Perspectives Quiz Terms

Zen Buddhism

14th century Japan was going under a major period of instability during the plague after having a century of peace earlier with the development of the shogunate. This chaos helped the development of Zen Buddhism. This tradition of Buddhism valued personal extinction (suicide) as part of a mystical experience. It was able to spread thanks to the arrival of monks from China escaping the Mongols and because Zen ideas suited warriors and warlords who currently ruled Japan. The values of discipline, self-denial, and willingness to die were all good martial values.

King Phillip's War

1679 the Native Americans try to fight off the English in a battle in New England.

Ecology of Civilization

4 regions of major importance stand out when talking about expansive civilizations. The middle and lower Nile River, the valleys of the Indus river/Saraswati river, Mesopotamia between the Tigris and the Euphrates, and the Yellow River in China. Between 2,000 b.c.e. and 500 b.c.e. the people in these regions changed the land faster than other regions in relation to technology, state power, and city construction. Egypt, The Indus River Valley Civilization, Mesopotamia, and the Shang Civilization all controlled their environments to their best potential and managed to last for centuries as a result of environmental exploitation.

Charlemagne

8th-century Frankish king who gave the pagan Saxons in eastern Germany the choice of baptism or death. Charlemagne becomes a 'renovator' the legacy the Roman empire left behind. He first went to Italy in 774 and sees the ruins of ancient Rome, motivating him to collect steppelander treasures in 790 and thereafter, proclaiming himself to be the rightful successor of the ancient Roman emperors. However, at heart, he remained a largely Frankish king that liked his newfound title, he simply wanted to evoke Rome. Notably, he took over Saxony which became his reign's imperial heartland. Along with other kings during his time, such as Alfred the Great (England) and Olaf of Norway, they forced Christian conversion via conquest.

Cistercians

A 12th-century monastic order who directed their efforts into deserts where habitation was sparse ad nature was hostile. They disputed Suger's views on church architecture, advocating for simplicity and austerity in worship. However, they tended to raze woodlands to build a lot, thus causing their Biblical 'end of the world'. The flocks of ox moved back into the wilderness leaving them resourceless.

Ibn Battuta

A 14th-century Moroccan Muslim traveler and pilgrim that witnessed quite a lot along with his travels. He visited the city of Cairo in 1325 and described it in rich detail, praising the structures of the city. However, he also witnessed the devastating catastrophe of the Black Death during his travels. He was there when the plague reached the Middle East on his way back to Cairo. In Syria, 1348, he found that deaths were up to 2400 a day, in town three-quarters of public officials had died.

Amerigo Vespucci

A Florentine adventurer (1451-1512) that is featured prominently on several world maps. To Martin Waldseemüller, Vespucci was one of the greatest cosmographers of the 15th century, the region of 'America' being named after him. However, Vespucci was a navigator and explorer who advocated for 'scientific' navigation although he was quite incompetent himself. He used instruments to sail his ships rather than using traditional/practical knowledge, but wasn't very good at it. He also never made maps from the regions he explored.

Pythagoras

A Greek mathematician in the mid-6th century BCE, who spent his life teaching at a Greek colony in Italy. Pythagoras was more important than just musical harmonies and right-triangles. He was actually the first thinker to formulate the idea that numbers were real. Pythagoras thought that the number 2 and 5 for example, really exist. He argued that numbers are what the cosmos is constructed of, all things were numbers.

Mahdi

A Muslim messiah, whose coming would inaugurate a cosmic struggle, preceding the end of the world. In 1794 a holy man in Sahel, Usuman da Fodio had a vision in which he saw himself battling the enemies of God. He was a strict Islamic Wahhabite and it inspired him to continue his mission from the vision. He saw himself as the Mahdi basically and attracted a following among the Fulani, herdsmen of the Sahel. They built an empire under his leadership and combined the traditions of the pastoralists, holy war, etc.

Ibn Khaldun

A North African Muslim who was one of the worlds best historians. He saw history as a struggle between nomads and settlers. Everywhere in Ibn Khaldun's day, Islamic survival and success depended on Muslims ability to tame and deter invaders from the deserts and the steppeplands.

Shoguns

A Shogun is a hereditary military ruler of Japan who exercised real power in the name of the emperor, who was usually powerless and relegated to ceremonial roles. The Shoguns arose due to several factors. In 1070, Japan opens up trade with Korea and later relations with China. Rich families then became players for power like the Taira clan who built up their power by acquiring provincial governorships and by the 12th century they dominated the imperial courts. After several civil wars, in 1185 the Minamoto clan replaced them as the imperial protectos or shoguns. From then on emperors never retained their original powers.

Hernán Cortés

A Spanish adventurer who led the band of soldiers that conquered Mexico. He spread the claim that the Aztec Emperor Moctezuma II had surrendered in the belief that Spanish supremacy was the fulfillment of a prophecy but this was not true. It was made up to deflect questions from the Spanish churchmen on whether or not they had any right to rule Mexico. Rumors said that omens had predisposed the Aztecs to surrender or that they regarded the Spanish as gods/representatives of god. This was all made up as the Aztecs did not show signs of weak morale.

Cretan Civilization

A civilization that rose in 2,000 b.c.e. on the island of Crete in the Mediterranian. Crete is big enough to be self-sustaining, however, it is mountainous. Thus it has very little fertile land. But the Cretans we're able to thrive quite well. It managed to flourish with organized agriculture, using both farming and herding. They also depended on regulated trade. The palace storehouse was an essential part to Cretan politics and economy, the largest being the Knossos palace. It was an immense storage area for goods waiting to be distributed for trade. It was also used as a crafting center. The sailors were experts at navigation. Women in this society were much more involved in public affairs. Elites lived in the palace dwellings, lesser people lived in imitation palaces. At lower levels, there was no surplus for leisure and most commoners starved. Crete's environment was destructive and full of war. Internal warfare seemed to happen with a political takeover in 1400 b.c.e. The Cretan civilization and the Mycenean Civilization were important because even with their fragile economies they sustained themselves for quite long.

Rig Veda

A collection of hymns and poems from what today is current day Punjab. It was written sometime in 800 b.c.e. by poets after centuries of oral transmission. It particularly mentioned a type of people called Aryans that invaded India, particularly the Harappa people.​ They were supposedly a people of who wanted fat and opulence, their armies were stronger than those who were already settled in their traditional ways of life. The Aryans would burn dwellings and their favorite god Indra was the 'breaker' of cities. It wasnt single event that caused the downfall of ancient civilizations. It was a slow decline, climateric.

Indirect Rule

A common device for harnessing native cooperation, the British called it indirect rule. It was rule by colonial power through local elites. Frederick Lugard for example is responsible for developing indirect rule in Africa, it was ruling through the natives.

Sea Peoples

A group of strong warriors that descended on Egypt in 1190 b.c.e. Ramses III defeated them, boasting with propaganda to boost his public standing. Other documents describe these sea peoples destroying the city of Ugarit in Syria. There was a romatic appeal about these 'barbarians' bringing crisis through invasion. However, these people did not have any substantial cultural gaps between the so-called 'civilized' and them. The violent arrival of Sea Peoples is due to the widespread instability of population driven by hunger and land shortages. Migrant invaders did not cause the decline, they were a consequence of the decline.

Climacteric

A long period of critical change in a world poised between different outcomes - No theory can fully explain the reasoning behind why humans decided on agriculture as a main form of sustenance when hunting and gathering was stable enough. To think of it as a major revolution would be mischaracterizing the way it developed. It was likely a combination of factors such as abundance, population fluctuations, religion, climate change, and luck that influenced the species to change gradually. It was not done in a few decades, it took hundreds of years to develop, however, the world after agriculture would certainly look much different.

Scythians

A pastoral people of modern-day Ukraine and southern Russia in the first millennium BC​E. They formed in and around Crimea where they came in contact with the Greeks. he Neapolis was the court center of the Scythians that was quite large. Greek writers thought this world seemed alien and menacing. However, on the other side of this relationship, the Greeks found them good trading partners. The Scythians produced a lot of works of art that depicted them in much the opposite light of what the Greeks say, they were peaceful works of things like camp life.

Malthus

A pessimist English clergyman born in 1766 who had a view of human nature that grew ever bleaker as the events of Europe became more bloody during his time. Malthus believed the world was heading toward extinction. He observed that the world population was growing and thought of it as a catastrophe. He concluded in 1798 in Principle of Population that people would run out of space. It was so convincing that elites in the West believed him and provoked war/empire building. However, his theory would eventually be proven wrong.

Shintoism

A religion native to Japan that focuses on venerating nature spirits and ancestors, it does not have a formal dogma. The religion would have to synthesize with Buddhist practices due to a compromise made with The Soga clan who spread Buddhism during the 6th century. They tried to replace the imperial ruling dynasty who saw Buddhism as the path to power, however, Shintoism was very close to the Japanese government at the time. Prince Shotoku, a patron of the Buddhist religion, would make the compromise possible since he saw the value of the Buddhist clergy and managed to create a successful synthesis. The Shinto elites were scared of this development because they thought it would get rid of their religious rites but the benefits of Buddhism were hard to ignore. It warned people to follow the king's laws and was said to protect the state through magic.

Protestant Reformation

A religious movement during the 16th century all across Europe. The plague caused a lot of unrest amongst believers due to its corrupt nature after many clergymen had been wiped out and replaced. The people were also feeling like the church had not adequately protected them and they needed some sense of security. It famously began with Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses about why the church was failing onto a German town's church door. Surprisingly Luther was not executed and was saved by a Saxon Prince. The princes welcomes the reformation because it meant they did not have to be loyal to the Catholic Church and pay their taxes. England, France and other European nations experienced similar religious changes that separated themselves from the Catholic Church which would later implode into religious civil wars.

