Comprehensive AP World History Unit 1 Review: States and Belief Systems

oh hello and if I'm not mistaken you are a stressed out AP World History student studying for your unit 1 exam we'll try

out that armpit sweat and settle in Because by the time this video is done you're going to have everything you need

to know to crush that exam like a trembling grape in your mind Vice I'm Steve heimler and I'm going to be your

guide so if you're ready to get them brain cows milked let's get to it so the time period for unit one is Circa 1200

to 1450 and the basic idea of this unit is to drop in on the various major civilizations around the world and

understand how they are building and maintaining their state now hold on what in the fresh heck do I mean by state a

fine question to ask and I shall answer present in AP World History state does not mean like you know Ohio or Delaware

instead state is a territory that is politically organized under a single government so in today's terms the

United States would be a state or Japan would be a state Etc a territory politically organized under one

government you smell what I'm stepping in good because states are what unit one is all about so let's begin our

worldwide state tour by dropping in on the Chinese and seeing what they're up to but before we do it let me just

mention that this video is part of a larger resource that's going to help you get an A in your class in a 5 live on

your exam in May it's called the AP World History heimler review guide and it's got whole unit review videos that

you're not going to find here on YouTube it's got note guides to go along with them practice multiple choice questions

practice exams and answer keys for everything so if you need help studying in the fastest way possible for this

course then go check it out and now back to China now during this period the folks in charge call themselves The Song

Dynasty and they were in power from 960 to 12.79 okay stop for a second do you need to know those exact dates that just

flew out of my mouth hole no you're never going to be asked to produce a specific date on your exam but I

mentioned it just so you know where we are in the timeline that's all don't freak out anyway the main question we

need to answer here is this how did the Song Dynasty maintain and justify its rule in other words how did the Song

Dynasty run their state and how did they stay in charge I'm going to give you two main methods they use first they

maintain and justify their rule by emphasizing Confucianism this was a philosophy that defined Chinese culture

from its earliest days and while it fell into the background during some of the previous dynasties the Song Dynasty

carried over a Revival of Confucianism from the tong Dynasty which came right before of the song because it was a

Revival of an old philosophy we call it neo-confucianism Neo meaning new and so we get new Confucianism but the newness

of this revival also indicates some change in Confucianism itself and the main change you should know is that Neo

Confucian sought to raid confusion thought of the influence especially of Buddhism which had influenced it

significantly in Prior Century now one of the main ideas at the center of Confucianism is that the nature of

society is hierarchical meaning that there are prescribed and proper orders for everything there are those above and

there are those below citizens submit to the state women submit to men Juniors submit to Elders children submit to

parents pigeons submit to uh I don't know they're pigeon Masters I don't write that down I just ran out of

examples anyway in order to achieve Harmony in society those below needed to defer to those above and those above

needed to care properly for those below important partial to this societal Arrangement was the idea of filial piety

which emphasized the necessity and virtue of children obeying and honoring their parents and their grandparents and

even their deceased ancestors so you can see how powerful a philosophy like this would be for binding Chinese Society

together like everyone has their place and everyone has their role now within this confusion hierarchy it's going to

be important for you to know about the place of women with the Revival of Confucianism and song China women were

relegated to the subordinate position specifically women were stripped of legal rights and endured social

restriction far more than they had under previous dynasties now in terms of legal rights a woman's property became her

husband's property or if she was widowed or divorced she could not remarry so that's kind of a bummer but don't worry

because women also endured social restrictions in song China as well first of all women only had limited access to

education second women in more Elite circles were made to endure the practice of foot binding and what this means is

that young girls had their toes bent under their feet and bound with cloth until they broke and that meant they

could not walk easily or sometimes even at all and why in the world would they do this well it was kind of a status

symbol among the elites like a wife who couldn't walk couldn't work and if you were wealthy enough your wife didn't

have to work and you could just hire servants or get yourself a second or third wife okay now the second Way song

rulers maintained and Justified their rule was through the expansion of the Imperial bureaucracy okay hold on again

what the crap is a bureaucracy well a bureaucracy is a government entity arranged in a hierarchical fashion that

carries out the will of the emperor so the emperor makes the rules and then the bureaucracy is made up of all the folks

who make sure that everyone keeps the rule so during the Song Dynasty the Imperial bureaucracy grew in scope and

thus helped them to maintain their rules how so well in order to get a job in the bureaucracy eligible men had taken past

a civil service examination which was heavily based on Confucian classes now the reason why this is significant is

because by employing this system bureaucratic jobs were earned on the basis of marriage that meant that the

most qualified people got the jobs and not the emperor's cousin Cletus well I don't know nothing about running no

state but sure I'll take the job now theoretically the civil service exam was open to Men of all socioeconomic

statuses but in reality to study for this exam required a guy to be rich enough not to work and devote himself to

study all right you feel what's happening in your brain oh that is learning anyway long story short song

