OV2:2 The medieval world

The medieval period, also known as the Middle expansion of Islam in the seventh century and the
Ages, was the era in European history between emergence of the Mongol empire in the thirteenth
the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century century transformed Asia and the Middle East.
CE and the beginning of the Renaissance in the The history of the Americas was shaped by the
fourteenth century CE. The European world was emergence of the Maya, Aztec and Inca; the Hindu
dominated by the power of the Roman Catholic Majapahit empire dominated much of South-east
Church and governed by feudal kingdoms. During Asia; and in Africa, the empires of Ghana, Mali and
this period in history, other great civilisations Songhay changed life for many people.
flourished in the world beyond Europe. The rise and
Mongol, thirteenth century: Yuan dynasty,
  Source 5      Map of the major civilisations of the Civilisation located in central Asia that fourteenth century: Mongol
Middle Ages world established an empire across north ruler, Kublai Khan, conquered
Asia and into Russia China destroying the power of
the Song dynasty government.
Viking, eighth to eleventh
The new Mongol ruling family
centuries: Scandinavian
was called the Yuan dynasty.
warriors who travelled south
and west on longships to
trade and raid across Europe. A
Vikings often settled and The Byzantine, or Eastern
established highly organised Roman Empire,
governments in cities such 395 CE–1453 CE
as York, Britain.

Khmer, ninth
to fifteenth
centuries: An early
South-East Asian
civilisation in the
region of modern
Cambodia
Anglo-Saxon, seventh to
ninth centuries: One of
the Germanic invaders I N D IAN I NAN
O CE D IAN O CE AN
who conquered Britain
between the fifth and
seventh centuries. The Ming dynasty, fifteenth
Norman invasion of 1066 to seventeenth centuries:
brought Anglo-Saxon rule Chinese dynasty
in Britain to an end. founded by a rebel leader
who defeated the Mongol
Ottoman, fifteenth century: Yuan dynasty
Muslim empire of the Turks
stretching across Southern
Russia, Iran, Palestine, Egypt
and North Africa

182 Retroactive 1: Stage 4 History

 ACTIVITIES
COMPREHENSION AND COMMUNICATION Use the From the ancient to the modern
eBook plus
world eLesson to gain an overview of
Make a list of the civilisations identified in source 5. the major events and cultures between
Work in small groups to conduct further research on each 650 and 1750 CE that were a part of the
civilisation. Combine your findings to create a series of change from the ancient to the modern
illustrated class fact sheets on the major civilisations of world. eles-1059
the medieval world.

ARCTI C O CE AN
ARC TI C O CE AN

0 1000 2000 3000

kilometres
ATL ANTI C ATL ANTI C
PACI FI C PACI FI C

O CE AN O CE AN
O CE AN O CE AN

Aztec, fifteenth century:

One of the Mexican
civilisations that
established an empire Inca, fifteenth century:
Key based on collection Peruvian farming
Byzantine 8th−11th centuries of tribute from other society that began in
Anglo-Saxon 7th−9th centuries central Mexican tribes. the highlands of the
Viking 8th−11th centuries Aztecs built large cities, Andes Mountains. Incas
Ottoman 15th century developed writing and developed an empire
Khmer 9th−15th centuries
practised brutal religious from Ecuador in the north
rituals. to Chile in the south.
Mongols 13th century