Manichaeanism

A rival religion to Buddhism that developed along the Silk Roads by the Uighur people. The Uighurs were a Turkish-speaking pastoral people that picked up this obscure religion rooted in Zoroastrianism. Mani, the founder of the religion was from Persia in the 3rd century. He thought of the world as split between the spirit realm (good) and the matter realm (bad). The Uighur ruler sought to spread the religion far and wide, zealots become his counselors, even though the religion was largely persecuted. As the Uighur developed, Manichaenism completely changed its culture, however, it did not stick around in the end.

Dahomey

A slave trading state in West Africa that grew during the slave trading era. The kingdom arose in the interior of the present state of Benin in the early seventeenth century. Dahomey lived by war and subordinated all other values into a warrior cult. By the 17th century, they started to accumulate muskets in exchange for slaves which they obtained by raiding the north. However it did not just depend on slaving, but largely the city rose and fell with the rhythms of the slave trade.

Norse Peoples

A thousand years ago, a warm spell changed the lives of ice hunters along the North American Arctic ridge. Thule migrants used this to work around the southern edge of the Arctic Ocean. By about 1000 they reach Greenland, this was astonishing. Around this same time, Norse navigators used the exploitable current to move across the North Atlantic. These Norse people were usually escapees or exiles from poverty or restricted from social opportunity. Eirik the Red is known as the first colonizer of Greenland in 982 exiled for murderous practices. The environment was harsh but had a lot of goods to offer. They definitely had to change the environment a lot for it to be livable though. The town of Brattahlid was one of the most elaborate buildings with such little resources.​

Toyotomi Hideyoshi

A warlord that took over Japan at the end of a civil war in 1585. He would demand for the submission of kingdoms in Southeast Asia and to the Spanish Philippine governor, in other words he was trying to take them over. He also promised to destroy China and proclaimed himself gods choice for owning the world. Hideyoshi saw a world where Koreans and the Chinese would learn Japanese customs and lands in China would be split with Japanese notables. The Japanese would invade Korea in 1592, but the Korean navy stopped this, and with the Chinese fleets backing them up, it was impossible fort the Japanese to reinforce themselves. After Hideyoshi died, campaigns to take over mainland Asia stopped.

Everyday Abundance

About 5,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptian economy dedicated itself to this form of consumption known as everyday abundance. It refers to the process of obtaining large amounts of surplus foodstuffs. Essentially it guaranteed that every Egyptian had enough to eat no matter the current circumstances, including drought or flooding. This surplus was at the disposal of the state and the priests. Only those who exclusively consumed barely and wheat were vulnerable to famine, however, generally, the Egyptians had greater quantities of basic product than they actually consumed. This was critical to the survival of the Egyptian civilization and created long-lasting stability when times became hard.

Skepticism

Across Eurasia, there was a struggle against fighting illusion to find underlying realities. A consequence of the rise in science is the view that the world has no purpose. This is what Aristotle called "Final Cause", that the world is a random event and humans are insignificant. In 200 BCE, this was a dangerous idea and writers would avoid explicitly expressing this view. Wangchong, a Chinese philosopher in the first century CE stated that we are so tiny, small creatures in the whole of the universe, why would a god ever listen to us? Without purpose, there is no need for God. The Greek philosopher Epicurus suggested this, saying in a world full of atoms, there is no room for spirits and since atoms are subjected to random movements, the whole world is random by nature.

Maroon Kingdoms

African political structures in the Americas, otherwise known as independent states created in the 16th century, were established by maroons. These were runaway slaves who formed autonomous communities (states) between 1500 and 1800. Colonial authorities were forced to recognize the most successful of these kingdoms because of their power. It was better to establish relationships than running the risks of war with maroon kingdoms. A well known maroon community was that in Esmeraldas in the hinterland of Colombia who signed a treaty with the Spanish crown in 1599 to avoid war.

Babylon

After Assyrian rulers in 750 BCE fully asserted themselves as a larger power, they begin to develop regional power via conquest. Babylon was absorbed by the Assyrian empire, becoming somewhat of a symbolic prize to Assyrians where they also performed rituals. Babylonians however, would try to get their independence on multiple occasions from the empire. Sennacherib in 689 BCE, for example, would massacre/disperse the population, destroyed buildings etc., to reclaim the land. Assyrian King Ashurbanipal in 649 BCE would not be too happy about this and deported 500,000 people in order to avoid further rebellions. In the late seventh century BCE, Assyria would loose Babylon to Nabopolassar who would revive the city-state which became an imperial metropolis. Later in 602-562 BCE Nebuchadnezzar II would notably deport the Jews to exile and build beautiful works.

Spanish Inquisition

After over 100 years of reclaiming lands taken by Arab peoples, the Spanish succeed in their Reconquista in 1492. However, they take it one step further by initiating policies put forth by the Catholic Church to expel/convert the Muslim and Jewish populations out of Spain in a militant fashion. This process was called the Spanish Inquisition and it displayed thousands of people out of Spain as refugees into other areas. This systematic discrimination often involved torture or execution for those who did not convert into Catholicism.

Junípero Serra

Along the coast of Upper California from 1769 to his death in 1784 the Franciscan missionary Junípero Serra founded a string of missions, where the arrival of an annual ship was the only contact with the Spanish monarchy. He converted the environment as well as its inhabitants, taking the natives out of nomadism, producing new crops. His foundations stretched from San Diego to San Francisco and kept wilderness, paganism and rival empires away.

Zoroastrianism

An Iranian stage is known as Zoroaster in the late seventh to early sixth centuries BCE developed this framework of thought. The texts about him are partial and obscure, thus, not too much detail is known about his ideology. But, it is described as assuming that conflicting forces of good and evil shaped the world. The good diety of Ashura Mazda was the light/fire, and the night/darkness belonged to Ahriman, god of evil. It was a dualist way of making sense of the world. This idea dominated Iran for 1,000 spreading around other Eurasian religions.

Captain James Cook

An explorer who was responsible for famous initiatives in Pacific history; he brought pigs and potatoes to New Zealand. He rediscovered the islands in 1769. The native Maori resisted his efforts to introduce new foods but by 1801 they began trading potatoes and pigs by 1815 because they fit into their farming methods. New Zealand was able to take in a lot of new migrants because it's environment was similar enough to Europe that they thrived.

Millenarianism

An extreme form of religious enthusiasm. It is the characteristic form of religious fervor in the Americas. Franciscans introduced Christian millenarianism to the New World in the 16th century. The early missionaries came from Spiritual Franciscan communities in Spain; they had an obsession with the coming of the end of the world via a cosmic war between good and evil. These beliefs would mix with Native American traditions and lead to Indian chiefs calling themselves the second coming of Christ and such. Millenarianism was associated with heresy in Europe but flourished in the Americas with toleration.

Daoism

An identification of the detachment from the world with the pursuit of immortality. Daoism is contributed to Laozi in the fourth century BCE in China. His writings reflected the nature of the warring states during his time, clearly an attempt to respond to them. Having disengagement gave the Doaist power over suffering. It is criticized by Confusionists as being magical nonsense. However, it has important teaching which mentioned that those who wish to control nature must understand it first. This encouraged actual observation, description, classifications, and experiments in the natural world, advancing the sciences.

Doña Marina

An incredibly important ingredient to Spanish diplomatic success was Doña Marina. She was an interpreter, a native speaker of the languages in central Mexico who picked up Spanish. She would mastermind negotiations and supervise military operations. She would tell the Spanish the ins and outs of Aztec politics: who were the potential allies, who were the enemies, and how to navigate/negotiate with the indigenous powers.

Business Imperialism

An indirect form of imperial rule that involved economic control i.e. business imperialism. It left the government in local hands but bought up resources, skimmed off wealth, introduced foreign business elites, reduced economies to dependency, and diverted wealth and political influence abroad. Industrialization made business imperialism possible. It gave the rich surplus capital with which to buy up the productive capacity of the rest of the world.

Coptic Church

Arab forces take over Egypt and seize the delta in 641. Byzantine rule was brought to an end in Egypt and the Arabs built the new capital of Cairo. The majority of Egyptians welcomed this change, as the local religion of the Coptic Church was being heavily persecuted by the Byzantines who called it heresy. However, many Egyptians would end up converting to Islam and spreading, however, the highland Ethiopians kept Coptic Christianity alive.

Aristotle

Aristotle is a Greek thinker who was taught by Plato in the 4th century BCE. He left a body of work based on several subjects such as science, logic, politics, and literature. He had the political idea that monarchy was the best system of government theoretically but in practice, it was not, for no one could ensure who the best ruler was. He also though aristocratic rule was wrong since the rich would be self-interested. So, he preferred a mixture of aristocracy under the rule of law. Aristotle also one of the best ever analysts of how reason works, he pretty much founded it. He broke down arguments into syllogisms. In the sciences, he insisted on having facts to prove hypotheses. But overall, Aristotle thought the world was incoherent and has no real greater purpose, a controversial thought at the time.

Plato

Around during the 4th century BCE, Plato is one of the greatest Greek thinkers who formulated how to tell from good and evil, truth from falsehood. He essentially constructed the field of philosophy and is generally still referenced heavily today. Plato belonged to the rich, well-educated intellectuals and aristocrats who felt they were well qualified enough for power. He resented democracy and in his work, The Republic described an extremely illiberal state. Here, censorship, repression, militarism, regimentation, communism, collectivism, selective breeding, and a rigid class structure prevailed. Plato wanted political power to be concentrated on a self-electing class of philosopher-rulers called guardians. Guardians were superior and selfless. He thought this would create the most happiness in society.

Ashanti

Ashanti in West Africa showed that state-building on a large scale with resources other than slaves is possible. Ashanti was able to rise with the lucrativeness of gold in the 1680s, the kingdom grew much larger by the 18th century. The royal chest held thousands of ounces of gold by that time. He also had vast amounts of firepower and an intelligent army to defeat invading troops coming from the Sahel. However, Ashanti would eventually rely on slavery to supplement gold during the eighteenth century.