China is doing pretty well in their State Building efforts so let's consider how Chinese traditions influence

neighboring regions like this one this one and this one now during the Song Dynasty the kingdoms of Korea Japan and

Vietnam were all rising in prominence and because of their proximity to or relationships with China each of them

were influenced by Chinese tradition for example in Korea they used a similar Civil Service examination and testing

officials to enter bureaucratic work they also adopted Buddhism on which more later the point is the tactics which

China used to maintain their rules spread and influence neighboring states all right let's turn the corner now and

consider the role of Buddhism in song China now Buddhism originated in India and then spread to China long before the

Song Dynasty arrived and the teachings of Buddhism Center on what are known as the four noble truths which are life is

suffering we suffer because we crave and we see suffering when we cease craving and then the fourth Noble Truth explains

how to cease craving and that is to live a moral life according to the Eightfold Path now Buddhism shared some beliefs

with Hinduism like the cycle of death and rebirth known as reincarnation and the ultimate goal which is to dissolve

into the Oneness of the universe a state the Buddhists call Nirvana Okay now what's equally important here is that

you know how Buddhism changed from its original form as it spread into new for example in Sri Lanka taravada Buddhism

was the local flavor and it basically confined the practice of Buddhism to monks and monasteries doing their best

to get all enlightened all by their lonely selves and that was because they believed that people outside of

monasteries like regular schmo's like you and me were too occupied with the world to ever really get a bite of that

juicy Nirvana sand but over in East Asia we have the Mahayana branch of Buddhism which encouraged a broader participation

in Buddhist practices additionally the bodhisattvas or those who had attained Enlightenment made it their aim to help

others along the path to Enlightenment as well so Mahayana Buddhists were like Hey we're going to help you and Terra

Vada Buddhists were like good luck y'all anyway what you really need to remember is that these new forms of Buddhism

arose as this belief system interacted with various Asian cultures okay now the final consideration for State Building

in song China is their economy and oh baby it was perfect so the song rulers inherited the prosperity and beginnings

of population growth from the previous Tong and sway dynasties and so song rulers only increased that prosperity

and made way for a population explosion like between the 8th and 10th centuries the population doubled to which I say

huh that anyway the main economic development you need to know here is the commercialization of the song economy

and essentially that just means that manufacturers and artisans in China began to produce more Goods than they

consumed and then they sold those excess goods in markets in China and then across Eurasia if you want to know two

of the most significant Goods they traded and I know you do then remember porcelain and silk additionally now that

China was swimming in piles of money like Scrooge McDuck Innovations in agriculture paved the way for a

population explosion one of the most significant agricultural Innovations was the introduction of Champa rice gang

anyway this particular strand of rice was introduced to China from the Champa Kingdom you're like man what's the big

deal about rice I'll tell you what the big deal is Chomper rice matured early resisted drought and could be harvested

multiple times a year that meant way more food to stuff in people's mouth holes and that led to significant

population growth because as you may know more food equals more babies and finally the last development that

facilitated the growth of the song economy were Innovations in transportation perhaps the most

important of which was the expansion of the Grand Canal which facilitated trade and communication among China's various

regions so the point is song China was doing just fine during this period and that means it's time to check in with

developments in Dar all Islam during this period now the term Dar all Islam can be translated as the house of Islam

it basically refers to all the places in the world where Islamic faith was the organizing principle of civilizations

during this time and that's basically in all these places right here now although we're going to focus on Islam here you

need to know that in the heartland of the Muslim faith two other major religions were practiced and you need to

know something about each first was Judaism and that was the ethnic religion of the Jews which centered on the

teaching of the Torah and the rest of the Hebrew Bible the second was Christianity which was kind of like an

