats. Most people were probably subsistence rice farmers.

Section 4 Europe and the Byzantine Empire
Of the German states that replaced the Western Roman Empire, only the Frankish kingdom proved long lasting. The Catholic Church played a growing role. Charlemagne, who ruled from 768 to 814, formed the vast Carolingian Empire. After his death, invaders such as the Vikings caused the break-up of the empire. People sought local sources of safety and security. This led to a new political and social system called feudalism. Feudalism was based on a hierarchy of relationships between lords and the vassals who took an oath to fight for them. During the High Middle Ages, European monarchs began to extend their power and build strong states. In England, pressure from the nobility led to the granting of parliamentary representation. In 1215 King John signed the Magna Carta. Germanic rulers of the Holy Roman Empire were weakened by their efforts to control both Italy and Germany. Both states remained decentralized and without a national monarchy. The Slavic peoples of central Europe had become divided into three major groups. The western Slavs adopted the Roman Catholic Church, while most of the southern and eastern Slavs adopted Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Slavs who settled in present-day Ukraine and Russia were dominated first by Viking rulers and later by Mongols.

The Eastern Roman Empire, known as the Byzantine Empire, was home to Europe's greatest center of commerce, Constantinople, and to the Eastern Orthodox Church, the empire's spiritual center. The Seljuk Turk invasion prompted the Byzantine emperor to turn to Europe for help. The result was a series of European-led Crusades to liberate the Holy Land. Amid horrible violence, crusading armies conquered Jerusalem and established crusader states. After Saladin’s Muslim forces retook Jerusalem in 1187, several more Crusades proved unsuccessful. The Crusades led to increased trade with the Eastern world, and the breakdown of feudalism as monarchs gained wealth.