The Post-Classical period

The Roman Empire fell during the Post-Classical era, which lasted from 500 to 1400 A.D., and a dark age spread across all of Europe. Technology and innovations remained unchanged until the late medieval era (Harmon 256). With the church having a vital role in the history of Europe, the development of schools and universities gained popularity. People in other parts of the world, like Asia and North America, had fewer resources and knowledge of how to cultivate land. They also lacked the instruments necessary to take advantage of international trade. However, the apprehension and terror led to robberies and battles over the available supplies. The Vikings started to attack the monasteries, while Asia and Europe battled in the Crusades. As a result, trade increased with the sharing of knowledge and introduction of new technology commencing. Such period led to globalization and the era of Renaissance.

Crisis and recovery of Post-Classical World (500 -1000 AD)

Many civilizations faced severe consequences before the 500 A.D (Harmon 256). However, the classical era ended, and the postclassical world began. End of the Classical civilization unleashed a development force that would see the transmission of culture across other parts of the world. External invasions in Africa, Asia, and Europe caused the Asian nomads to escape to China from Germany, and the invasion of Attila the Hun in Rome helped in the collapse.

Decline in Han China

Han dynasty had weak rulers, which caused conflicts and in the end led to a revolution. China was divided into three kingdoms and featured land ownership beyond the reach of the government (Kim 267). The unrest made the people turn to Buddhism, which fostered cultural cohesion. Introduced by Indians, Buddhism overcame the attacks from the Daoists by the 5th century. Chinese culture integrated with the religion and political revival emerged as the country came together with the Sui dynasty. The reunion collapse in 618, but China’s values remained intact.

Decline of the Guptas in India

Under the reign of Chandragupta, the Gupta dynasty gained popularity during the 500 A.D period. However, his successors failed to protect the regime against the invasions by Han, who ruled the northwestern India. The Gupta dynasty ended in 550 A.D. India split into different families controlled by Rajput. However, during the postclassical period, the caste system began with the economy expanding. Trade increased with new networks reaching Southeast Asia and southern India. A challenge emerged in the 7th century due to the invasion of Muslims into the northwest India converting most of them to Islam. It led to the control of the Indian Ocean trade by the Islam traders.

Roman Decline

It was the most disruptive event because clashes over succession by emperors caused army recruitment disruptions, and Germanic soldiers moved in to protect their boundaries. Tax revenues declined, and towns shrank. Many merchants accepted the changes from the Germanic invasions in the 500 A.D. Despite all these, Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam developed causing the spread of civilization to Europe, Japan, Africa, Polynesia, and America. New world trade networks linked many cultures. These religions fostered cultural diversity and expansion in international commerce transformed the lives of people.

The trade facilitated material and intelligence sharing. Most individual civilizations still maintained their beliefs but operated in a global network. Agriculture expanded but faced environmental issues except for Central America. Environmental changes revealed the growth in population with social inequalities and diseases on the rise. However, the benefits of globalization enabled people to influence community developments. The postclassical period increased missionary activities, and commercial connections linked outside areas to developed empires.

First Era of Globalization, (1000-1500 AD)

Asia Developments

In the political system, the Sui dynasty controlled by Emperor Wendi, got favor from the people after he reduced taxes and introduces food stores in case of famine. He also encouraged nomadic invasions but failed to retake Korea and this led to the end of the dynasty. The economic condition expanded during Tang regime since it used canals to connect the northern China, which produced millet, to the southern part, which grew rice (Frankopan 175). It exported aromatic woods, paper, silk textiles, and spices and imported Persian rugs and horses. Maritime technology led to economic growth. Emperor Yandi promoted Confucian education and civil service examination reinforced by the Song dynasty. Tang rulers and Emperor Yangdi encouraged peasants to work on construction activities such as the Great Wall and monasteries.

Developments in Europe

Expansion in the political, social and economic institutions started with the Pope being named the highest religious power. Feudalism grew as the prominent means of defense. The economy grew with the expertise in craft and stonework, trade and agricultural produce. Education systems taught mathematics, medicine, and how to make textiles for commercial and ceremonial purposes.

Southernization

Southernization is a process that involved interrelated strands of developments spreading across Southern Asia to other parts of the world (Reilly 21). Some of the shared events included pioneering of new trade routes, promotion of Southern crops like cotton and sugar, new technologies, mathematics, tropical spices, cultivation, and processing practices. In India, it started as the cultivation and production of cotton for commercial purposes in the Indus River Valley. Demand for Indian textile grew with trade experienced in Southern Asia, Africa, and the Mediterranean. Discovery of bullion in India also triggered international trade routes. Indians also contributed to modern mathematics and astronomy at the time of Gupta regime.