extension of Judaism centered on the teachings of Jesus Christ and his life death and resurrection and then third

there was Islam which was also related to Judaism and Christianity the prophet Muhammad claimed to be the final prophet

in the line of God's Messengers that stretched back through Jewish and Christian scripture he taught his

followers that salvation would be found in righteous action like alms giving him prayer and fasting now each of these

religions were monotheistic which means they believed in one God not many gods like in Hinduism for example and

wherever those religions were practiced Believers used those religions and principles to shape their society and

here as I said we're going to focus on Islam as a belief system that shaped cultures and Society so let's see how

that happens shall we now before 1200 various Muslim empires Rose to dominance across afro-eurasia but in the time

leading up to 1200 it was the Abbasid caliphate whose Center of power was located in Baghdad that was kind of a

big deal it's going to be important for you to know that the Abbasid caliphate was ethnically Arab so put that in your

pocket and we'll come back to in a minute anyway by 1200 the abbasic caliphate had begun to break up and lose

its powerful position at the center of the Muslim world and so as the Abbasid power waned several new Islamic

political entities arose and each of them were dominated not by Arab people but by turkic people so pay attention to

that change yes Muslim empires were still around but now the dominant Empires were led by ethnic Turks not

Arabs and for the sake of illustration we could talk about the seljuk Empire the mamluk sultanate or the Delhi

sultanate but you only really need to know one of them so just for poops and Giggles let's spend some time with the

soldier so the seljuk empire was established in the 11th century here in Central Asia by turkic pastoralists

known as the you know Celtics anyway the bosses needed military help open their projects of territorial expansion and

keeping the diverse people groups in their empire in line so they went ahead and brought in these seljuk Warriors big

mistake and after some time it turned out that the Celtics could see the weaknesses in the Abbasid regime and so

they went ahead and fought with the abbasids instead of an Empire all their own now to be clear the seljuk Empire

didn't entirely displace the Abbasid Empire that honor would go to the Mongols who sacked Baghdad in 1258 and

flushed the remains of the Abbasid Empire down the historical toilet we'll talk all about the Mongols in unit two

but for now you just need to know that while the abbasids remained in power to a more limited degree claiming to be the

religious figurehead for Islam it was the seljuks who were now wearing the pants of power in the region okay now

the point is this during the period 1200 to 1450 the dominance of Arab Muslim empires were fading while turkic Muslim

empires rose up to replace so as I said before that was a big change but even so the new Muslim empires also continued

some practices from the former Empire for example on these new turkic empires it was mostly the military that

administered the states and also they continued the practice of establishing Sharia law as the organizing principle

of their legal systems which is a legal code based on the Quran and also you need to know some of the major cultural

and scientific Innovations coming out of the Muslim World during this period for example you had Muslim scholar Nasir

al-din al-tusi who made significant advances in mathematics and even invented trigonometry so you know if you

hate your trig class blame it on head also Muslim Scholars preserve the great works of Greek moral and natural

Philosophy from ancient luminaries like Plato and Aristotle by translating them into Arabic and making extensive

commentaries upon them and a lot of this work was done by Arab scholars in a place called The House of Wisdom in

Baghdad it was a library with a metric butt load of scholarly Works established under the Abbasid Empire during what

became known as the Golden Age of Islam and if you know anything about the Renaissance in European history around

the 15th century you'll know that it began after a rediscovery of those ancient Greek and Roman manuscripts if

it weren't for those Arabic translations preserving those Works those Europeans would have been as my grandpappy used to

say more confused than a fart in a fan Factory and it'll be important for you to remember that during this period Dar

al-islam along with song China represented the center of the world scholarship and wealth okay now the last

thing you need to know with respect to DAR all Islam has to do with expansion of Muslim rule throughout afro-eurasia

during this period and that happened in basically three ways first Muslim empires expanded through military

expansion and we already saw this with the establishment of the seljuk the mamlik and the Delhi sultanate second

expansion occurred through the work of traveling Muslim merchants much of North Africa was ruled by Muslims and that

reality stimulated trade in the movement of merchants throughout Africa and over in West Africa the Empire of Mali

gradually converted to Islam for many reasons but Chief among them was the increased access to trade among daal