Asoka

Asoka ruled the Indian Mauryan Empire from c. 268 BCE to 232 BCE. He became closely acquainted with the Buddhist monks of his time and began to enforce Buddhist values onto his subjects. He prided himself on his ability to achieve conquests via Dharma. Ironically, however, Buddhism is centered around practices of love as well as peace, thus Buddhist warmongering was quite ironic and contradictory. In any case, he used the doctrine of the 4 Truths to govern the state effectively since, at the time, Hinduism was not fit for a statewide takeover. Asoka's reign did not last very long due to the enforcement of Buddhist traditions, but, it would be the biggest Indian empire the state would ever see.

Asoka

Asoka's reign began in 260 BCE after Candragupta. A servant of Candragupta described Asoka's world through the Arthasatra, pillars that were inscribed that basically brought Asoka's thoughts and deeds to life. Inscriptions of him are across the Indian subcontinent, showing his reach of power. He encouraged irrigation, pastures, mines, along with other methods of gathering resources. His government was very centralized as taxes were directly paid to him and soldiers did not receive any royal power. Asoka was also an imperialist conquerer who did it all without a bureaucracy. He got close to the Buddist clergy which reportedly enlightened him and began to make Buddist oriented changes in India. But, this alienated and upset many, eventually he even banned conquest which led to its dwindling in power. The state broke up in 232 BCE​.

Barbur and Akbar

Babur was an adventurer from Central Asia who raised war-bands west of the Hindu Kush mountains. He wished to rebuild his ancestor Timur's empire from the city of Samarkand in Central Asia but was turned to India after being defeated. In 1519, he became obsessed with conquering India, conquering Delhi and making it his capital. His state remained unstable until his grandson Akbar took over. He would run the Mughal Empire like a business, for profit. He invested in power and majesty and got rich returns in the form of tribute and taxes. Local rulers remained outside of the heartland, however, they supplied money for future conquests and the conquests were necessary for constant money flow. Akbar had no central institutions besides the court and the army so the empire would become unstable after a ruler would pass.

Seven Years' War

Began in 1756 and ended in 1763. It removed the French threat to the colonists' security with the British conquest of Canada and the French cession of Louisiana to Spain. The colonies were now free to challenge their English rulers. High costs on imperial defense encouraged Britain to seek new ways to tax America. It backfired and the colonists revolted due to British neglect.

Mycenean Civilization

Began to appear in the 1500s b.c.e. in the Peloponnese peninsula. The states here already had kings who often made war. The king's courts were centered around palace storehouses. The bureaucrats equipped rulers for constant warfare, they fought each other constantly. Pylos was one of the largest of the palaces, here they levied taxes, checked on landowners, mobilized resources and checked on raw materials. Women were often displayed in domestic mother roles. Traders from this civilization reached all the way up to Scandinavia. Earthquakes and wars made people abandon the Mycenean cities. The Cretan civilization and the Mycenean Civilization were important because even with their fragile economies they sustained themselves for quite long.

Condocet

Born in 1743, he was an optimist that took in every radical cause that came his way. Condorcet believed that humankind was heading for perfection. He saw that the population was rising, meaning that it was proof of progress, he says in The Progress of the Human Mind in 1794. People were more fertile, longer lived, and more willing to bring children into the world. He said this was a good thing.

Lliad and the Odyssey

Both developed by the Greek epic poet Homer in the 8th century BCE, these works are classic poetic timepieces. But, it is not just simple poetry, as these epics give researchers a lot of information on how society is structured before the period of the Greek city-states. There was an order of nobles, herders, peasants, and specialists revealed in these writings. ​The poems are in a sense a reflection of society. Some of the smallest details can have major implications on what Greek society was, like how businessmen were considered the scum of Greek society. depicting values and what it meant to 8th century BCE Greeks to be virtuous.

Brahman

Brahman is a sort of entity/deity mentioned in the early Ganges Unpanishad texts. This Upanishad tells of a story of how the powers of nature rebelled against nature itself; the lesser gods challenged the supreme god Brahman and they failed. It seemed like everything came from this god/being/everything, it is referred to being the universe, infinite and eternal. Brahman is used as a sort of 'theory of everything'. It emerged out of nothingness. The sages also proposed that the world is Brahman's dream, a creation as if it were asleep. Senses are not real, speech is illusory, and many other stunning claims.

Tokugawa Shogunate

By the 17th century, the Japanese have already developed a uniform set of notions about themselves and the Japanese have further isolated themselves from others. However, it was big and booming enough to generate an internal commercial revolution, which it did. This Japanese prosperity was founded on what they called the Great Peace, an era of internal peace following the reunification of Japan in the early seventeenth century under the Tokugawa chiefs. They ruled as shoguns in Edo while the emperors stayed figureheads. The key to their stability was the management of relations between the shoguns and the 260 daimyos who ruled the provinces.

High level equilibrium trap

China's economic dominance continues to last but it becomes vulnerable due to foreign suppliers exploiting the opium market. Substitution imports also started to become more common and mechanized industry also countered Chinese production. China was unable to mechanize production and was caught in a high-level-equilibrium trap. The economy was meeting high levels of demand with traditional technology that has little expansive value. An economy with a vast pool of human labor had no incentive to replace people with machines.

Colonialism

Colonialism during ancient times was an effective way to gain new resources and spread cultural spread influence. It was especially useful for states that could not survive just on their own and needed the materials from other regions to continue to grow. Greek colonialism was done through the advice of gods even for seemingly random reasons. Most Greek colonists were outcasts, exiles, or criminals, they had the opportunity to forge new societies. But, they often clung to Greek patterns and ties.

Manila Galleon

Commerce was opening trade around the world with new convoys linking Spain to America and the Americas to Africa. The Spanish ship, Manila Galleon, annually crossed the Pacific from the Philippines to Mexico. It would help develop a new route that facilitated the direct exchange of Mexican silver for Chinese silk and porcelain. Because of this, for the first time in history, trade was tied around the world, from the Americas, to Africa, to Eurasia in one single system.

Creolism

Eighteenth-century Mexican revolutionary Servando de Mier announced the political program of creolism. He said that America is ours because they were born in it and asserted the natural right of peoples in their respective regions.

Tang Dynasty

Emerged after the Sui Dynasty. It was a dynasty under Li Yuan. The second Tang emperor was Taizong an interventionist that broke up large landholdings and distributed them among taxpayers. Zhu Wen emerged as the most powerful man in China he replaced the Tang Dynasty. The Chinese dynasty was famous for its wealth and encouragement of its literature.

Axum

Ethiopia is a state that was largely isolated behind deserts and mountains. But, they had growing commerce during 500 CE thanks to trading accessible through the Indian Ocean via the Red Sea and the Mediterranean via Egypt. Outsiders saw Ethiopia's capital, Axum, as a place to trade luxury goods and slaves. The people of Axum however, spent most of their time farming land, able to produce 2-3 crops a year, including coffee. King Kaleb in the 6th century is able to take part of Southern Arabia.

Gorée

European slave stations were multiplying along the coast of West Africa. The largest of these stations was Gorée south of Cape Verde. The chaplain in the 1780s would try to secure the prettiest slave women for himself by founding a sisterhood of the Sacred Heart.

Ghana

First of the great commercial states that emerged in the fifth century CE in the upper Niger valley. Originally, the people were Iron Age farmers living I villages under local chief authority. Eventually, they united into the kingdom of Ghana. It was important because of the growing value of gold. The kingdom was near one of the richest gold producing areas in Africa. The gold was transported to Morocco and then distributed further. This made Ghana very rich via trade and gold. The king ruled by divine right and was extremely powerful. He was assisted by a hereditary aristocracy. By the 12th century, Ghana would fall to wars with Berber tribesman and collapse by the end of the century.

Angkor

For many centuries small chiefdoms and states had dotted the Mekong River valley. In the eighth century, the people from Khmer began to coalesce into a single kingdom centered around Angkor. Angkor's wealth comes from how the Mekong works, it floods by monsoon rains into the plain of Tonle Sap. The soil there is so rich that Angkor is able to yield three rice crops a year. The city was also well placed enough to contact other major rice lands. It eventually became a large imperial capital in 802 with King Jayavarman II proclaiming himself to be the monarch of the universe.

Trading-post empires

For most of the seventeenth century, European involvement in Asia were "trading-post empire" involvement. The Portuguese started this trend by sending merchants and travelers would to go into regions like India and assimilate/marry with the local populations and creating new European trading posts via those new relationships. The posts were usually mutually beneficial. The Portuguese, English and Dutch companies conducted trade with Europe in Asian spices and had similar trade like this in the New World.

Cyrus the Great

Founder of the Persian empire from a province called Fars. In the mid-sixth century BCE, he launched a coup against one of the biggest successor states of Assyria, Medes. He would later move into modern day Palestine and Afganistan, expanding the empire. He accumulated a huge amount of power and went as far as to say that he wanted the whole of Europe and Asia. Persia was regarded as a conquest state that was poor in resources and it was only through conquest that they could thrive. It was so large that it needed routes of long-range trade and better communications to run it more efficient​ly.

Silk Roads

Goods carried by sea were generally faster to export with more variety. Eurasian long rage trade was small scale via trade routes but the goods traded were high in value. Evidence helps determine that the Silk Roads were developing in China, one of the greatest written records of it being the journey of Zhang Qian. He was a Chinese ambassador in 139 BCE that was on his way to Bactria looking for allies against the steppelanders. He was captured for 10 years, escaped, captured again, and would eventually return home soon after. In 111 BCE a garrison would be founded known as Dunhuang on the western border of China. This de​ssert/mountain region was often called the throat of China, were many roads of the Western ocean converged.

Great Zimbabwe

Great large states are not created due to the Bantu Migrations for the most part. However, one exception is Great Zimbabwe. It was a clump of villages that were enclosed around large stone walls. It traded with the Swahili coast and inland countries.