Yuan Dynasty 13th−14th centuries

Ming Dynasty 14th−15th centuries

Aztec 15th century

Inca 15th century

Overview 2  |   The ancient to the modern world 183

 The major civilisations of the The Warrior Age
medieval period The romantic vision of the Middle Ages conjures
up an image of the knight in shining armour
Source 5 identifies the major civilisations of riding gallantly off to battle. The ideal of European
this period: Byzantine, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, knighthood was a warrior who would die in the
Viking, Ottoman, Khmer, Mongol, Yuan and Ming protection of Christianity, protect the good against
dynasties, Aztec and Inca. evil, defend the poor, and be brave and courteous
and always respectful to women.
Feudalism The reality was that feudal systems around
the world depended upon warriors who lived by
The strong central authority of the Roman following a brutal but elaborate code of behaviour.
emperor and his government was eventually The Christian knights who fought Islam in the
replaced in Europe by a new system of Crusades rode on a new breed of powerful horse
government called feudalism. The name comes bred for war. The use of the stirrup made it possible
from a grant of land, a fief — from the Latin word to increase the weaponry and armour the knight
feudum. The key to political power in the feudal went to battle with. The warriors from the Middle
system was land and military service. The king East copied European cavalry tactics.
was the highest lord of the land. He won his power The warriors were a class of professional fighting
through battle, or he inherited it through family men whose important position in their society was
position. The king kept power by gaining loyalty recognised through ritual and ceremony. These
and military support from his nobility. The nobility warriors were all expected to provide the rulers
expected land in return. This feudal system also with military service in return for property and
governed ancient civilisations like Japan, China status.
and India. • The Eastern Roman, or Byzantine, Empire
covered the lands surrounding the Mediterranean
Land and power during its height of power in the seventh century.
In 1066, William the Conqueror brought Norman From the capital at Constantinople, the Byzantine
rule and feudalism from Europe to England. The knights travelled through Europe and western
feudal kings had power over all, and owned all Asia fighting the Arab, Mongol and Slav armies.
the land. To control the kingdom and maintain • The Mongol Empire was created in the thirteenth
support, the king leased his land, the fief, to century under the rule of Genghis Khan. The
powerful barons and lords who were known as power of the Mongol armies lay in the speed
vassals. The vassals swore an oath of loyalty to of their cavalry, composed of highly trained
their king and agreed to provide him with military and well-equipped warriors on horseback. The
support as it was needed. These lords divided their Mongol warrior army conquered much of western
fiefs into estates, which they then leased to their Asia, Europe and Imperial China.
vassals, who were lower ranked members of the • The Ottoman Empire emerged in the fourteenth
nobility or knights. century when their leader, Uthman, united the
Military service and land ownership existed groups of Muslim people called the Ottoman
together because the nobility gained their wealth Turks. Ottoman warriors fought the Byzantine
from the land given to them by the king. In return, knights and invaded Europe in the fifteenth
the nobility had to supply the king with knights. century. Their military power lay in the skill of
The barons and lords depended upon the income their highly trained warriors and sophisticated
from their large estates to pay the great cost of weaponry.
training an army of knights. • The Toltec Empire controlled Mexico from the
The serfs, who were the peasant farmers, worked tenth to twelfth century. The Toltec warrior was
the land held by kings, barons and knights. Serfs dressed in fine armour and given high status for
could not be sold like slaves but they were not free bravery in the service of his king.
to leave the lord’s estate without his permission. • The samurai warriors first appeared in Japan’s
They were bound to work the lord’s land for northern and eastern provinces. They lived
a number of days every week, and give him a and fought for their lords under a strict code of
percentage of their own crop at harvest time. The behaviour and honour. In the nineteenth century,
serfs were also obliged to serve as soldiers in the this ancient code was named bushido, meaning
lord’s army at a time of war. the ‘path of the warrior’.

184 Retroactive 1: Stage 4 History

  Source 6      A twelfth-century manuscript illustration of a   Source 8      The Atlantes, carved columns in the form of Toltec
crusading knight. The Knights Templar, Knights of St John and warriors in Tula, Mexico, wearing body armour and helmets
Teutonic Knights were priests who had taken up arms in the
military campaign to recover Palestine from the Muslims.