Islam and then third expansion occurred through the missionary activities of Sufi they represented a new sect of

Islam which emphasized mystical experience and was far more open to adapting itself to local beliefs which

is why it spread so easily for example much of the conversion that occurred in South Asia was the result of Sufi

missionary okay now let's continue our little John's around the world and see what's happening in South Asia here and

then southeast Asia right over here and for these places we want to focus first on how belief systems affected their

societies and then we're going to look at their efforts in State Building and I know you can already taste that

religious sauce so let's get into it now in South and Southeast Asia three main religions vied for dominance Hinduism

Buddhism and Islam those three belief systems and their various levels of influence profoundly shape that area of

the world and to see their effects let's begin with South Asia now remember what I said earlier namely that Buddhism was

born here but that particular belief system had been in Long decline in the land of its birth so by the beginning of

our time period in 1200 Buddhists in South Asia were mainly reduced to monastic communities in the North in

Nepal and Tibet so if South Asians aren't Buddhists well what did they believe well Hinduism remained the most

widespread religion in India but Islam became the second most important and influential religion in the region with

the establishment of the Delhi sultanate and because in large parts of India the Muslims were in charge it became the

religion of the elite there and then spread throughout southeast Asia as well but even Hinduism itself was undergoing

some significant change during this period and for that we need to talk about the bhakti movement it began in

the southern part of India as an innovation on traditional polytheistic Hinduism polytheistic just means that

they worship many gods but in the bhakti movement Devotion to one of the Hindu gods was emphasized this version of

Hinduism became much more attractive to ordinary believers who had grown tired of the complex Hindu hierarchies and

sacrifices and so in that way the bhakti move haven't mounted some challenges to the Social and gender hierarchies

present in Hindu India now over in Southeast Asia it was mainly Buddhism and Islam they were scrapping it out for

dominance okay we talked about belief systems and now let's get our state building on and for that we'll start in

South Asia now although the Muslim Delhi sultanate ruled much of Northern India they had difficulty holding on to that

rule and imposing a total Muslim State upon the majority Hindu population that's not surprising because religious

conversion is not unlike a meatball sub sandwich it only tastes good when it's not shoved down your throat forcibly so

one pocket of Hindu resistance against Muslim intrusion was the existence of the rajput Kingdom this was a collection

of rival and warring Hindu kingdoms that had existed before Muslim rule in Northern India but despite their

constant attempts to kill each other they were able to keep Muslim rule at Bay and then another major Hindu Kingdom

rose up in the South during this time as a Counterpoint to Muslim rule in the north namely the vijayanagara Empire

established in 1336. now this kingdom was established because of a failed attempt by the Delhi sultanate to extend

Muslim rule into the South they sent emissaries to the South to extend Muslim rule but something altogether unexpected

occurred those emissaries from the Delhi sultanate were former Hindus who had converted to Islam under pressure from

their Muslim conqueror but once they got to the South far away from their Muslim overlords they went ahead and converted

back to Hinduism and established a rival Empire and that provides the occasion for an extension of the meatball

subprover if you do shove a meatball sub down people's throats then they're gonna probably throw it up and establish a

rival Empire in the South so you know very practical advice anyway over in Southeast Asia we had a very diverse set

of sea-based and land-based Empires many of which made a name for themselves to their interactions with China and India

so let me give you a sea based example first and for that the majapahit kingdom which is based right here in Java from

1293 to 1520. now this was a Buddhist Kingdom it was one of the most powerful states in southeast Asia though it was

located on an island the majapah had maintained its influence not necessarily through Naval power but by controlling

sea routes for trade however the majapah hit began to decline when China started supporting its trading rival the

sultanate of Malacca right here and then let's end with a consideration of a land-based Empire namely the Khmer

Empire which existed right here now it was founded as a Hindu Kingdom but at some point the leadership converted to

Buddhism and you can see the influence of these two belief systems in this structure right here known as Angkor Wat

it was built as a magnificent Hindu temple but later after the conversion to Buddhism they added many Buddhist

elements to the structure without removing the Hindu elements therefore Angora watt stands as a monument both to

the Kingdom's religious continuity and its change over time all right now I feel like we've been in this hemisphere

for too long so let's hop on over to the other side of the world to the Americas and see how they're building States over

there now by 1200 the majority of the population here lived in two major centers of civilization mesoamerica and

the Andean civilization and just for poops and Giggles let's begin in mesoamerica I hear you need to know the

