Age of Cross–Cultural Interactions:
1000 – 1500 C.E.

Chap. 14 | Chp. 18 | Chp. 19 | Chp. 20 | Chp. 21 | Chp. 22

Questions of periodization

• Nature and causes of changes in the world history framework leading up to 1000–1450 as a period
• Continuities and breaks within the period (e.g., the impact of the Mongols)

Interregional networks

• Development and shifts in an interregional network of trade, technology, cultural exchange, and communication

Nature of philosophy and knowledge

China’s internal and external expansion

• The importance of the Song economic revolution
• Chinese influence on Japan and its limits

The Islamic world

• The role of Islam as a unifying cultural force in Eurasia and Africa; Islamic impact on the Sudanic kingdoms and East Africa; the Delhi Sultanate
• The impact of migrations and religious reform movements in
  expanding Islamic society
• The impact of Islam on the arts and sciences

Changes in Christianity

• Restructuring of European society, including the growth of central
  monarchies in the west
• Role of Arab thought in the twelfth-century “Renaissance” in
  the west
• The division of Christendom into Eastern and Western
  Christian cultures

Non-Islamic Africa

• Great Zimbabwe

Demographic and environmental changes

• Impact of the nomadic migrations on Afro-Eurasia (Mongols, Turks,
  and Arabs)
• Migration of agricultural peoples (e.g., European peoples to
  east/central Europe)
• Consequences of plague pandemics in the fourteenth century

Amerindian civilizations

• Toltec and Mayan
• Aztec
• Inca

Diverse interpretations

• What are the issues involved in using cultural areas rather than
  states as units of analysis?
• What are the sources of change: nomadic migrations versus
  urban growth?
• Was there a world economic network in this period, and how does
  it compare with the world economic system that emerges in the
  next period?