ACTIVITIES
DEVELOP SOURCE SKILLS
1 Refer to sources 6, 7 and 8 to explain what
a ‘warrior’ was and why you think they were
important to the Middle Ages period.
  Source 7      The traditions of the samurai warrior had their
origin in the Gempei War of the twelfth century. This struggle 2 Discuss key features of appearance that identify
between two powerful clans, the Minamoto and Taira, was warriors, such as weaponry and armour.
fought by highly trained and educated soldiers wearing a COMPREHENSION AND COMMUNICATION
lightweight armoury made from bamboo, cloth and metal. The
3 Research how other Middle Ages warriors were
magnificently decorated armoury also indicated wealth and
equipped for battle, for example the Mongol
status. The samurai warriors fought both on horseback and on
horsemen, Islamic soldiers and the Byzantine
foot, and were skilled in a range of martial arts.
cavalry.
4 Design a class PowerPoint presentation or poster
display on the theme: The Middle Ages, a World
of Warriors. In your presentation identify the
weaponry and armoury used, and also the skills
and personal qualities valued in warrior societies.
Complete the worksheet for this
eBook plus
section, located in your eBookPLUS
resources.

cavalry: soldiers mounted on horseback

lease: property given to another for a certain time
stirrup: loop or ring suspended from the saddle of a
horse to support the feet of the rider

Overview 2  |   The ancient to the modern world 185

 The trade routes of the world Expanding horizons
The wealthy people living under the rule of Roman By the tenth century, new towns were beginning to
Britain had been able to buy luxury trade goods appear across Europe. This was due to the rise of
such as sweet oranges grown in the warm climate a new group of people in society called merchants.
provinces of Europe, western Asia or Africa. The Merchants travelled along rough roads to the
violence and unrest that brought the fall of the small marketplaces scattered across Europe. They
Roman Empire had also destroyed the European regularly traded goods, produced by peasants and
marketplace and well-established trade routes. craftsmen, at the fairs held in northern France,
However, as the European feudal world gradually Germany and Belgium. Along the coast of northern
became more ordered and peaceful, the market Europe, more cities grew from the trade that came
places were rebuilt and the trade routes reopened. from fishing. Salted herring and other fish were
The major trading routes during the medieval and traded in England for goods such as wool and
Renaissance periods are shown in source 9. pewter. Merchants sailed to eastern Europe to
trade walrus tusks and furs, and they set up trade
routes in the Baltic where they bartered for silver,
ACTIVITIES pearls and Chinese silk. They traded along the
river systems of Russia and even reached the rich
COMPREHENSION AND COMMUNICATION
marketplaces of Baghdad. Viking traders travelled
Design a newspaper advertisement to publicise the
from the coast of western Europe to Iceland,
arrival of a range of fabulous new luxury goods that
Greenland and Newfoundland. The Vikings’ travels
have just arrived in fifteenth-century Europe from
Africa, Asia and the Americas. Don’t forget to let your finally took them to America, 500 years before
customers know where the goods have come from, and Christopher Columbus travelled there.
how they are going to transform European life. Columbian Exchange

Manufactured
NOR T H goods Bristol London
  Source 9      The major trade routes of the medieval and AME R I CA EUROPE
Boston
Renaissance world New York
Philadelphia
Charleston Sugar
Slaves Guns, cloth
AT L A N T I C
Slaves,
sugar AFRICA
ARC TI C O CE AN OCEAN
ARCTI C O CE AN Gold,
spices

Rum, cloth,
0 1000 2000 S OUT H gunpowder
kilometres AME R I CA

ASIA
EUROPE ASIA
NORTH Azores Venice EUROPE
NORTH Genoa Azores
AMERICA ATL ANTI C Islands Genoa Venice
Lisbon Islands Constantinople
AMERICA ATL ANTI C Lisbon Constantinople
Seville Porcelain, Nagasaki
Gems,
Seville Porcelain, Nagasaki
textiles Gems,tea, silk
FI C Havana textiles tea, silk PACI FI C
PACI FI C
Acapulco Havana Macau PACI FI C
Veracruz
Acapulco O Macau
AN CE AN
Veracruz AFRICA Goa O CE AN
O CE AN Silver, Cartagena O CE AN AFRICA Goa
Manila
Manila
O CE AN
Silver, Cartagena Spices,
cacao, textiles Spices, Ternate
cacao, textilesTidore
Malacca
dyes
Recife Malacca Tidore Ternate
dyes Spices,
Lima Recife Spices,
Lima sugar
SOUTH sugar
SOUTH
AMERICA I N D IAN O CE AN AUSTRALIA
AMERICA I N D IAN O CE AN AUSTRALIA