Aztec empire which was founded in 1345 by the meshika people and this Empire to use the technical historical term was

ginormous their capital city called Tenochtitlan was magnificent it was the largest city in the Americas before the

Europeans arrived and once the Europeans did arrive they sought and were like Now by 1428 the Aztecs entered an

alliance with two other Mesoamerican States and established an Empire with an aggressive program of expansion until at

its height the Empire looked like this now in terms of how the Aztecs administered their vast and growing

Empire they created an elaborate system of tribute States and that just means that the people that they conquered were

required to provide labor for the Aztecs and regular contributions of goods like food and animals and building materials

Etc all of those things were their tributes to their Aztec overload additionally enslaved people from those

conquered regions played a large role in Aztec religion especially as candidates for Human Sacrifice which was a major

part of their belief system you see Kevin here just thought he was going to be conquered by an enemy but no they're

going to go ahead and sacrifice them to the guy poor Kevin okay now the other major Center of population in the

Americas was located further south in the ndn civilization so the early 1400s the Inca Empire was born which stretched

nearly across the entire Andean Mountain Range like the Aztecs Incas Incorporated the land and languages of older Indian

Society anyway to maintain power Incas were far more intrusive in the lives of the people they conquered than the

Aztecs were for the Aztecs if their various States sent tribute they kind of stayed out of their business for the

most part the Incas however developed an elaborate bureaucracy with rigid hierarchies of officials spread

throughout the Empire to make sure that their conqueries remained firmly under their thumb to that end Incas also had

requirements of the people they conquered but it wasn't so much a tribute system like the Aztec instead

the Incas adopted the Midas system which required all people under their rule to provide labor on state projects like

large State Farms or mining or military service or state construction projects or whatever and so to wrap up this

comparison with a tidy bow you need to remember that the Aztecs were mostly decentralized in how they ruled while

the Inca were highly centralized okay now let's move northward and consider one other major civilization here meet

the Mississippian culture which was the first large-scale civilization in North America now it grew up around the

Mississippi River Valley because the soil there was a real fertile they focused on agriculture now in terms of

State Building among the mississippians large towns dominated smaller satellite settlements political additionally they

were known for their Monumental Mounds around which their towns were organized the largest of these is a series of

about 80 human-built burial mounds and the largest of which is almost about a hundred feet tall constructed by the

Cahokia people who were part of the Mississippian culture so that's great and all but you didn't think we weren't

going to talk about State Building in Africa did you you're so crazy so I reckon we'll start in East Africa and

here we're going to meet the Swahili Civilization now this was a series of cities organized around Commerce which

is to say trading along the east African coast and these cities grew more influential over time as they became

more involved in the Indian Ocean trade but we're going to talk more about that in unit 2. now each of these cities was

independent politically but they shared a common social hierarchy that put the merchant Elite above commoner

additionally the Swahili civilization was deeply influenced by Muslim Traders some of whom settled in the various

Swahili States and one of the biggest influence Muslim Traders had on these cities was the emergence of a new

language namely you know Swahili now the language itself was kind of a hybrid between indigenous African Bantu

languages and Arab and the important thing to remember here is that this hybrid language demonstrates the

intermingling and cooperation of various cultures anyway as a result of Muslim influence the Swahili States rapidly

became Islamic which only increased their integration into the larger world of Islamic trade now over in West Africa

there were a series of powerful and highly centralized civilizations that grew up including the Ghana the Molly

the song High Empire and just like the states in the East the growth of these Western civilizations was also driven by

trade which again gave them reason to become Muslim and you know they did but to be clear it was mostly the elite

members and government officials in these Empires who converted to Islam while the majority of the population

held on to their indigenous beliefs and traditions but by way of contrast the house of Kingdoms were not centralized

Empires but rather a series of city-states which were more like the Swahili states in the East they spoke a

Common Language and shared a common culture among themselves and like the Swahili they were organized and grew

powerful through trade but not sea-based trade like in the East the house of Kingdoms acted as Brokers of the

trans-saharan trade on which more in the next year okay now let's get acquainted with another major civilization in

