The Post-classical Period in 2 Key Halves

The Acceleration Period was indeed a time of acceleration, of commerce and statism, of interaction and culture. From its bloody beginnings in the Crusades to its ominous ending at the rise of the West, it marked an expansion of human knowledge and interaction on an entirely new level.

The 2nd theme, Creation/Expansion/Interaction of Economic Systems:

The Islamic world experienced widespread innovation,and therefore a need to trade along its new routes throughout the empire. China, back on its political and economic feet, was able to export its plentiful goods once more, and became content to let a series of satellite states spring up around it instead of taking initiative to travel.

the Re-Awakening Period is arguably the most prolific in producing new cultural elements and opportunities for societies to interact.

The Re-Awakening Period (600 - 1050 C.E.)

The theme of Human-Environmental Interaction wasn't very notable, but it was linked closely to the theme of Development and Interaction of Cultures on the front of religion.

The Re-Awakening Period is in many ways comparable to waking up from a civilizational sleep, hence the name. While there were many continuities from the Classical Period that carried over, the changes brought soon after 600 C.E. are far more significant.

The rise of Islam marked the newest world religion’s birth, and it quickly spread from its Arabian home across North Africa to Spain and all the way to the border of modern India.

In all, the Re-Awakening Period saw the widespread groundwork being laid for a more global network still to come.

Empress Wu of Tang China was a devout Buddhist, and ordered gigantic statues of the Buddha and some of his closest adherents carved from entire cliffsides, and a good deal of resources were utilized in the construction of new buildings and places of worship as new empires and religions gained ground.

This massive area, along with the requirement that every Muslim must at least once make a pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca, generated a great exchange of ideas and advancements across a great stretch of the world.

The Development/Transformation of Social Structures of the Acceleration Period is also very indicative of things to come later.

The dismantling of the feudal systems of Europe in favor of national monarchies was a hallmark of the nationalism that would drive colonialism and war in later centuries.

The first major change runs in the theme of State-Building/Expansion/Conflict, and is marked mostly by the establishment of the Umayyad Caliphate and the conquests of Muhammad.

For Example:

Additionally, women gained little ground with regards to gender equality, and although the slave trade of the Early Modern Period was not in full swing general attitudes related to ethnocentrism were already solidified worldwide.

Empire-building in the Re-Awakening Period differs largely from that of the Classical Period because of its centralized and fast-moving nature.

The third and final theme includes the Development/Transformation of Social Structures.

In the social aspect, the Acceleration Period set up human civilization for many problems in later Periods as opposed to advancements.

The Roman Empire was formed from the already-established Roman Republic, which in turn succeeded the existing Roman Kingdom.

Classical Period

Re-Awakening Period

Muhammad’s followers (some of the first Muslims) were able to establish an effective empire within two decades where there had been little political organization before.

Within these newborn empires, the social order that had once existed was swept away for a new structure in many parts of the world. The foremost example is again the Muslim world, whose founders had previously lived as tribal nomads who fought each other over scarce resources in the Arabian desert.

The Mongol Empire, at its height, was said to have been so peaceful that one could walk its length with a gold plate on their head and not fear robbery. This reputation was deserved, as commerce was necessary to sustain the large empire and opened up many new and old links between different peoples that facilitated a new trade of money and goods the likes of which the world had never seen.

This economic activity survived the Mongols’ fall, and even while the Middle East fell into turmoil when the Seljuk and later Ottoman Turks rose to power, trade never fully ceased over land between East Asia and the western part of that continent.

State Building/Expansion/Conflict developed, as did the other themes, from the gargantuan level of cultural exchange already occurring.

Conflict and State-Building was more large-scale during this period, with the Inca empire stretching from Ecuador to Chile and the Mongols conquering from Korea to India to Russia. Even West Africa, traditionally connected to the more advanced civilizations but not quite as advanced itself, plays host to the Songhai empire whose rulers convert to Islam and establish a large state that built itself on the enslavement of its enemies.

The second half of the Post-Classical Period, the Acceleration Period, is decidedly more dynamic than the Re-Awakening.

But as is usually the case, expansion was not the end-all/be-all of the Acceleration Period - the economic exchanges that followed seemed to have a more final say in the content of the period.

The first great change in the themes of world history for this period is unquestionably that in the Development and Interaction of Cultures.

Summarily, the Re-Awakening Period was just the revival of the connections and advancements of the Classical era that had been lost. As late as 800 C.E. Western Europe was once again brought under one government by the Church and Charlemagne, the Umayyad and Abbasid Caliphates reunited large regions of the Middle East and Africa, and even in far-off North America the Toltecs were establishing a capital city at Tula in 968. As the world woke up from its slumber, civilization began to expand and accelerate, and even nomadic groups on the fringes of states were drawn increasingly into the storm of human interaction.

Human-Environmental Interactions, again, did not have quite the shifts of the early Classical and Modern Periods, but had some quite impressive examples of what could be done given advancements in knowledge and technology.

Over the course of the Acceleration Period, human societies became even more linked than before, in both positive and negative ways. Beginning the Acceleration period is the Great Schism of Christianity in 1054 C.E., which paved the way for the first major cross-cultural exchange of the period: the First Crusade from 1096-1099.

China’s Grand Canal, constructed under the Yangdi Emperor, stretched over 1200 miles and the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan essentially raised an island in the center of Lake Texcoco and build great causeways to travel to and from it.

Just these two examples showcase the growing ambition of humans that came with the recent advancements, and foreshadowed the great changes yet to come.

Later in the Acceleration Period, an even greater cultural wave swept Eurasia - the Mongols. Mongol conquerors overwhelmed all in their path, but in so doing created the largest contiguous empire in history and a massive area over which cultures could be freely retained and interact with one another.

Even after the last Mongol khans was deposed in the mid-1300s C.E., cultural interactions still drove many other events and themes of history.

The Post-classical Period in 2 Key Halves