Genghis Khan

Having contact with richer neighbors gave Mongol chiefs access to enrichment via raiding and mercenary work. Having power in war created bands of followers and factionalism among the Mongols, powerful leaders would make others submit to them. This form of leadership spread among other tribes such as the Tartars and Turks. A leader in 1206 proclaimed himself as khan, or ruler, of everyone who lived in 'felt-tents', claiming a huge swath of the steppe empire. He had the title of Genghis Khan, or "Ocean-King", his real name being Temujin. There is a lot of myth surrounding his life and happenings, in Mongolia he is still considered a national hero. Genghis Khan is interpreted differently depending on who is viewing him because he addressed different people differently. Muslims saw him as an instrument of God who was sent to punish them for their sins; the Chinese saw him as a candidate for the mandate of heaven. The Mongols saw him as someone who brought treasure and victory. Genghis Khan pushed for unity across the steppelands and used the Mongol ideology that it was his right to conquer the world through terror. Wherever the Mongols went on their expansions, other countries became more and more fearful of them. The Mongol conquests reached farther and lasted longer than any other previous nomad empire.

Mencius

He was a 4th century BCE Confucian philosopher. He is best known for his claims that human nature is inherently good.

Hinduism

Hinduism is one of the oldest major world religions that emerges in 1500 BCE with the Vedic age. As the Aryans migrate into South Asia, they merge with the local populations to form, Sanscrit, the Indian high language with which the Rig Vedas were written. Hinduism is focused more on individual and moral obligations with a strong ethical/moral core. The religion formed a people's identity, providing behavioral guides and ideological practices to follow. Hinduism is not exactly a polytheistic religion, rather, it involves a supreme god or entity, known as Brahman. Stemming from that, the divine come in humanoid forms that personify nature or concepts; there is one force driving the universe but the concepts in the universe are personified. During 1000 BCE to 500 BCE, the caste system develops. It can be described as a way of organizing society into different categories that dictate their social standings in life in order to specialize the labor force. You can not move up or down in this system unlike a class system, one can only move once one has died and your soul moves onto someone who's in another caste.

The Global Religions

Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam were the major global religions that developed during varying time periods. However, each has reached a wide mass of believers and followers that carried the religions into continued modern day practice.

Hippocrates

Hippocrates founds the secular school of health, the Hippocratics, in the600's BCE. The Hippocratic school of thought argued that health was a balance among four substances in the human body: blood, phlegm, and black and yellow bile. Adjusting the balance would alter people's state of health, which including dieting, vomiting, laxatives, and bloodletting. It was obviously a wrong theory, but it was the first to be scientific because it used observations of what the body expels.

Simón Bolívar

In 1813 a Venezuelan revolutionary who probably masterminded all of Spanish American independence, declared that every Spaniard that did not join the revolutionary cause was to be killed. He organized massacres and the systemic destruction of Spaniard property. Basically he wanted 300 years of Spanish culture destroyed.

Nubia

In Africa, development was quite slow and localized due to isolation. When Egypt weakened in 750 BCE, it loosened its grip on Nubia and it reemerged as a new state. It had cities at Napata and Meroe. Egyptian culture heavily influenced Nubian culture. However, late in the millennium, it reverted to the Nubian mother tongue. This signified a change from a Nubian state to a more Sudanic one. New hard iron discoveries and the spread of the Bantu languages made trade for Nubia easier. Trade became a new way of life for Nubia.

Zhu Hong and Han Shan

In China (16th and 17th centuries), Zhu Hong and Han Shan made new reforms presented Buddhism as a religion people could practice at home. They said that devotees could worship the Buddha, fast, go vegetarian, wear a saffron robe, and preform the same rituals as monks and that was enough to solidify oneself as Buddhist. This made the religion overall more accessible and open to others.

Wahhabism

In modern-day Romania, the emperor Ottoman conceded autonomy to the local people. The Arabian provinces of the Ottoman dominions seceded in religious rebellion. Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab launched a religious reform movement named Wahhabism. It called for a return to Quranic purity and rejected the legitimacy of the Ottomans' claims to the caliphate. The Wahhabites conquered Arabia and pressed on the borders of Ottoman-controlled Iraq.

Chaco Canyon

In parts of what is now Colorado and New Mexico/Arizona evidence of a political network spreads over 57,000 square miles. It is a system of roadways radiating from a canyon near the Chaco River. No clear use for all these roads, perhaps moving armies, rituals, etc. The area seems inhospitable because of its dryness, limited resources, and trade for settled people. However, it was densely settled in patches. They built large ambitious cities and ceremonial centers too. The political system is inferred to be brutal on its people with mass executions taking place in some sites. The economy also seemed fragile due to irregular flooding from the Chaco River. Dyer climates in the 12th century lead to adaptions with more labor and new zones of building, however by the mid-12th-century settlements moved to high lands and disappeared by the 19th century.

Counter Reformation

In response to the Calvinist and Lutheran movements taking place in Europe, the Catholic Church decides to start a new movement called the Counter Reformation. It reconverted some churches to Roman obedience. It happened due reactions against Protestants aka people who seceded from the Church in 1529 to protest against the church's condemnation of Luther. The other aim was to pursue the project that all Christian elites wanted completed, the re-Christinaization of Europe. New religious orders rose to to this job, like the Society of Jesus in 1540 that taught various values and mystic prayer. Jesuits also become effective Roman Catholic educators and missionaries around the world.

Mamluks

In the 1200s, Egypt is in chaos because of southern pastoralists revolts and a revolt by the Mamluks, who were slaves that formed the elite fighting force of Egypt. Arming slaves originally worked well for some time since 1192. The slaves were largely Turkish people displaced by Mongol rebels. Eventually, the Mamluks developed their own strength and in the 1250s they rebelled, blaming the sultan for not rewarding them fairly for their services. In 1254 they replace the last heir of Saladin with rulers from their own ranks. Later in 1268 and 1291, they take the last crusader states on the coast of Syria and Palestine, effectively keeping the Mongols out of Africa.

Joint-Stock Company

In the 1590s, Jan van Linschoten, Dutch servant of the Portuguese archbishop of Goa, extended Dutch business into the Indian Ocean. In 1602, this formed the Dutch East India Compay, a joint-stock company. This was a business whose capital is held in transferable shares of stock by its joint owners. After being virtually unchallenged from any other competition, leading merchants of the port of Amsterdam who controlled the government in Holland formed a joint-stock company to monopolize trade with Asia. However, the Dutch would continue to prevail and dominated European/Asian trade.

Justinian

In the east after a western collapse, the Roman empire had transformed into the Byzantine Empire. During the 6th/7th centuries, the Byzantine's had clashes with Persia and during the 8th, it had a fluctuation in migrants. Justinian was the emperor from 527-567 and tried to apply a grand strategy of unification. The empire at his time was mainly Mediterranean focused but he wanted to restore Rome to its former glory. He is considered more of a revolutionary, however, as he often broke his own rules, imposed heavy taxes on the rich and messed around with the clergy. His empress, Theodora, worked closely with him. Justinian was very ambitious and thought of himself as being quite grand; he also fought the barbarians constantly. But his attempts at restoration only disintegrated the empire at a faster rate. ​

Cahokia

In the regions of the North American Southeast between the 9th and 13th centuries, people laid out ceremonial centers in patterns similar to those of Mesoamerica. They were platforms topped with chambered structured grouped around plazas. The platforms grew generation after generation. The city of Cahokia of St. Louis is a site like this. It stands at the northwest limit of where the culture it belongs to reaches. This frontier position may have made it a commercial gateway between zones of different environments with different goods. It was a large city with a 100-foot central platform. It first arose in the 10th century and remains as one of the greatest monumental works from the 11th and 12th centuries. It was an intensely elaborate focal point for new settlements to radiate around it too. It looked to be a successful imperialist city. By the 13th and 14th centuries, the city declines and disappears but the culture it left behind continued to live on and displaced elsewhere.

Emperor Constantine (King Ezana, King Trdat)

Initially, Christianity had a small following that mostly catered to people who were poor, slaves, women, and outcasts; the lowest levels of society. Over time, however, the conversion of 3 great rulers would spread the religion at an extremely fast rate. Emperor Constantine of Rome would be converted after reportedly seeing a vision of a cross on the sun, giving him a message to continue conquering. But, in the interest of keeping himself divine, he continued to support pagans in the empire. But, he redefined the sacredness of what it meant to be emperor into Christian terms, being called the 'God's Deputy' on Earth and refers to himself as an 'apostle'. By the 4th century, Christianity combines or displaces other pagan religions in the Empire. The ruler of Axum in Ethiopia Ezana, however, converted as a means to appropriate a religion of peace during his warpath. It was a moralistic view on justifying war while also becoming aware of the good people serving the state. King Trdat in the 3rd century was an anti-Christain who supposedly converted after doing various misdeeds to his subjects, however this is largely legend to demonstrate a 'change of heart' story to make others convert.

Romanticism

Intellectual and artistic movement that arose in reaction to the Enlightenment's emphasis on reason. Romantics had a heightened interest in nature and religion, and emphasized emotion and imagination.

Seljuk

It is not clear why the Turks were attracted to Isam because, during the time they appropriated it, they did not need any new religious justifications for warfare, paganism was enough. The Karkhanids, however, were the first to subscribe to Islam. Their conversion would lead to consequences for the future as it would fuse manpower and expertise in war. In 985, Seljuk was a Turkic chief who wanted to conquer the world with a state he had won through conquest in Central Asia. His decision to convert was extremely impactful as his descendants were some of the most effective Islamic frontiersmen.

