Oh, hello, and if I'm not mistaken, you are a stressed-out AP World History student studying for your Unit 1 exam. Well, dry 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 gonna- be your guide, so if you're ready to get them brain cows milked, let's get to it.
The time period for Unit 1 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 states. Now hold on, what in the fresh heck do I mean by by states. A fine question to ask and I shall answer presently.
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 1 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, 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 and a 5 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. Check it out, and now back to China. Now, during this period, the folks in charge called themselves the Song Dynasty, and they were in power from 960 to 1279. 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 mention 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.
First, they maintained and justified 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 Tang Dynasty, which came right before the Song. And 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-Confucianism sought to rid Confucian thought of the influence, especially of Buddhism, which had influenced it significantly in prior centuries. 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… I don't know, they're pigeon masters? 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, those above needed to care properly for those below.
In part and parcel 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 Confucian hierarchy, it's going to be important for you to know about the place of women. With the revival of Confucianism in 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. 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. Now 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.
Now why have they been made to endure the practice of foot binding? Why in the world would they do this? Well it was kind of a status symbol among the elite.
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 rules.
So the- So during the Song Dynasty, the imperial bureaucracy grew in scope and thus helped them to maintain their rule. How so? Well, in order to get a job in the bureaucracy, eligible men had to take and pass a civil service examination which was heavily based on Confucian classics.
Now the reason why this is significant is because by employing this system, bureaucratic jobs were earned on the basis of merit. And 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 socio-examples. economic statuses, but in reality, to study for this exam required a guy to be rich enough not to work and devote himself to studying. Alright, you feel what's happening in your brain?
Oh, that is learning! Anyway, long story short, Song China is doing pretty well on 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 traditions.
For example, in Korea, they used a similar civil service examination in 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 influenced neighboring states.
Well alright, let's turn the corner now and consider the role of Buddhism in Song China. The Song China originated in India and then spread to China long before the Song China 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 cease 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 places.
For example, in Sri Lanka, Theravada Buddhism was the local flavor, and it basically confined the practice of Buddhism to monks in 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 schmoes like you and me, were too occupied with the world to ever really get a bite of that juicy Nirvana sandwich. 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 gonna help you, and Theravada 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 Tang and Sui 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, dang. 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. And one of the most significant agricultural innovations was the introduction of Champa rice. Where my Champa rice gang at?
Anyway, this particular strand of rice was introduced to China from the Champa Kingdom. And you're like, what's the big deal about rice? Well, I'll tell you what the big deal is. Champa 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 al-Islam during this period. Now the term Dar al-Islam can be translated as the House of Islam. And 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. And 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 times. scriptures. And he taught his followers that salvation would be found in righteous action, like almsgiving and 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 societies.
So let's see how that happened, 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.
And 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 it in a minute. Anyway, by 1200, the Abbasid 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 arrows. 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 Seljuks.
So the Seljuk Empire was established in the 11th century here in Central Asia by Turkic pastoralists known as the, you know, Seljuks. Anyway, the Abbasids needed military help in their project, ...of territorial expansion and keeping the diverse people groups in their empire in line. So they went ahead and brought in the Seljuk warriors. BIG MISTAKES!
And after some time it turned out that the Seljuks could see the weaknesses in the Abbasid regime and so they went ahead and fought with the Abbasids and set up an empire all their own. Now to the 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. And we'll talk all about the Mongols in Unit 2, 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 Seljuqs who are now wearing the pants of power in the region. Okay, now the point is this.
During the period 1200-1450, the dominance of Arab Muslim empires were fading, while Turkic Muslim empires rose up to replace them. So as I said before, that was a big change, but even so, the new Muslim empires also continued some practices from the former empires. For example, in 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 Sharia law.
based on the Qur'an. 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 him. Also Muslim scholars preserved 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 buttload of scholars. 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. And 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's scholarship and wealth. Okay, now the last thing you need to know with respect to Dar al-Islam has to do with the ex- 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 Mamluk, and the Delhi Sultanates. Second expansion occurred through the work of traveling Muslim merchants. Much of North Africa was ruled by Muslims, and that reality stimulated trade and the movement of merchants throughout Africa. 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 Dar al-Islam.
And then third expansion occurred through the missionary activities of Sufis. They rep- It 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 missionaries. Well, okay, now let's continue our little jaunt 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. And those three belief systems and their various levels of influence profoundly shaped 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 Hinduism.