0 2000 4000 6000

kilometres

186 Retroactive 1: Stage 4 History

   Source
  Source10 
10        
World change came
with increased
contact between
people of different
cultures and places.
At the end of the
fifteenth century
the world trade of
animals, plants,
ideas, cultures
and diseases
brought about a
revolution that
has been named
‘the Columbian
Exchange’. This
sixteenth-century
painting, called
Barbarians from
the South, shows
Portuguese
merchants in Japan
engaged in the trade
of exotic animals.

  Source 11      Italian moneychangers sat on benches, or   Source 12      A new group of wealthy people appeared with
banks, to conduct their trade of European, Byzantine and the growth of trade. Merchants and craftsmen formed guilds
Arab currencies. The moneychangers accepted deposits, to protect their business. Only members of a guild were
used paper credit and organised loans. The moneychangers permitted to trade within a town, or train apprentices to their
working in the cities of Florence, Siena, Venice and Genoa craft. In this fifteenth-century Flemish painting, cloth dyers
became very wealthy and founded the European banking are shown dipping cloth in vats of red dye. The cloth-making
system. industry also trained weavers, fullers and walkers, carders
and shearers. Craftsmen in the textile industry were closely
controlled by guild regulations.

Overview 2  |   The ancient to the modern world 187

 Genoa in the marketplaces of Cairo. Cairo was a
ACTIVITIES city of great Islamic faith and learning, and it was
the centre of the trade network connecting the
DEVELOP SOURCE SKILLS Mediterranean Sea with the Indian Ocean. Porcelain
1 Consider the work done by the moneychangers from China and spices from South-East Asia came
in source 11. What activities can you see taking from the Egyptian Red Sea ports, while slaves and
place and why do you think the role of the ‘banks’
gold travelled down the Nile River from east Africa.
was increasingly important?
Arab traders caught the monsoon winds and sailed
2 Cloth making was one of the largest industries of
to India in their trading vessels called dhows, and
the Middle Ages, training a variety of craftsmen.
Describe what craft activity is illustrated in roped together long caravans of camels, donkeys
source 12. and mules to travel across Asia. After bartering in
distant marketplaces, the Arab traders would return
COMPREHENSION AND COMMUNICATION to their own lands laden with precious goods.
3 Research the tasks involved in the various cloth-
  Source 13      A nineteenth-century Chinese illustration of the
making crafts identified in the source 12 caption.
weaving of silk that was exported to Europe. The Europeans
Design a new guild emblem for the craftsmen
provided Asian marketplaces with weapons and silver.
engaged in cloth making. Every guild had an
emblem representing their craft; the emblem of
the shoemakers’ guild featured a shoe and a tool
of the shoemaking trade.
4 Historians regard the Columbian Exchange,
represented in source 10, as one of the most
significant developments in human history
because it affected nearly every society on Earth.
Have a class brainstorm on what changes world
trade would bring, and then design your own
poster expressing your findings. Refer to the
source 10 painting by the Japanese artist Kano
Naizen for ideas on how to visually express the
impact of the Columbian Exchange.

