Gallery

AP World History

Home

Textbook notes

Class

Resources

Explore

1. Before 1200: Patterns in World History

Cultural traditions

common identity for individuals/civilizations even with divisions

made inequalities legitimate

moral support for elites/oppression

religion sometimes stimulated movements challenging people in power

enabled ordinary people to endure suffering

Hinduism (South Asia)

no historical founder

term derived from outsiders who tried to reduce variety of Indian cultural patterns into recognizable system

dissolved into vast diversity of gods, spirits, beliefs, practices, rituals, philosophies

incorporate diverse peoples

polytheistic (vast diversity of gods/goddesses with various consorts, appeared in various forms)

primal unitary energy/divine reality infusing all things

diversity of existence is perceived, illusion

individual soul part of Brahman

chief goal of humankind to achieve union with Brahman

ending illusory perception of separate existence (moksha, liberation)

involves many lifetimes

samsara (reincarnation) central feature

souls migrate from body to body depending on actions (karma)

Bhakti movement (India)

by 1200, Buddhism largely gone from India

devotion to one god/goddess through songs, prayers, rituals

occasionally pushed against caste/gender hierarchies (invited all to adoration of Divine)

more accessible than sacrifices/philosophical speculations

little friction/religious conflict

Buddhism (South Asia)

Buddha: immensely wise teacher/model but not divine

gods played little role in achieving enlightenment

Adaptation

adapted as it spread through Asia

early features (rigorous meditation, withdrawn from ordinary life, absence of supernatural figures) were difficult for converts

Mahayan Buddhism: early centuries of CE, spiritual path for people beyond monks/ascetics

enlightenment (becoming a Buddha) available to everyone, possible through ordinary life (not just monastery), single lifetime (instead of multiple)

emphasized compassion instead of spiritual wisdom/insight

Buddha became “god”, available to offer help

Tibetan Buddhism

special authority to learned teachers (Lamas)

emphasized awareness of/preparation for death

spiritual practices

prostrations (submissively prone position)

visualizations

complex meditations

ceremonies for beings both peaceful and violent

art and music frequently used

Confucianism (China)

less overtly religious

philosophical, humanistic, rational

life in this world

emerged during warring states (500-221 BCE)

thinkers considered how order might be restored

Confucius (551-479 BCE)

believed he had uncovered a path back to social/political harmony

writings into book called The Analects

later scholars created body of thought called Confucianism

when China reunified by Han dynasty (200 BCE), became official ideology of Chinese state

Rooted in moral behavior

society mostly unequal relationships (father/son, husband/wife, older/younger sibling, ruler/subject)

if superior was kind, inferior would be motivated to be obedient, harmony

key: education

language, literature, history, philosophy, ethics applicable to government problems

rituals/ceremonies conveyed appropriate behavior

history

ideal society was in the past

“superior men” and potential officials had outstanding moral character/intellect

established expectations for superior parties

keep taxes low

administer justice

provide for needs

if fail: forfeit Mandate of Heaven (granted legitimacy to ruler)

magic, gods, spirits existed, but educated people find them unhelpful for moral improvement/harmony

Daoism (China)

Laozi (16th-century-BCE archivist) who wrote Daodejing (The Way and Its Power) before vanishing into wilderness on water buffalo

withdrawal into world of nature, spontaneous, individualistic, natural actions

dao: way of nature, principle that governs all natural phenomena

simplicity in living, small self-sufficient communities, limited government, abandonment of education/self-improvement

came to include magic, fortune-telling, search for immortality

Judaism (Middle East)

God (name was too sacred to say) demanded exclusive loyalty

accessible/available, not remote

to some: utterly destroy original inhabitants of Promised Land

for others: social justice/compassion for poor/marginalized

Christianity (Middle East)

Jesus of Nazareth (4 BCE - 29 CE)

Jewish craftsman/builder

got in trouble with local authorities, executed

urged renouncing wealth/self-seeking

importance of love/compassion

wanted to revitalize Jewish tradition

Saint Paul (6 - 67 CE)’s missionary journeys led to small Christian communities

monotheistic, antagonistic to all other supernatural powers

denial of other gods: “atheist”, persecuted during first three centuries of CE

patriarchs, bishops, priests (men) replace house churches (where women more prominent)

immense reach/differences in language, culture, politics: single focus difficult

separate church organizations emerged

bishop of Rome gradually became prominent leader (pope) in West, sharply contested in East

contributed to split between Latin (Roman Catholic) and Greek (Eastern Orthodox)

Islam (Middle East)

arrived along with rapid creation of huge empire from Spain to India (reach of Islam much further)

emerged from pastoral people in Arabia, some regions of settled agricultural/commercial cities like Mecca

Muhammad Ibn Abdulla

570-632 CE, trader from Mecca

troubled by religious corruption/social inequalities

often undertook withdrawal/meditation periods in mountains outside city

powerful religious experience, convinced, reluctantly, that he was Allah’s messenger to Arabs

commissioned to bring works in own language

revelations were from 610 to 632, periodically

recorded in Quran, sacred scriptures

Allah (god)

sole divine being

challenging polytheistic religion of Arabs

drew on traditions of Jewish and Christian monotheism

Muhammad presented self like earlier prophets

Politically revolutionary

Quran denounced prevailing social practices of increasingly prosperous Mecca

hoarding wealth

exploitation of poor

high rates of interest on loans

corrupt business deals

abusing women

neglecting widows and orphans

challenged tribal/clan structure of Arab society

prone to war, feuding, violence

umma: community of all believers

women too had honored, spiritually equal place

new and just community

bound by common belief

threatening to established authorities in Mecca

Muhammad forced to leave

unlike Jesus, no overwhelming force like Roman Empire to contend with, so had position to resist

gathered army, unified Arabia under Islam by 630 CE

who should succeed Mohammad?

civil war

division between Sunni and Shia branches of Islam

began politically, eventually Shia saw self as minority

Shia: critics of privilege power

Sunni: advocated established order

Transcontinental civilization

embraced at least parts of virtually every civilization in the Afro-Eurasian hemisphere

Quran, universal respect for Muhammad, common religious texts, prayer 5x daily, pilgrimage to Mecca all common to everyone of Islamic world

ulama

learned scholars, judges, interpreters, administrators, prayer leaders, reciters of Quran

preservers and teachers of sharia (Islamic law)

madrassas: formal colleges for instruction in Quran and sayings of Muhammad, grammar/rhetoric, philosophy, theology, mathematics, medicine, law

teaching informal, oral, lots of memorizing, conservative (established body of Islamic learning)

international elite

bound together an immense and diverse civilization

Sufis

viewed worldly success of Islam as distraction, deviating from purer spirituality of Muhammad’s time

mythical dimension, sought direct/personal experience of Divine

renounced material world, meditated on words of QUran, chanted names of God, used music/dance, reverence of Muhammad and saints