Southernization of China

The Chinese transformed their arithmetic with the help of the Indian system. The increase in the Champa rice production prompted new markets and saw China invent the gunpowder (Reilly 21). At the end of Song Dynasty, new compasses for navigation across the Southern Ocean emerged. These inventions helped them in identifying other spice markets in Southern Asia. It made towns in the Southern Coast commercial hubs with exports such as silk, scissors, hardware, and iron increasing.

Southernization of Islamic caliphates

The Arabs played a huge role in the export of cotton, sugar, and citrus fruits received from India, Spain, and the Middle East. They conquered Turkey, Spain, India, and Asia and after establishing frontiers learned some of the Southernization elements (Reilly 21). For instance, the Arabs imported East African slaves by desalinating the lands at the Persian Gulf to make way for the movement of sugarcane cultivation and processing from Iraq to various arid areas. By 100 A.D and beyond, cultivation of sugarcane and cotton increased in Spain and the Middle East. When Arab’s Abbasid caliphate conquered Baghdad, they discovered different sources of bullion and their ships with the help of the navigation compasses plied the routes connecting China and the Persian Gulf.

Roles of the Muslim, Turkish, and Mongol Worlds in integration Afro-Eurasia

Role of Muslims

Islam plays a significant role in unifying the economic and cultural aspects of life in Africa and Eurasia through similar religion, art, and language (Pollard 165). The art consisted of knowledge about poetry, Persian paintings, steel and paper innovation. The trade routes involved Trans-Sahara, silk, and the Indian Ocean trade. They used the silk roads to transport Chinese silk, ivory, woolen cloth, and horses. The other routes helped in the exchange for gold, languages, pottery, and porcelain. Spices, metal, and salt moved through the Sahara into North Africa and to Europe.

The Constantinople conquest carried out by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II in 1453 brought social advantages particularly in Western Europe (Pollard 165). The reason is that Christian refugees came with classical text prompting the renaissance. By the 15th century, the military ruled Mediterranean ports which obstructed Europe from getting Asian trade. The conquest allowed the Ottoman Empire to generate new business routes in Hungary, Greece, Bosnia, and Austria. Since it used Turkish as a common tongue in trade and administration, it managed to maintain diversity in regions conquered.

Trade and Maritime Explorations by Zheng He and Columbus

Under Ming’s rule, political stability in China allowed easier trade among long-distance merchants. Admiral Zheng He led various expeditions across the Indian Ocean to trade with the outside world (Pollard 165). He focused on establishing tributary connections with other countries. A similar case happened to Columbus, although Zheng He had many ships. The trade routed extended to other parts of Asia.

Mongols Invasions

The Mongols invasion became the most influential in the history of the world (De, Nicola and Melville 354). The nomadic group invaded Middle East, India, Russia, and China. They established the largest empire in the history of the world. The group originated from Central Asia and moved in such grass for their livestock. The Mongol Khan, who is the clan leader took the title Genghis Khan meaning a universal head. It was after he led his people in the conquest of Asia. However. The death of Ogodai, Genghis Khan's son stopped them in Eurasia. Despite this, their invasion caused significant interference of trade routes. They formed four Khanates ruled by relatives, but the “Great Khan” controlled the original one succeeding in the steps of the Genghis. Since the Mongol Khans spread to distant regions, their cultures soon disappeared with most of them assimilating to the culture of the people they conquered. For instance, some adopted Islam in the Middle East trade routes.

Europe’s role in changing the world’s trade routes and settlement patterns

Europeans controlled the military technology consisting of gunpowder manufacturing. Such was a huge advantage in wars and conquering nations. China, Asia, and the Middle East surprisingly introduced the powder technology but still, it dominated in Europe (Hoffman 249). The reason why Europe conquered the world was that it invested heavily in the technology making the Middle East, China and rest of Eurasia fall behind in military expertise.

Lack of political incentives to promote such technology in the other regions made it easier for Europe to lead in innovation this industrial revolution (Hoffman 249). Europe would send its cannon-filled ships to attack trade routes as far as those of Southeast Asia. It allowed them to control trade posts of their choice without dispatching many of its military officers. Also, the innovations made it easier for Europe to develop new colonial empires of regions it conquered.

Work Cited

De, Nicola B, and C P. Melville. The Mongols' Middle East: Continuity and Transformation in Ilkhanid Iran. , 2016. Print.

Frankopan, Peter. The Silk Roads: A New History of the World. , 2015. Print.

Harmon, Jay P. Ap World History: Crash Course. , 2017. Print.

Hoffman, Philip T. Why Did Europe Conquer the World? Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015. Print.

Kim, Hyun J. The Huns, Rome and the Birth of Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Print.

Pollard, Elizabeth. Worlds Together, Worlds Apart. , 2016. Print.

Reilly, Kevin. The Human Journey: A Concise Introduction to World History. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc, 2012. Print.