hi and welcome back to handler sister in this video I'm gonna review all of unit 1 for AP World History and this isn't just a review of the facts I'm actually going to help you compare different civilizations in different situations with one another because comparison is a historical thinking skill that you have to nail in order to do well in this course you should know that this video is part of a larger review course called the AP World History cram course and the cram course we have unit reviews just like this one for all nine of the AP World History units in addition there's practice multiple-choice questions or study guides for the videos if you're interested in that kind of thing then the link is down below so the years covered in unit 1 are 1200 to 1450 first the big picture within this span of years major civilizations are growing larger world religions continue to exert a huge influence on life and culture there's technological innovations aplenty like gunpowder and paper on the other hand while all these realities are growing smaller States localized religious beliefs and older technology continue to decline okay that's the big picture now let's drill down into the particulars one of the main themes of unit 1 is state build and be careful because the word state can be very confusing like when we say the word stay here in America we mean like Georgia or Nebraska but in the context of AP World History that's not what state means in this context state means an organized political community under one government so in that way Georgia is a state but then so is the United States Nebraska is a state but then so is like Canada so all that I say a main theme of unit 1 is how States built themselves up and how they retain control over their varied populations right now let's get into the comparisons so here's the question what uses our guide how was the process of state building both similar and different in various parts of the world let's start with two very contrasting examples the Song Dynasty in China and the Abbasid Caliphate during this time the Song Dynasty was in power in China and this was considered China's Golden Age and this was Golden Age was really just an extension of the Golden Age that preceded it in the Tang Dynasty and part of this Golden Age was the advancement of technology among these technologies was gunpowder which eventually made its way around the world and had an explosive effect dad joke a Chinese also improved upon the Grand Canal which their friends in the swea dynasty began which had the effect of boosting trade between different regions and maintaining a consistent Chinese culture throughout the territory also during this time there was the introduction of Champa rice which was the kind of rice the matured early could resist Johnson floods and could be harvested three times a year and as is always the case more food equals more babies this new food technology led to an explosion of population and in addition to technological advances the song Chinese experience cultural progress as well one example is the revival of Confucianism now Confucianism served as a powerful cultural stabilizer since his teachings outlined how a society was to be organized a second example and related is the revival and expansion of the civil service examination this was an examination that a person had to take if they wanted to work in the Imperial bureaucracy and in order to pass it that person had to be well versed in the Confucian classics the examination opened up the bureaucratic positions way beyond the nobility and transform government work into more of a meritocracy ok that's what's going on in song China during this period now let's go all the way to the other side of Asia and see what's going on in the Abbasid Caliphate while the Chinese flourished during this period the Abbasid Caliphate was fractured by invaders and falling apart even so new Muslim states arose out of its ashes the first was in India known as the Sultanate of Delhi the Sultanate was a state established by Muslim Turks and although they indeed gained power in India they had a very difficult time converting the massive Indian society to Islam another Muslim state established during this time was the Mamluk Sultanate in North Africa where Mamaluke means slave and that's basically order was a slave Empire the Egyptian state enslaved these folks who were not Muslims and forced them to serve in the military but during a period of unrest the mom looks overthrew the government and established their own state known as the Mamluk Sultanate so the point of the comparison assist the Song Dynasty is flourishing during this period socially politically and economically while the Abbasid Caliphate on the other side of Asia is dying politically socially and economically let's move around the world to make some more comparisons in State Building but we're gonna move a little more quickly get a little less detail on these than we did in the song and the adversity in South Asia you've got the Vijayanagara Empire and you've got the chola kingdom both of these kingdoms built their states and expanded their influence by means of trade if we go over to Africa we can consider the Kingdom of Mali if you compare this kingdom to the empire of Ghana which preceded it will see that the rulers of Mali built their state by centralizing power to a much greater extent than their predecessors the result of this is that they a tremendous amount of wealth as exemplified by their ruler Mansa Musa now let's go over to the Americas in mess of America the Aztecs built a huge empire by ruling remotely and they built that state by means of what's