Became Integrated
The Eurasian landmass has witnessed the spread of such major religions as Christianity and Islam. It is also where knowledge of philosophy, science and technology originated, shaping Western culture and thought. This cultural melting pot flourished because the peoples of the Eurasian landmass have been linked along cultural, religious and political lines for centuries; trade and war among other factors, stimulated the sharing of social experiences and improvements in technology and agriculture. The purpose of this essay is to explain how the integration of Eurasia came about between 1000 and 1600 CE up to eventual integration of the Americas into the world.
In his book, Traditions & Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past, Jerry Bentley traces the role the Mongol people played in bringing together the peoples of the Eurasian lands. By stimulating cross-cultural communication on an unprecedented scale, the Mongol nomads consolidated the lives of peoples and the experiences of societies throughout a large proportion of the eastern hemisphere (Bentley 408). The Mongols first achieved tribal consolidation and then proceeded to mount military campaigns across Eurasia. One of the most outstanding Mongol leaders, Temujin, was able to unite all the Mongol tribes into a single confederation and in 1206 was proclaimed Chinggis Khan, or universal leader by an assembly of Mongol leaders (Bentley 414). Even though he spent most of his time in military campaigns, Chinggis Khan established a capital city at Karakorum, located west of the modern Mongolian capital Ulaanbaatar, where he built a luxurious palace (Bentley 414). Once he had united the Mongol tribes, Chinggis Khan turned his attention to settled societies. He launched attacks on the various Turkish peoples ruling in Tibet, northern China, Persia, and the central Asian steppes. He also consolidated his hold on northern China (Bentley (414). By the time of his death in 1227 he had forged the foundations of a formidable empire (Bentley 416).
Chinggis Khan’s heirs continued his conquests, but divided the empire into four regions Full control of China came under Khubilai Khan, the most talented of Chinggis Khan’s grandsons. He was remarkably tolerant toward Buddhists, Daoists, Muslims and Christians living in his country (Bentley 417). While Khubilai consolidated his hold on East Asia, his cousins and brothers occupied Russia between 1237 and 1241 and then organized expeditions into Poland, Hungary and Eastern Germany in 1941 and 1942 (Bentley 418). Another of Khubilai’s brothers established the Mongol Ikhanate in Persia (418).
One important way in which Mongols simulated cross-cultural contacts between their subjects was through the use of foreigners to help them administer their positions. The Mongols’ administrative staff included Arabs, Persians, and perhaps even Europeans like the famous traveler Marco Polo (Bentley 419), An important consequence of the vast empires amassed by the nomadic Mongols is that they provided the political foundation for travel, trade that led to cultural exchanges and experiences between the peoples of the eastern hemisphere. As nomadic people dependent on commerce with settled agricultural societies, the Mongols sought to secure safe trade routes to ensure the safe passage of merchants through their territories. Thus, merchants and ambassadors could travel safely within Mongol territory. The risk of long distance travel decreased significantly and there was a sharp increase in the volume of long distance trade across central Asia (Bentley 420). Another way in which Mongols contributed to foster Eurasian integration and awareness of different customs and religion among distant population, was their policy of uprooting war captives. Mongols routinely surveyed their war captives to spot prisoners with special skills. These captives were sent to Karakorum, the Mongol capital or to another Mongol territory where their services might be required. From the ranks of these war captives came administrators, physicians, translators, carpenters and metal smiths among others. The Mongol capital Karakorum could boast of a cosmopolitan foreign-born population ranging on the thousands. (420)
In 1368, as a bubonic plague outbreak raged across China The Mongols left the country in Chinese hands. The Ming dynasty took control of the government and sought to erase all traces of Mongol rule; The Confucian education and civil service systems were reinstituted to provide the government with talented bureaucrats to run the government (Bentley 515). The Ming emperors worked hard to strengthen their economy after Mongol rule and bubonic plague outbreaks had ravaged the country (515). For almost thirty years the Chinese government sponsored several massive naval expeditions intended to establish a Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean basin. The expedition had two main objectives: (1) to impose imperial control over trade with China and (2) to impress foreigners with the power and might the Ming dynasty had regained. Emperor Yongle took his fleet to Southeast Asia, India, Ceylon and the East African Coast. Suddenly, however the Ming emperors decided to terminate the expeditions around the mid 1430’s. The large vessels comprising his fleet rotted away in harbors, and the craftsmen forgot the technology to build such large vessels. (Bentley 524). Thus China withdrew its participation in Eurasian affairs that would soon connect the entire world.
During the early Middle Ages, Western Europe was a disorderly land mass, brought about by the fall of the Western Roman Empire and numerous invasions. These circumstances prevented Europe from playing a significant role in Eurasian affairs from about 500 to 1000 CE. This was the era of Tang, Song, Abbasid and Byzantine empires’ domination (Bentley 452). Amidst this disarray, a new European society was being forged, first by the evolution of the feudal system and then by the emergence of strong monarchies in England, France, Spain and the Italian city states of Venice Milan and Florence. (Bentley 517). This new dynamism in European society was the result of improvements in agriculture, increased urbanization which in turn resulted in the revival of a mercantile class, eager to engage in business ventures in order to bring to Europe silks, spices and other luxury goods which were highly coveted.