Jericho and Çatalhüyük

Jericho was an early farming community on the river Jordan 10,000 years ago where the area around the ​river was incredibly lush. Rich wheat fields grew in this area because the river was thick with silt which nourished the topsoil there. Within that same period (9,000 to 11,000 y.a.) the town of Çatalhüyük was emerging in Anatolia, Turkey. It stood on an alluvial plain where the river Çasamba flooded. Here they farmed wheat and beans. The people also formed houses honeycombed together, all identical, built with mudbricks. Smaller settlements near Çatalhüyük communicated in the Jordan valley and traded with each other, enriching the city. It lasted for over 2,000 years, however, the river soon dried and the city disappeared. Jericho and Çatalhüyük show that farming was capable of sustaining life through difficult periods.

Anti-Semitism

Jews have historically been persecuted for much of their history. Anti-semitism can be traced back to Christian prejudices, the Gospel blamed the death of Jesus on them. In the Greek and Roman world, anti-Semitism is even older than Christianity. Medieval anti-Semitism was one aspect of the wider phenomenon of society's inability to accept groups that could not assimilate. At the time of the Black Death, Jews were accused of well poisoning, but others were also accused like strangers and unpopular people. It is surprising that Jews are so hated because they created a lot of tradition. Persecution drove Jews away to new centers being forced out of France, western Germany, Spain, and Portugal. They settled in the Mediterranean, Poland, and Lithuania.

Timbuktu, Mali

Mali emerges after the destruction of Ghana at the end of the 12th century. It extended from the Atlantic coast inland to Timbuktu. Mali built its wealth and power with trade and gold. The heart of Mali is the south of the Savana were it was moist enough to grow crops. Wealth accumulated in the cities where the merchants lived. Commercial activities were taxed which was extremely lucrative.

Karl Marx

Marx foretold that industrialization would aggravate class warfare. He first thought about the industrializing world in 1830 and 1840 and thought that it must be right. Marx thought workers would discover their power and realize that their labor is the source of society's wealth and demand their fair share of prosperity. This would lead into a bloody revolution where the working class would overthrow the bourgeoisie. Really this didn't happen.

Robespierre

Maximilien Robespierre joints the French Estates General in 1789 as a popular representative. He wanted aristocratic power reduced, wanted wealth for the peasants and wanted religious liberty. He wanted the worlds first real democracy. When counterrevolutionaries rejected these ideas he responded with violence. In 1793 he explained that he used terror because he did not trust ordinary people to know what was good for them without any help from intellectual superiors. Perfection by purgation.

Missionaries

Missionizing was often rare for Protestants. The Roman Catholic orders had enough manpower to have big missions across the globe to spread religious ideas. Success, however, was not very consistent. Spanish rule in the Philippines built a large Christian community in Asia for example, but most mission fields were not productive. They were also in competition with Muslim missionaries like those from Brunei. Franciscans and Jesuits in Japan found success in converting lords who then would convert followers. It would spread, but it would later be banned in 1639 halting it's progress. China, however, was unmoved by missionary influences. In the New World, conversion was attempted through bottom-up strategies and millions were baptized.

Monasticism

Monasticism is a religious way of life were hermits and antisocial ascetics would leave their worldly possessions and pursue monkhood as a response to the problems occurring around them. For Christian monastics, it would make their lives 'regular' as they could concentrate on houses of work, study, and prayer to benefit society. The earliest Christian monastics emerged from Egypt in the second century trying to imitate Jesus' self-exile in the desert. One of the most influential Christain monk writers was the Benedict of Nursia around 542. He started as a cave-dwelling ascetic and eventually established his own community. He is responsible for rededicating the shrines of Jupiter and Apollo to St. Martin and John the Baptist respectively. Benedict wrote rules for monks that were universal to follow; the quest for salvation, prayer, manual labor, etc. Monasteries become centers for colonizing wastelands.

Monte Albán

Monte Albán is now known as the Mexican state of Oaxaca. It was the first potential Mesoamerica imperial power. An increase in population leads to their supremacy in the region, using irrigation methods to create food surpluses. They spread their settlement areas around and in the middle of the millennium, even larger settlements appear. Populations began to pour into the settlements and by 200 BCE it was a gigantic city with natural defenses enhanced by large defensive walls. Their art depicts warlike values and parades of sacrifice victims. Eventually, they would construct Teotihuacán​.

Legalism

Mostly a minority framework of thought in China, Legalism was quite extreme in terms of being illiberal. It was founded in the fourth century BCE and essentially stated that goodness is meaningless. Society should just obey the laws that have been put over them no matter what they say. Morality is nonsense, the only good was the state. Law and order are worth it even if it means having a tyrannical government because the state must be preserved. All other schools want to make human law more moral by aligning it with natural law. It tends to show up more in China when disasters have struck. The Qin Dynasty reflected much of this rhetoric.​

Code Napoléon

Napoleon was one of the most inventive rationalizers of states, reorganizing them to conform to reason rather than tradition, history or religion. He imposed a uniform law code on his conquests, Code Napoléon being particularly impressive. Through this, he summoned new states into being, suppressed/re-carved others, and imposed a constitutional government when it's never existed before.

Diderot

New thinking in 18th century Europe was met with some distrust, censorship, and persecution. This is seen in the French Encyclopedia, Reasoned Dictionary of the Sciences, Arts and Trades (1751/1772). By 1779 25000 sets were sold throughout Europe even if it was condemned by governments. Denis Diderot was able to mastermind the project, it was a comprehensive work that described a lot of knowledge like utility, engineering, mechanics and technology.

Sufism

Nothing like monasticism exists in Islam. The Quran warned against the Christian monks which Mohammad regarded blasphemous. But, Christian influence remained in early 8th century Islam anyhow and Hasan al-Basri quoted Jesus to help his claim that asceticism was good for the worshipper. He promoted fasting and meditation to induce a sense of identity with God. The female mystic Rabia al-Adawiyya later on reportedly had a vision of Muhammad asking her if she loved him but she replied with saying that only God fills her. The beliefs of these mystics gathered devotees who organized themselves into orders and founded common houses/schools and trained in mysticism. These people were called Sufis.

Kubilai Khan

One of Genghis Khan's grandsons who lived from 1214 to 1294. He continued Genghis Khan's policies regarding trying to conquest the world, but he became extremely transfixed on the conquest of China. Thus he did not assert his supremacy over other Mongol leaders who resisted his claims to the west of the Mongol world. Kubilai's Chinese subjects also did not like his ritual policies and foreign ways of ruling, hating his rule. However, he did try to give reverence to Confucianism but remained a Mongol khan. He respected the abilities of women giving them high positions in society and defied Confucian teaching often. At the same time, however, he wanted to look like a Chinese emperor, adopting a lot of their traditional garbs and such.

Mansa Musa

One of the most powerful kings of Mali. He did not particularly give anything substantial in terms of the economy, however, he did a lot for the growth of the Muslim faith. He built several mosques, promoted the study of the Qur'an, and brought scholars to teach the religion. Musa famously took the pilgrimage to Mecca and took thousands of people with him. The people of Mali were so rich that then they spent money at Cairo during their journey, they permanently raised prices there.

Syncretism

Outside of Spanish and Portuguese colonies and in those of British and Dutch were plantations were not accessible to Catholic orders, the lack of missionary activity was significant. Because of this, African religions continued to persist, syncretism happened. This is the combination of different religious beliefs into one. Black religion in America became distinctive. There was a lot of enthusiasm.

Berbers

Pastoral people of North Africa, they served as intermediarries carrying food products and manufactured goods from Carthage across the desert and exchanging them for salt, gold, and copper. They also shared skins, various agricultural products and perhaps slaves.

Peter the Great

Peter the Great was a Russian czar; he tugged the frontier of Europe eastward by making his lands more like Western Europe. His rule was an information revolution, technology, fashion, and taste had been transferred over to the frontier. Peter moved the capital from Moscow to the city of St. Petersburg on the Baltic. He also redrafted the Russian alphabet and remodeled the aristocracy's facial hair. Preachers of the time call Peter the sculptor and architect of Russia as he completely remodeled the country and even his palace furniture. He also let Russian women come out of the home where they were previously confined. Peter saw role models in foreign states like the Dutch, Germans and Swedish.

Phoenicia

Phoenicia was a maritime culture along the Mediterranean with their trade beginning in the early first millennium BCE. They had access to the waters via harbors and behind them, they had forests of timber. This region's people were also known for being excellent craftsmen. During this time, the only way to trade with a region was to colonize and force it to do so, which is was the Phoenician's did. They established early colonies in Tunisia and Cadiz among others. With these regions occupied, Phoenicia was able to break into the Atlantic, building new cities in new areas and promoting cultural exchange. These colonies persisted even after Phoenicia fell. Carthage, one of the major Phoenician colonies, tried to control Mediterranean trade in 500 BCE but was quickly subdued by the Romans and was obliterated by 146 BCE Phoenician literature disappeared beyond this point. It is important to note that Pheonencia basically started the alphabet system of writing.

Etruscans

Phoenician and Greek colonization/trade made a Mediterranean highway of cultural exchange. It is important to remember that there were several other cultures on the peninsula that mingled with each other. In order to understand Phoenician and Greek development, one needs the contexts of the other states around them. The Etruscans are one such state who were around in 500 BCE. The Etruscans were on the north shore of the Mediterranian, creating some of the earliest cities in Italy that were originally malarial marshes They spoke an unknown language, however, from their art, they specialized in theater and soothsaying. Their culture derives from across the Mediterranian and women enjoyed freedoms, unlike Greek women. Greeks felt as though the Etruscans were vulgar and strange, especially with regards to the treatment of women.

Hanseatic League

Population and production increases in the 12th century lead to new trade ro​utes that knitted Atlantic and Mediterranean seabords into a single economy. New economic activity was becoming possible in growing towns. Lübeck founded in 1143 was the pioneer city for the Hanseatic League. Founded in 1356, it was a powerful network of allied ports along the North Sea and Baltic coasts that collaborated to promote trade. After that, Mediterranean crafts from Genoa, Majorca, and Spain made large scale ventures along the Atlantic coasts. Exchanges across cast distances also made geographic specialization possible. This results in mass urbanization in Europe.

