3.2 Continuity & Innovation of State Forms & Their Interactions
1. Tang vs. Abbasids
This is an epic battle of the heavyweights. The Reigning Cultural Champion (China) during her renaissance versus the new kid on the block with the fastest growing religion on earth. As far as I can tell, they fought once. It was so important no one even knows where, exactly. Abbasids had just become an empire (like less than a year after waxing the floor with the Umayyads). The Tang would stop expanding westward and this is by far the further the Abbasids got. Wait, that doesn’t really matter… What happened that makes this AP-worthy?!? …show more content…
Papermaking was transferred to the west by a Chinese prisoner. So, yeah… pretty much paper making… That’s why its here.
2. The Mongols vs. Afro-Eurasia
We’ve already mentioned the Mongols as big-deal world power in this era, but what they’re getting at here is that the Pax Mongolica or Mongol peace allowed for unprecedented world trade and the spread of many East Asian technologies to the West (ex. Gunpowder & Bubonic Plague)
3. The Crusaders vs. Anybody not Christian
The Crusaders were initially called in by your friends the Byzantines to save Christendom from Islamic invaders. But, it turned into a quest to regain the holy land; which they did for about a century. The real influence here is that Europe got to see first hand how a first-class global society (Byzantines or Islamic Caliphates) functioned up close. All of the sudden, that lame Feudalism back home isn’t so awesome. The next era (1450-1750) is all about Europe waking up. Well, the Crusades were their alarm