Nevertheless, Europe had to overcome some formidable obstacles before becoming the vibrant people that eventually dominated not only Eurasian but world affairs. An unintended consequence of mercantile ventures across Eurasian lands also brought the spread of bubonic plague, disrupting and depopulating entire countries. During the fourteenth century, bubonic plague ravaged most of Asia, Europe and North Africa (Bentley 512). By 1348, bubonic plague had followed the trade routes, infecting most of western Europe (Bentley 512). The plague caused great fear among people because they did not know how to deal with it. In his introduction to the Decameron, Giovanni Boccaccio describes how all forms of social relations are severed because of the enormous death toll in the city of Florence. People are left to die in the uttermost loneliness without religious sacraments. Indeed, Boccaccio’s description is a universal portrait of epidemic-stricken communities. Another event that complicated European reincorporation into Eurasian economy was the Hundred Years War between England and France (1337-1453), which involved a dispute between both nation over lands in France (Bentley 516).
The Crusades became the important catalyst that revitalized European societies. . The purpose of the Crusades was to recover the holy land, especially Jerusalem from Muslim hands. Although the Crusades were only partially successful because Europeans were unable to get a permanent hold on the captured territories, it clearly showed that Europeans were ready to once again assume a participatory role in the affairs of the eastern hemisphere. (Bentley 474). Europeans were ready to make direct contacts with peoples as far away as China and Ndia, bypassing the Muslim middlemen.
After the bubonic plague subsided, the demographic recovery of Western Europe coincided with nation building at the time when a new outlook on life was becoming apparent in European thought and culture (Bentley 518).This new outlook is known as the Renaissance, and it refers to a new interest in the arts and learning. Painters, and sculptors draw their inspiration from Greek and Roman artists (Bentley 519).Classical Greek and Latin values taught Renaissance humanists that it was acceptable to lead morally virtuous life while fully participating in worldly affairs, unlike medieval scholars and clergy who thought that man should lead a life of contemplation and pray , secluded from the world (Bentley 520).
In the case of Africa, Islam and trade went hand in hand. When Arab conquerors established the Islamic faith in North Africa, they also converted the region into a rapidly expanding zone of trade and communication. Muslim merchants also explored trade possibilities across the Sahara. When the Muslims arrived in West Africa, the principal kingdom was the kingdom of Ghana, located between the Senegal and Niger rivers. Ghana became the most prominent commercial hub in West Africa because it became the center for trade in gold. In addition to gold, Ghana provided ivory and slaves for traders from North Africa. The kingdom’s capital and trading site was called Koumbi-Saleh. The capital city was so wealthy that it could support a large number of Muslim scholars who were called to help interpret Muslim law. (Bentley 435).
Perhaps because there were no insistent efforts to impose Islam on the population, the new faith attracted many converts, particularly among those engaged in trade with Muslim merchants. (Bentley 436). Unfortunately, the kingdom of Ghana succumbed to the attacks of nomads from the Sahara who coveted the kingdom’s riches. Political leadership in West Africa passed to the empire of Mali. The new empire also benefited from trade across the Sahara on an even larger scale than the Kingdom of Ghana. Such trade contributed to the development of prosperous cities such as the capital Niani, Timbuktu and Gao. (Bentley 437).
Another way in which religion exercised an important force in linking people together was through pilgrimages to places like Jerusalem and Mecca. The Mali king Mansa Musa observed Muslim tradition by making a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324-1325 carrying with him huge caravans of servants and slaves. Mansa Munsa was greatly inspired by his pilgrimage: upon his return to Mali he took his religion even more seriously. He built mosques in the cities where Muslim merchants arrived for trading and sent promising students to study the Muslim faith with distinguished scholars in North Africa (Bentley 437). Muslim scholars had the opportunity to travel to distant lands in order to instruct new converts into the Islamic fate. One such scholar was Ibn Battuta. He traveled extensively to modern day Middle East, Europe and Africa. His most interesting cross cultural experience in Sub-Saharan Africa is the way men and women behaved toward each other: men were not jealous of their wives, and their wives showed no signs of bashfulness before other men, as they did not veil themselves. What puzzles Ibn Battuta is that these African were Muslims, not pagans. (Battuta, “Travels in Asia and Africa).
Perhaps the most striking way in which Africa was finally connected to the entire world was through the slave trade. Muslim merchants were key contributors to the diffusion of sugarcane across Europe and the Caribbean. After the twelfth century, when Muslim traders showed European crusaders refined sugar from cane, Europeans immediately appreciated its convenience because up to that point they only had fruits and honey for sweeteners. The resulting proliferation of sugar plantations dramatically increased the demand for Muslim war captives and black Africans to fulfill the labor demand. (Bentley 511). What finally linked the peoples of Eurasia and the Americas in a permanent connection was the mastery of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans through improvements in maritime transportation. Henceforth, the histories of all nations would converge into one history of the world.
Works Cited
Battuta, Ibn. “Travels in Asia and Africa 1325-1354. Web, 4 Dec. 2014.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/1354-ibnbattuta.asp
Bentley, Jerry. Traditions & Encounters: A Global Perspective on the Past. Vol. 2 from 1500 to the Present. 5th Ed. 2010. Australia & New Zeeland: McGraw Hill Education,
Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron—Introduction. Web, 4 Dec. 2014.
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/boccacio2.asp