Rationalism

Rationalism was the doctrine that unaided reason can reach the truth and solve the world's problems. The first rationalist was Parmenides who was from a Greek colony in the 5th century BCE. He thought that if something like geometry was real, then you believe in the truth of a super-sensible world. No one has ever seen a perfect triangle, he argued, but we make crude manmade ones. That perfect triangle only exists in our minds, and so he argued that for every other object. The nonexistence of anything is an incoherent concept. Rationalism became an escapists alternative to reality.

the New Rich

Rich people whose wealth was acquired in the recent past, often in industry or commerce. The British aristocracy was able to survive the collapse of land prices by diversifying into commerce. Reversals of traditional class relationships were often subject to comic writers. The new rich were satirized villains and clowns. However, new money would slowly take over old money as the aristocracy waned.

Battle of Plassey

Robert Clive took a small barely professional army into India to conquer. They hardly had any technical advantages. However, he was able to destroy the Indian armies by dividing them. He put together a coalition that ousted the Nawab and Plassey in 1757 which basically turned into a battlefield coup. The Nawab was held back due to a conspiracy among his followers.

Roger Bacon

Roger Bacon was a 13th-century professor at the University of Paris. He stated that excessive deference to authority, like ancestral wisdom and customs, caused ignorance. He said scientific observations could help validate holy authority and medical experiments can help increase knowledge/save lives. He also said that science can make people convert infidels. His ideas were a part of a modest scientific revolution in Western Christendom.

Rousseau

Rousseau was one of the thinkers that thought differently than the Encyclopedia and he was the most influential to do so. He thought of the state as a corporation or organism in which the individual identities are submerged. Citizenship is thought of as an organic bond and thought that anyone who is constrained to obey general will should be free and that anyone that refuses to by should be constrained. It was like a balance/social contract.

Sikhism

Sixteenth century India creates this new religion called Sikhism, founded by Guru Nanak. It blended elements of Hindu and Muslim tradition, they believed it went beyond both. Nanak believed that he could not follow the Hindu or Muslim paths, so he wanted to 'follow the path of God' proclaiming that he was doing it right. Nanak traveled as a pilgrim learning a lot along the way. Mughal Emperor Akbar would found another religion in competition with Nanak. Akbar promoted discussion and tried to synthesize ideas from several religions. Aurangzeb, his successor would viciously promote Muslim ideas, causing beef with the Sikhs that would endure.

Tale of Genji

Some of the best known Japanese literature comes from the tenth and eleventh centuries. The Tale of Genji is one such piece by Murasaki Shikibu and it is one of the earliest realistic novels ever written. It takes place in palace chambers and corridors. Shikibu depicts a world where supreme values are snobbish and sensitive. The story also depicts a lot of what seems to be court interactions in Japan and internal court interactions between people. It also details how society is structured and how the poor suffer. Murasaki was an observer that portrayed the faults of a factional government system.

Axial Zone

The Axial Zone consists of what is known as Eurasia. It is a densely populated belt of the world population, communication, and cultural exchange in Eurasia that stretches from Japan and China to Western Europe and North Africa. This new developing experiments and innovations, the region became bigger and more developed as a result, incorporating new frontiers. The Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Pacific had smaller zones of development but were fragile in their existence.

Columbian Exchange

The Columbian Exchange is characterized by the trading of new crops/products between the Americas and Europe. A variety of crops indigenous to the Americas make their way out into Europe (potatoes, corn, cassava, etc.) which would become staple crops with high surplus value. This would raise populations dramatically in Europe. The Americas were introduced to domesticated animals, wine, wheat. The production of these new crops would completely change landscapes such as that of Central Mexico. The Columbian exchange would also make the Spanish insanely rich.

Dalai Lama

The Dalai Lama was the ruler and head of the Buddhist establishment of Tibet. At the invitation of Altan Khan, he visited Mongolia in 1576 and 1586. Human/blood sacrifices became forbidden, many traditional religious images were replaced with Buddhist statues and imagery. Over the next century, Buddhism spreads throughout society and the Mongol dominions. The next Dalai Lama would translate tons of Buddhist scripture into Mongolian.

Dharma

The Dharma doctrine emerges from the Buddha also referred to as Siddhartha Gautama. After learning some morals and virtuous by way of completely disconnecting himself from the rest of the world and also sitting under a tree for an extended period of time, Buddha comes up with the Dharma doctrine. They are essentially 4 Truths everyone should know and should live by in order to achieve a higher ethical standard or enlightenment (nirvana). It states that life is suffering, the source of suffering is desire, and follow the eightfold path. Dharma was used during Asoka's imperial reign in the 1st century BCE.

Touissaint L'Ouverture

The French Revolution provoked ideas of liberation around the world. In Haiti the revolution was more focused on whether free black and mixed raced people should vote. A slave revolutionary in 1791 starts it. In 1792 Léger-Félicité Sonthonax was ordered to stop the unrest in the colony. The British also invaded and he freed a bunch of slaves in the northern province. There he met Toussaint L'Ouverture who would seize power in 1797. He was then captured in 1802 and the Haitian resistance became stronger. In 1804 L'Ouverture's successor Jean-Jacques Dessalines denounces the French and eventually get independence in 1825.

Delhi Sultanate

The Ghurids by 1190 started raiding Hindu India. Their strongest outpost was at the city of Delhi in northern India. The commander of the outpost Iltutmish was able to exploit local rivalries to construct a state from the Indus River to the Bay of Bengal. Mongol conquests in Central Asia protected the region which became the Sultanate of Delhi. The Mongols essentially kept any rivals out of the area. There was no form of administration in the region, the sultan was the overlord of lands and granted it to warriors in exchange for military service. The sultanate remained volatile throughout its history with troubles regarding rule among its elite. Neighboring states and state expansion were both problems and the Mongol threat was always hanging over the state.

Gupta Dynasty

The Gupta empire stretched out across the northern, central and parts of southern India. The demise of the Gupta empire was due to invasions by stepplenaders. The empire showed little resilience. After its collapse, kingdoms in South India boosted their revenues, reach and power by granting wasteland to priest, monks, and warriors to farm.

Hittite Kingdom

The Hittite Kingdom existed between 1800 b.c.e. to 1210 b.c.e. and stood on the Anatolia plateau of modern day Turkey. Small towns have flourished in this region before, notably Çatalhüyük. However, by the time the kingdom was rising, the climate had changed significantly into a much harsher region that scorched and froze crops. It also developed small patches of cultivatable land and bigger grasslands. Rain would rarely fall in the area. In the middlemost region of Anatolia, people who began calling themselves children of the god Hatti took these cultivatable patches of land and developed a single network of production and distribution under a united people. The Hittite Kingdom was an empire built on a foundational relationship between the herder and the farmer, making the most out of the Anatolian land. The empire was stable thanks to peasants two often did both, they support the state and the state protects them. The king was considered the sun god's partner; responsible for war, justice, and relations with the gods. He had a large bureaucratic court behind him to help with cases across the empire. Laws also punished theft and trespassing. The empire's economy, however, was fragile/poor in resources, they needed to keep conquering regions to gain these. Ultimately it was unable to keep up and faded away in 1210 b.c.e.

Mughal Empire

The Indian Mughal empire, founded in 1519 by Babur, was an empire that left political, social, demographic and economic structures of their conquest states alone. Babur's new state was unstable until the rule of his grandson Akbar in 1556-1605. Akbar ran the empire like a business, run for profit. Akbar would invest in power/majesty and the returns would be in tribute and taxes. The heartlands never extended much beyond the original Babur lands, beyond here, power structures and local rulers remained in place but provided tribute for future conquests. Akbar needed a constant stream of victories for the empire to remain put together. Central institutions did not exist beyond the court or the army.

Yamato

The Japanese were free of the steppeland threat. Chinese culture arrives in the area at around 400. The leading state was known as the Yamato and wished to grow bigger within the Japanese islands. At around 475, Yuryaku, the king of Yamato asks China to recognize its legitimacy. He claims he should have it since he conquered much of Japan with a warlike culture. However, he was advised by Korea, under Chinese influence, to follow Buddist/Confusious practices and develop farming in the mid-6th century. Direct contact with China opens in the 7th century and the Yamato really want to be equals with China. In 640 they narrowly avoid Chinese immigrant rule and reassert their own powers through various monarchical rule changes. ​

Jewish Covenant

The Jews came to inhabit the small kingdoms of Israel and Judah around the Jordan Valley in the 8th or 9th century BCE. They fought each other constantly, but, when they fell to neighboring kingdoms, they faced a forced migration to Babylon in 580 BCE after being exiled from Jerusalem. This caused the Jews to reevaluate the way they looked at God in the 7th to 5th centuries BCE. They began to see one God who made people suffer as trials of faith or punishments for sin. With a Covenant, Jews think God will promise deliverance onto them as a reward for good behavior. They lived by the rules and rituals prescribed to them, known as "the Law".

Maya Civilization

The Maya inhabited the environments of Guatemala, the Yucatán, and the tropical low lands of Central America. Across this vast region, they had differences across their territory but had common enough threads in their culture to stay together. Maya rulers took care of war, spiritual communication, and building/embellishing monumental ceremonial centers. Mayan politics was dictated by city-states each of which had their motives for expansion, alliances, etc., but also traded and had war with each other. Peasants surrounded cities with their farmlands. Everything the Mayans felt that was important was often written down. It was often conquest propaganda or ritual descriptions. Mayan civilization disappears by the 9th and 10th centuries probably due to unsustainability, low land vulnerability or revolutions.

Qing Dynasty

The Ming Empire is unable to deal with ecological disasters, floods, and famines in the 1630s. Peasant rebellions soon follow into civil wars to capture the throne. In 1590, a chief of a Manchurian pastoral war band begins to call himself emperor. The 1636 successor of Nurhaci, Abahai decrees a new ideology called 'Qing'. Several civil wars later, the Manchus take over the country and the Qing Dynasty arises.