called a tribute system and the tribute system is just a payment that conquer people have to pay for the privilege of remaining conquered and that could be either goods or services and they enforce the system through a very powerful military now compare them with the Incas of the Andean reach in order to build their state the Incans use what's called the Midas system that just means that they compelled their citizens into mandatory public service and finally the Europeans at the beginning of this period were locked into a more regional system of state building called feudalism feudalism was a way of structuring society with rigid class layers you had Kings on the top then Nobles then nights and then peasants and serfs last of all but over the course of this period feudal lords lost lots of their power to the rise of more powerful centralized monarch okay that's a look at state building around the world now let's talk about what's happening with religion in the various places that we've considered in all parts of the world religion was key to the process of state build for example when it came to Islam it was able to create a system of shared beliefs and language which is to say Arabic which was able to unite the regions throughout afro-eurasia Confucianism as I mentioned before was a huge factor in the flourishing of song China the dynastic rulers used the principles of Confucianism to justify its rule over the people and all the bureaucratic workers for confusion because they had to pass a civil service examination which was thoroughly Confucian alright let's look at Hinduism and Buddha's in South Asia and Southeast Asia rulers relied on the principles of Hinduism and Buddhism to consolidate power especially Hinduism's teaching of the caste system but hey let's not forget the Catholics during this time individual European states were relatively weak but the Catholic Church provided a way of organizing society apart from the state however during this period some powerful political States emerged in France and the Holy Roman Empire and this introduced a struggle for power between the church and States so all major world religions spread during this period II and Islam and Buddhism which were conversion astre Lidge ins which just means that they sent out converts to try to make convert all three of these religions sent out massive amounts of missionaries to different parts of the globe over time they ended up converting huge portions of the world's population to their beliefs this spread of religion had the effect of weak local more indigenous religion now conversion isn't the only way that religious folks try to convert people there was also conversion by military invasion for example the Muslims invaded northern India and established the Delhi Sultanate and converted about 25 percent of the Indian population to Islam I don't misunderstand it's not as though the Muslims came in and said convert or die Islam did not allow such things but many people converted in order to avoid paying the Jie Jie which is the tax you paid for not being a Muslim or they converted to get themselves greater opportunities in the government or business also many conversions happen because of trade as merchants of many religious stripes traveled to and fro across the Sahara Desert and around the Indian Ocean many conversions occurred and I say that to remind you that merchants aren't just carrying goods to these distant places for trade they're also carrying whole cultural structures with him and those end up spreading as well right now let's turn the corner and talk about technological exchanges throughout the world China had a big win during this period when Champa rice was introduced from Vietnam as I mentioned before this helped feed the growing Chinese population also the manufacturing of paper was transferred from China to the west and the effect of this transfer was a huge spike in literacy rates in Europe and also in Southwest Asia and North Africa because literacy rates increased so did learning especially in fields like medicine and mathematics the example of this new love of learning was the House of Wisdom established in Baghdad during the Abbasid dynasty which is a place of study in translation of the great European and Asian works of the past and then finally we can't leave this review without talking about the enduring importance of nomadic people during this time now the Mongols are the key example here but where has been much more time with them in unit 2 there were pastoral people from the Central Asian steppe and they ruled over a huge Empire stretching across afro-eurasia and because their empire was so fast they provided a healthy measure of political stability and safety the result of essed ability was increased trade especially among the Silk Roads and increased cross-cultural interactions there were other important nomadic peoples like the Turks but what you really need to know is this prior to this period nomadic peoples had a huge role in the transfer of Technology and culture among different states but during this period from 1200 to 1450 the influence of nomadic peoples began to wane as more organized groups of merchants and traders arose the role of nomadic peoples began to when it comes to the transfer of culture alright that's unit 1 for AP World History you felt like I went too quickly over anything then there are topic videos over here that will go into more depth on each topic of the curricula if you like what I do here and you want to see more than subscribe and come on I'm here to help you get an A in AP World History and a 5 on your exam alright that's it I'm Laura I'll see you next time