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.
And polytheistic just means that they worship many gods. But in the Bhakti movement, devotion to one of the Hindu gods was emphasized. And 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 movement was The Bhakti movement mounted some challenges to the social and gender hierarchies present in Hindu India. Now over in Southeast Asia, it was mainly Buddhism and Islam that were scrapping it out for dominance. Well, 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 onto that rule and imposing a total Muslim state upon the majority Hindu population. And that's not surprising, because religious conversion is not unlike a meatball sub sandwich that only tastes good when it's not shoved down your throat forcibly.
So one pocket of Hindu resistance The only other 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. series from the Deli Sultanate where former Hindus who had converted to Islam under pressure from their Muslim conquerors.
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 sub proverb. If you do shove a meatball sub down people's throats, then the 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 through their interactions with China and India.
So let me give you a sea-based example first, and for that the Ma- Majapahit Kingdom, which was based right here in Java from 1293 to 1520. Now this was a Buddhist kingdom and was one of the most powerful states in Southeast Asia. And though it was located on an island, the Majapahit maintained its influence not necessarily through naval power but by controlling sea routes for trade. However, the Majapahit 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 that was the influence of these two kingdoms. 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 Angkor Wat stands as a monument both to the kingdom's religious continuity and its change over time. Alright, 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 civilizations.
So, no need just for poops and giggles, let's begin and- Mesoamerica. Now here you need to know the Aztec Empire, which was founded in 1345 by the Mexica 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 saw it and were like, whaaaaaaaaat? 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 overlords. Additionally, enslaved people from those conquered regions played a large role in Aztec religion, especially as candidates for human rights.
in sacrifice, which was a major part of their belief system. You see, Kevin here just thought he was gonna be conquered by an enemy, but no, they're gonna go ahead and sacrifice him to the gods. Poor Kevin.
Okay, now the other major center of population in the Americas was located further south in the Andean civilizations. So in the early 1400s, the Inca Empire was born, which stretched nearly across the entire Andean mountain range. And like the Aztecs, Incas incorporated the land and languages of older Andean societies.
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, then they kind of 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 conquerees 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 Aztecs. 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 they- 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, and because the soil there was, uh, real fertile, they focused on agriculture. Now in terms of state building among the Mississippians, large towns dominated smaller satellite settlements politically.
Additionally, they were known for their monumental mounds around which their towns were organized. Now the largest of these is a series of about 80 human-built burial mounds, and the largest of which is almost about 100 feet tall, constructed by the Cahokia people. 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 commoners. Additionally, the Swahili Civilization was deeply influenced by Muslim traders. some of whom settled in the various Swahili states. And one of the biggest influences 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 Arabic. 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 Mali, the Songhai empires. 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 can 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 18,000.
And it became another powerful African state that grew thanks to trade. In the Great Zimbabwe, their economic bread and butter was farming and cattle herding. But with the increasing African and international trade being processed through the Great Zimbabwe, it became exceedingly wealthy and shifted mainly to gold exports. Now although the Great Zimbabwe had much in common with other African states like the Swahili and Hausa states, which is to say their economies expanded greatly through trade, there is a significant point of contrast here. The tourism people in Zimbabwe never converted to a 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 state in a 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, In the Eastern 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 for a spell and see how belief systems and 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 and Roman Catholicism. 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 what? But while it was declining severely, a new state emerged that would carry this belief system forward, namely the Kievan Rus. 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 in that way, these states were largely isolated from the larger world of international trade, but Roman Catholicism linked every single one of them. state together in the region culturally. 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, 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 Jewish persecution often kept them at the the outskirts of European life. Okay, so we got our fill of European belief systems, 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 was a system whereby powerful lords and kings gained allegiance from lesser lords and kings. But the lords and kings were the less powerful. powerful party received land from their lords, the more powerful party. 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 manorialism. Now a manor 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 manor. So peasants were bound to the land of those powerful landowners and they lived there and they worked there in exchange for the lord's protection. Now these working peasants The 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 serfs stayed with the land.
So the point is, the center of political and economic power in Europe during this time was in the hands of these landowning lords, which is to say, the nobility. But after about 1000 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 gonna talk about that in another unit.
And that's unit 1. 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 has everything you need to get an A in your class and a 5 on your exam in May. And I'll catch you on the flip-flop. Heimler out.