Teotihuacán

The Monte Albán people constructed this large settlement consisting of large buildings and pyramid temples. It was an amazing case of empire building. Eventually, the Monte Albán population shifted into Teotihuacán perhaps due to war at the end of the millennium. They built the Sun Pyramid and many other monumental structures. It seems like ecologically, life was fragile as rainfall and the nutrition of soil was rather unpredictable. It grew for over 350 years.

Suleiman the Magnificent

The Ottoman Empire was surrounded by enemies and needed an especially strong army to survive and needed a good amount of efficiency to prosper. They were eventually able to expand, taking over Egypt in 1517, taxing it a lot. Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566) was an army leader whose troops reached Belgrade in the northwest Balkans and the island of Rhodes. This conquest against Hungary ended with a conquest of most of the country in 1525. His pace of the conquest was unprecedented, taking over Iraq and Persia then, the rest of Arabia. He moved up to the southern shore of the Mediterranian.

Goa

The Portuguese were able to expand their frontiers to Goa in 1510 despite being exposed out of other East African outposts. Goe was a part of what the Portuguese called the New Conquests and were able to acquire 30,000 new Indian subjects.

Qianlong Emperor

The Qing moved around Mongol bands along the weak points in the boarderlands as well as introducing some into the empire. The Qianlong emperor in 1771, for example, was welcomed back into the imperial fold (Torghut people). The Torghuts abandoned Russian overlordship and returned to western Mongolia. It was essentially a way for the Qing to subdue nomadic peoples and bring them under imperial discipline.

Augustus

The Roman state was originally composed of two annually elected chiefs and an assembly of nobles known as the Senate. When the state expanded in times of war, power was given to a group of dictators. Who were expected to let go of control afterward. But a struggle emerged for power in the second half of the 1st century BCE and the system broke down between rival contenders of power. In 27 BCE, Augustus emerged victoriously and became the head of state. Henceforth, Rome became a monarchy with Augustus securing his successors which the Romans were not content with. Eventually, the emperor was the word to use for the ruler, emphasizing the point that he controlled the army.

Barbarians

The Romans were having trouble with the German frontier as it slowly began to crumble and they moved the center of gravity in the state to the east in Constantinople (323) as the western part of the empire began to collapse. War, aristocratic instability, and more led to the eventual loss of the western Roman empire in 476. This led to the rise of foreign kingdoms owned by the so-called barbarians. The barbarians pretended as if the Roman empire was still alive in their regions retaining a mix of their own cultures and Roman influence. They had transformed the Roman empire into their own.

Safavid Empire

The Safavid empire in Persia (1501-1773) had a state with a universalist rhetoric with an all-powerful ruler and flexible relationships between rulers and autocracies. They benefited from the growth of trade across Eurasia; they were especially powerful in the silk trade. They had ancient traditions of kingship and focused on Muslim political thought to legitimize ruling. Their rules of succession, however, were divisive and bloodily enforced. The capital of Isfahan was huge, wealthy, and powerful. Bureaucracy was not a method of ruling for the Safavids. They used a hereditary class of warrior horsemen to enforce taxation and repress rebellions. Their politics was interesting because they used Shiism as the basis for legitimacy and rejected their steppleander past, going against nomads.

Ghana and Gao

The Sahel is a belt of grassland that links East Africa to the Niger valley in West Africa. Around the 3rd century BCE, commerce, urban life, and industry show up in the archaeological record. By the 1st century CE the population became denser with the region becoming a crossroads were traders from the north dealt with goods from the south. Toward 1000 CE, the states of Ghana and Gao particularly impressed Arabs. Ghana was located in the territory of the Soninke people, west of the middle Niger River. It's capital Kumbi Saleh was robust. Both Ghana and Gao were enriched by trade taxes and had kings that were considered extremely sacred like gods. This form of kingship spread to other regions in the Sahel like Zaghawa in the Chad region.

Visigoths

The Visigoths were a Germanic people otherwise known as the Western Goths. They were not nomadic by custom, however, they were often in need of lands to cultivate. The Ostrogoths, for instance, were farming Ukraine when the Huns displaced them into Visigoth territory in 370. In 376, over 200,000 Visigothic refugees move into the Roman empire, where they were essentially left with no hope and starved at fault of the Romans. They took revenge through the battle of Adrianople in 378. From 395 to 418, they continued destructive migrations across Rome, sacking it in 410. ​

Mandarins

The Zhengde emperor (1505-1521) tried to break the power of the mandarins (high public officials in the Chinese Empire, usually chosen by merit after competitive written exams) by surrounding himself with eunuchs and monks. Beginning in 1517, he insisted on a campaign against the Mongols which was against mandarin ideals but was forced to stop. In 1587, the Wanli emperor defied the mandarins by asserting his power and altering the rules of succession, passing power to his eldest son. The government came to halt and eventually the emperor backed down.

Boers

The biggest European menace appeared in the southern tip of the continent. The Xhosa felt increasing pressure from the Dutch expansion from the Cape. Dutch farmers, also known as the Boers, halted at the edge of the Zuurveld in wars that ended in 1795. Meanwhile, the British seized the Cape Colony from the Dutch East India Company.

Alexander the Great

The city of Macedon takes hegemony in Greece. It was an outside Greek chiefdom that developed into its own state. By 338 BCE, King Phillip was having ideas to on conquering Persia. However, he was unable to complete his desires and was accented by Alexander the Great. His own motives for wanting to conquer Persia are not known, but, within 3 years of campaigns, he destroys the Persian Empire (334 BCE). Alexander proclaims himself the Great King. Alexander reported omens that gave him divine favor, he may have thought of himself as divine. In the last years of his life, his control faded by trying to push Persian tradition on Greeks and Macedonians. His troops also grew insubordinate and overstepped himself with an attempted invasion of India. But, he leaves behind a well-known hero legacy.

Smallpox

The colonization of the New World started one of the worst recorded demographic disasters of all time. Smallpox was fatal to the immune systems of populations that have never encountered the disease and it was a potent killer. It was clear that the diseases brought to the Native American societies were new and had grave effects even if they had suffered plagues on their own. These diseases would cause the collapse of entire populations, wiping out most native people and others falling to 90%.

Crusades

The crusading movement started as an outgrowth from pilgrimage. In the tenth and eleven centuries, Christians would make pilgrimages as an act of penance for their sins. Pilgrimages were theoretically peaceful journeys, however, they adopted the Muslim notion of holy war. Sanctified were those who fought and died for Christianity. They wanted war for the recovery of Jerusalem and wanted to spill Muslim blood. These thoughts and devotions come together in 1090 where hysteria generated poorly armed armies to fight for regaining Jerusalem. However, through this army of Christian movements, a lot of conquests along the Mediterranean happened.

Monocultures

The cultivation of a single dominant food crop, like potatoes or rice. Societies that practice monoculture were vulnerable to famine if bad weather or disease caused their single food crop to fail. Monocultures would often be developed during imperialism. Plants of the world would reach Europe and be redistributed to the different colonies around the globe. The European empires became experiments for ecological exchange.

Song Dynasty

The founder of the Song Dynasty was Taizu, an emperor who realized that China's new opportunities lay in a further shift in the center of gravity of the empire to the southwest. Under the Song dynasty, the native tribes had to be suppressed. The Song Empire was wealthy and emphasized the patronage for the arts. It always had to share China's traditional territory with steppeland invaders who created dynasties and empires of their own in the north.

Kepler and Copernicus

The great scientific figures of the scientific revolution in the Western world in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries rejected magic as explanations for the phenomenons happening in the world. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) was able to figure out the path of the planets around the sun. Empirical methods, rational explanations and facts were then more regularly relied on. In 1543, Poland, Nicolaus Copernicus proposed that the Earth was in fact revolving around the sun. With Kepler's work, he mapped orbits and expanded the limits of observing the heavens.

Anatolia

The name given to the plateau/peninsula between the Black Sea and the Mediterranian Sea, it is modern day Turkey. The region has housed several ancient civilizations throughout its existence 9,000 to 11,000 years ago. Notably, the societies of Çatalhüyük and the Hittite Kingdom thrived here. Over time, this region has become dryer as evidenced by the drying up of the Çasamba and other rivers. Additionally, the land became unpredictable with scorching/freezing temperatures and the development of deserts. Little rain would come to the region. These factors made it much harder to farm on. Area for cultivation was only available in certain small regions, tough grasslands covered others, making it perfect for a combination of herding and farming.

Coast of Zanj

The people living on the coast of East Africa have had an active part in trade along the coast and the Indian ocean. It began with the arrival of Arab traders in the first millennium CE. The Zanj land produced products such as leopard skins that were popular, turtle shells, and ivory. Most of the coastal states were self governing and made their wealth through trading and taxes. By the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, mixed Arab-African cultures developed along the Swahili coast. The Arab and Bantu mixed languages making Swahili.

Anticlericalism

The people who were most bothered about the Encyclopedia was the Church, especially because the work catalogued clerical crimes. The work even described that a person could be both God and man and told people to be better than Christians. Promoted science over things like faith. Montesquieu in Persian Letters had the same sentiment and was mad about the church inhibiting sex. Voltaire called Christianity an infamous superstition. As a result of these powerful thinkers, people in France stopped mentioning God in their wills and religious donations faltered. New mistrust of religions.

El Niño

The periodic reversal of the normal flow of Pacific currents. At irregular intervals (1 to 2 decades) El Niño brings torrential rains into the Andes and also kills fish. This was a major problem for budding Andes civilizations that were trying to get by. Other crises regarding food, soil, and war made these societies generally short lived.

Millenarianism

The plague had disturbed the peasant sense of security and stability which was associated with traditional ways of life. Governments were also responding with taxes and limiting labor mobility of the working force. The plague is making peasants go to religious extremes and rebellion. Revolt creates a new agenda called millenarianism, a belief that the end of the world is about to occur, foretold in the Book of Revelation. This empowered the poor and struck around Europe/China. Prophecies nourished revolt, which foretold peasants that a new section in history would occur where they ruled and they would have untold riches. All of these ideas caused greater social mobility in plague societies because of the death of the labor force, labor was more valued which allowed peasants to demand more out of the aristocracy.

