The+Postclassical+Period,+500+-+1450+--+New+Faith+and+New+Commerce



**Main Ideas of the Unit ** >> >> >> >>
 * 1) **The World Map Changes**
 * During the postclassical period, the driving force behind change was the spread of world religions and the expanding international trade.
 * 1) **Triggers for Change**
 * The decline of the classical civilizations removed their imperial boundaries. Socially, it create disorder that compelled people to convert to religions. Imperially, new ambitions were created as other civilizations expanded commercially and territorially.
 * 1) **The Big Changes**
 * The spread of major religions created large bodies of people with similar beliefs, especially intolerance for another religion and declining political focus. Also, religions had great synergy, especially Islam, affecting numerous cultures and sectors of society.
 * The spread of international commerce connected the urban learning centers of civilizations, facilitating the development of technologies and the spread of pandemics.
 * 1) **Continuity**
 * China revived its bureaucracy, emperorship and intellectual life and limited outside influences like Islam and Buddhism. However, China did expand interregional trade.
 * The Middle East experienced a revolution due to Islam, but it revived aspects Hellenistic culture.
 * There was syncretism.
 * Christianity and Ionic, Doric, and Corinthian architecture
 * Buddhism infused with Confucianism values
 * Social changes included the expansion of the merchant class, but landlords, serfdom, and the caste system remained largely unaffected.
 * In the Americas and Pacific Oceania, there were great changes despite the lack of synergism.
 * 1) **Impact on Daily Life: Women**
 * Religious dogmas promoted spiritual equality, and thus, women gained new forms of expression and leadership roles in society. However, the growing trade reduced women to an accessory like status. Overall, religion opened new paths, but customs limited the women more greatly.


 * 1) The First Global Civilization - The Rise and Spread of Islam
 * 2) African Civilizations and the Spread of Islam
 * 3) Byzantine
 * 4) Western Europe
 * 5) The Americas
 * 6) Tang and Song
 * 7) Japan
 * 8) Mongol