Africa namely the Great Zimbabwe whose capital city was built sometime between 1250 and 1450. it contained massive

structures covering almost 200 acres and held a population of about 18 thousand it became another powerful African state

that grew things to trade in the Great Zimbabwe their economic bread and butter was farming in cattle herd but with the

increasing African and international trade being processed through the Great Zimbabwe it became exceedingly wealthy

and shifted mainly to goldex now although the Great Zimbabwe had much in common with other African States like

the swahilian houses states which is to say their economies expanded greatly through trade there is a significant

point of contrast here rulers and people in Zimbabwe never converted to Islam but rather maintained their indigenous

shamanistic religion and finally let's meet our friends up here in the Kingdom of Ethiopia again this state grew and

flourished because of trade especially with other states around the Mediterranean and the Arabian Peninsula

however one massive honking feature that sets Ethiopia apart from many other African States is their religion namely

Christianity it was the one Christian stated as sea of African States dominated by Islam and Indigenous belief

systems even so their power structure was pretty hierarchical with a monarch holding the top spot in various class

structures below and in that way despite being a Christian State Ethiopia resembled hierarchical States across

Africa and finally our jaunt around the world would in no way be complete if we didn't visit with Europe first fell and

see how belief systems in the State Building were going over there now in terms of belief systems Europe was

dominated by Christianity but it's not quite that simple because there were two different flavors of Christianity in

this period there was Eastern Orthodox in Roman so the Byzantine Empire represented the eastern half of what was

left of the once massive Roman Empire and its version of Christianity was called Eastern Orthodox Christianity and

by 1200 this Empire was nearly breathing its last curdled breath but while it was declining severely a new state emerged

that would carry this belief system forward namely the keevan route and what really United them into a common people

was the adoption in 988 of Eastern Orthodox Christianity which not only United the people but plugged them into

a larger network of trade in afro-eurasia but in Western Europe the version of Christianity that dominated

was the Roman Catholic church now Western Europe had split into a bunch of tiny decentralized States after the fall

of the Roman Empire around the 5th Century and that way these states were largely isolated from the larger world

of international trade but Roman Catholicism linked every state together in the region cultural and with the

church's hierarchy of popes and Priests and Bishops spread through Europe that meant that the church had significant

influence over society and culture and politics across Western Europe however even though dang near every European was

a Christian of some sort Muslims and Jews also exerted influence in Europe as well for example in the 8th century tree

Muslims conquered much of the territory of the Iberian Peninsula Jews however lived in smaller Pockets throughout

Europe and though they regularly participated in Commerce strong ways of anti-Semitism or you know Jewish

persecution often kept them at the outskirts of European life okay so we got our fill of European belief system

so now let's talk about how European states were organized and how they maintained power now politically there

were no large empires in Europe like there were in the rest of the world but don't feel bad for them because in

future units they're going to get their day to dominate everyone else in the world but during this period

decentralization and political fragmentation was the political flavor in Europe So to that end the main social

political and economic order across Europe was mainly organized around feudalism now this is a system whereby

powerful Lords and Kings gained Allegiance from lesser Lords and Kings the vassals which were the less powerful

party received land from their Lords the more powerful part and they did that in exchange for military service here's

some land for you but we're gonna need you to go kill those guys over there because we don't like them very much now

on a smaller scale European society and economics were organized according to minorialism now a manner is a huge piece

of land owned by a lord which was then rented out to peasants who worked the land and in Europe during this period

all major aspects of Life were centered on the man so peasants were bound to the land of those powerful landowners and

they lived there and they you know worked there in exchange for the Lord's protection now these working peasants

were known as serfs and they were kind of like slaves but kind of not you see serfs were not the personal property of

the landowners however they were bound to the land like if the Lord of The Manor moved elsewhere the serf stayed

with the lane so the point is the center of political and economic power in Europe during this time was in the hands

of these land-owning Lords which is to say the nobility but after about 1 000 CE monarchs began to grow in power and

States became highly centralized knocking the power pants right off the nobility but that would take several

more centuries for that process to be completed and don't worry we're going to talk about that in another unit and

that's unit one so click right here if you need any further help studying for these individual topics and this

playlist right here is going to make all your dreams come true and then click right here to grab my AP World heimler

review guide which does everything you need to get an A in your class and a five on your examin mate not catch on

the flip-flop I'm larouche