Upanishads

The rather distant people of the Ganges Valley, whose origins are still debated upon. Their sages left behind copious amounts of literature. These texts originate from surviving old oral traditions that were written down in the first millennium BCE. The texts are the more theoretical sections of the Veda and show a recollection of a time of when these ideas were passed down orally. The sages theorized much about the nature of the universe and how the world functioned and what human perception of the world actually is. These kinds of thought processes are unheard of before this time period.

Hundred Schools

The religious teachings of sages highlight in a world full of new religions. During this time, there was no separation between religion and secular life. It is debated whether or not Confusious founded a religion due to his mixing of the veneration of gods and ancestors but he also did not interest himself in other worlds. In the same way, the other schools of thought in China, otherwise known as the Hundred Schools, mixed secular and religious thinking. Mozi, was ​against Confucious's mixing of secular and religious elements, becoming one of the first to advocate for universal love.

Noble Savage

The source used for the idea of a noble savage was the Hurons, NA from the Great Lakes. Philosophers who read missionary accounts about them liked their positive aspects and idealized them dramatically. The myth of the noble savage filtered into France in 1768 via a comedy. The Huron protagonist was a huntsman, lover and warrior vs the English.

Steppelands

The steppelands were north of the Great Wall of China that was largely inhospitable but was a good place to start an empire due to its size and the amount of flatlands. Several war bands existed in this region and they often conducted raids on the nearby Silk Roads. The Xiongnu people emerged in unison, wanting to pillage China for its riches as they were relatively poor. It eventually grows in power by gaining booty, ransoms, and protection money in the 3rd century BCE. As they grew, even bigger forces mobilized and in 176 BCE they conquered Gansu, becoming a serious threat to China. Between 127-120 BCE, Wei Qing mounted operations against the Xiongnu and their defense prevailed. General Ban Zhao would then make the empire collapse. ​

Remezov Chronicle

There several 16th and 17th Russian conquests that have significantly altered the course of Russia's history. Most of the conquests were built on the basis of 'spreading Christianity' to the natives. The Remezov Chronicle documents the particular conquest of Siberia. The chronicle was written in a monastery in about 1700 illustrated with 154 pen and ink drawings. The Russian territorial expansion is depicted as an evangelizing and civilizing mission.

Poverty Point Culture

There were plenty of developments between 1000 and 5000 BCE that tend to get left out of history because of Eurasia. In the late second and mid-first millennia BCE on the lower Mississippi River and the coast of the Gulf Mexico, the culture of Poverty Point (Louisiana) developed here. They used copper, manufactured tools and fine jewelry. Their trade goods arrived via the Mississippi, Red, and Tennessee river. Many sites seem to be forager settlements. They also created large spectacular mounds for rituals and burials. ​

Alluvial Plains

These plains are flatlands where alluvium, full of rich nutrients, is carried by overflowing rivers and absorbs into the surrounding soils of the river, renewing the soil in the process. Great civilizations such as the Egyptians, Mesopotamians, Indus River Valley peoples, and Yellow River peoples thrived in these regions for hundreds of years more than 9,000 years ago. The river compensated for the rain to avoid the risks of drought, especially in the arid climates of Egypt and the hostile climate of Mesopotamia. Additionally, these rivers (especially the Nile), were mostly predictable and manageable however the development of labor was needed to get the full benefits from the river via irrigation systems. The rivers provided the 4 great societies with the opportunity to create large amounts of surplus food.

Bantu Migration

This migration is not really about states, rather it is the movement of people in villages and such. It originally began in west Africa and Bantu peoples migrated east to populate subsaharan Africa and the south. This process would last until a few hundred years ago. The migration is traced through the changing of Bantu languages over the centuries. Out of the migration, some large states arise such as Great Zimbabwe and the Zulu Kingdom. However, most migrations left behind smaller villages which were autonomous, had easy land to farm, little attackers, and thus had little reason to expand. Landed aristocracies were pointless, rather, value come from how many people you had relationships with since it was people that was scarce, not land.

Chavín

This was a civilization that carried Andes traditions and emerged in 1000 b.c.e. in Peru over 3,000 feet above sea level. It was settled on the Mosna River. This civilization demonstrated how people could prosper at middling altitudes, however, it was essential for Chavín's survival to have trade routes, and diverse foodstuffs via Andes microclimates. They traded luxury items that were in high demand in the Lowland Cities and acted as a major distribution center. Notably, they had amazing workmanship demonstrated through water management, engineering, metalwork, and ceramics. Other cities often imitated the works of the Chavín people. They were a society ruled by shamans.

Plague of Justinian

This was a plague that affected the east Roman (Byzantine) empire in 541-542. Between 30 to 50 million people died during this plague and was highly contagious especially through its quick spread via rats. It especially affected the capital of Constantinople the most. ​

Nazca People

To the south of the Peruvian deserts of the Moche, the Nazca people lived in the inhospitable deserts of northern Chile from the 3rd to 8th centuries. These peoples built underground aqueducts to protect the water from harsh sun and as a method of irrigation. They also created huge ambitious works of art in scratched onto the surface rocks of the desert. They were only fully visible from heights unattainable to the people of this time period. However, the desert was a fragile environment for life and they often survived many droughts and torrential rain from El Niño. They eventually disappeared possibly due to land overuse. ​

Functions of Trade

Trading in ancient civilizations served several purposes during the time. Regional trade allowed for the formation of trading partners and trading centers would be the links between cities. Trading amassed large amounts of wealth, even monopolies in some cities such as Elba. This wealth would lead to reinvestments into goods, buy alliances with other cities, and build palace centers. Trade is not just for spreading economic benefits, it created social obligations and established relationships of power as well as legitimizing old powers. It also spreads culture to different regions.

King Lipit-Ishtar of Sumer and Akkad (Hammurabi)

Unlike the Egyptian civilization, Mesopotamia was split into various rival city-states that were difficult to unify. Each city-state had their versions of the law, such as Ur in the third millennium which stated a list of fines. The kings themselves were not considered gods by their societies, but, they created codes of law. King Lipit-Ishtar of Sumer and Akkad created a set of laws very different to those of Ur in 2,000 b.c.e., the laws seemed to be an attempt to regulate society itself. The laws were also described to be divinely inspired and ordained by the supreme god Enlil. Hammurabi, ruler of Babylon in 1700 b.c.e. also had a similar set of laws that show the king getting the text from the hands of god. Both of these sets of laws by these rulers were meant to legitimize the royal command and enforce obedience, it did not list things like what kings can and cannot do. The words of a king were like the word of god, all-powerful and unquestionable, forcing people to do the labor they had to do.

Vladimir, ruler of Kiev

Vladimir was a significant ruler of Kiev, which is now known as Ukraine today. In 987-988 he adhered to Christianity which would be privileged among eastern Slavs and the Russians (who later become Europe's most numerous Slav community). Vladimir was the descendant of Scandinavians and Slavs, who were pagans, but during his time he reportedly sinned a lot. His subjects were also in a constant state of terror which made them stick to paganism and human sacrifice. However, politics would make Vladimir convert to Christianity and develop the Orthodox Christian Church for the hand of a Byzantine Princess. The pagan religions were henceforth persecuted by Vladimir.

Juntas

War against French invaders immobilized the Spanish state so local elements in both Spain and America fell back on the old Spanish tradition of setting up local councils or juntas to handle affairs in an emergency. The American juntas saw little reason to accept a return to Spanish rule even after the French were driven from Spain in 1814.

Sufism

War alone seemed like it would not fix the divisions between Muslims to then allow for more expansion. Intellectuals were needed to shape religion and appeal to diversity/cultures and sensibilities without conflict. Sufism was popular however the Muslim elite rejected it. Al-Hallaj for example was but to death for his advocacy. Gilani, his successor, became a popular preacher and wanted less rigidity within the religion. Muhammad al-Ghazali then entered the debate, he was a theologian that became a Sufi and wrote a series of works that reconciled the Sufi and Sunni orthodoxy. This was vital for the future of Islam.

Yoshimune

Western admiration finally seeped into Japan but not by much. Some leaders like the shogun Yoshimune (1716-1745) took and interest in science and technology. In 1720 he allowed Chinese translations of western books to circulate in Japan. It was still, however, hard to promote Western thought. Only Europeans associated with the DEI Company could really get into Japan so Western knowledge was generally sparse.

Thomas Aquinas

Western science is becoming more empirical and reliant on perceptions and observations of nature. The West increased contact with China and renewed the use of empiricism. Scholars at the University of Paris generated a scientific way of understanding the world which were comprehensive schemes all put into encyclopedias. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) was one of the greatest intellects of the age when organizing encyclopedias, he categorized everything we knew at the time by experience or report.

Kush

When the Egyptian New Kingdom disintegrated, the state of Kush became independent. The Kushite culture was borrowed extensively from Egypt, including religious beliefs, the practice of interring king in pyramids and hieroglyphics. Although its economy was primarliy founded on agriculture and animal husbandry. Kush developed into a major trading state. Its commercial activities were stimulated by the discovery of iron ore in a floodplain near the river Meroe. Kush supplied goods from central and east Africa notably ivory, gold, ebony, and slaves.

Confucianism

lived in the Warring States period, and sought ways to end that violence. They believed it was possible to create a harmonious social order based on ethics and personal cultivation. They also argued that the people naturally followed moral, able rulers and would automatically fulfill their roles in society without instruction under such rulers but would never fulfill their roles under immoral and irresponsible ruler insisted on the "rectification of names" - bad rulers should be called bad rulers and not given honors (may be why he had trouble keeping a job) in time, becomes the dominant political and ethical philosophy of China.