From Venice to Cairo

The greatest European trade centres of the Middle
Ages emerged in the Italian cities of Venice and ACTIVITIES
Genoa. The thirteenth-century European traders
were regularly sending cargo ships based in Genoa DEVELOP SOURCE SKILLS
and Venice across the Mediterranean. Precious Trade with Asia supported the growing wealth and
metals, silks and other luxuries were transported power of Europe. What is being produced in source 13,
from the east and exchanged with wool, coal and and why do you think this product would have been of
timber from the west. German and Dutch ships increasing importance to Europe?
exchanged their copper and lead for wine, oil and
salt from the southern Mediterranean.
The Venetians gained more trade links with Asia The Silk Road
when the Byzantine Empire was conquered by the During the late thirteenth century the ancient trade
Turkish Ottoman Empire. The Ottomans captured route known as the Silk Road flourished again
the Byzantine capital city, Constantinople, in 1453. under the protection of the Mongol armies that
The fall of Constantinople brought luxury goods had conquered Asia and eastern Europe. The Silk
from western Asia to the markets of Italy, from Road had been the trade route between the Roman
where they travelled by sea to western Europe. Empire in Europe and Han China in Asia.
These new European trade links would eventually From their homelands in the Siberian steppes,
circle the world. the Mongols swept from Asia to Europe and created
The Islamic empire, stretching across north Africa the largest empire the world had ever seen. Europe
and western Asia to the borders of India, was the rediscovered the Silk Road when three Venetian
great trade centre of the world at this time. Muslim merchants, Niccolo, Maffeo and Marco Polo, began
merchants met European traders from Venice and their journey along its length in 1271. Their path

188 Retroactive 1: Stage 4 History

from Europe to Asia, more than 15 000 kilometres, history, and is remembered as the Black Death
took over three and a half years. After crossing because it killed millions of people across the
oceans, mountain ranges and scorching deserts, they globe.
finally arrived in the heart of Imperial China and met By the middle of the fourteenth century, the worst
the Mongol emperor, Kublai Khan. Marco stayed in of the plague was over. In some areas of Europe it
China for twenty years, travelling throughout Asia had killed more than half of the population.
in the service of the Great Khan and establishing The horror of the plague destroyed the
further trade links. By the fifteenth century, the Ming confidence of the Middle Ages and brought an
emperors were regularly sending fleets of Chinese end to fourteenth-century European dreams of
trading vessels west. world trade, exploration and discovery. By the time
Europe recovered, the rule of the Mongols in China
The Khmer was over and Islam had reached India. During the
fifteenth century, Europe looked again to the world
The great Khmer civilisation flourished between
beyond and entered the ‘Age of Exploration’.
the ninth and fifteenth centuries CE. Deep in the
dense tropical jungles of modern Cambodia and
Vietnam, the Khmer grew rice on the flooded plains, Voyages of discovery
dug canals and built dams. From the twelfth century, European culture began its spread across the
they employed thousands of labourers on massive world in the fifteenth century during a remarkable
building projects such as the magnificent temple of era known as the Age of Exploration. The desire
Angkor Wat. The wealth of the Khmer opened up to trade and find new marketplaces encouraged
new Asian trade routes through Thailand and into exploration from Europe to the world. The
India. promise of gold, spices and glory enticed more
European adventurers to sail beyond their
The Black Death homelands and onto the foreign shores surrounding
Towards the end of Marco Polo’s life a terrible the Atlantic.
plague, or disease, began its journey from Asia and There were many reasons why the European
into Europe. It was the deadliest epidemic in world explorers of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
set sail:
  Source 14      A relief carving from the walls of the twelfth- • a spirit of discovery encouraging curiosity to learn
century Khmer temple, Angkor Wat, in Cambodia. It is the about the unknown
largest religious building in the world and was created • the desire to spread Christianity to the world
during the reign of Suryavarman II. The temple was originally beyond Europe
dedicated to the Hindu god Vishnu, but then became a • a sense of European power and the excitement of
Buddhist temple. The carvings depict scenes from the Hindu the conquest of foreign lands
epic poems expressed through images of dancing figures. • access to valuable and precious materials such as
gold and silver
• the search for sea routes to regions such as India
and China for trade of luxury goods
• technological developments in European
shipbuilding and navigation, making voyages to
distant destinations possible.

•  European exploration

emblem: object designed to symbolise or represent

something
monsoon: seasonal wind that often brings heavy rain
pewter: alloy of tin and lead often used for making
objects for daily use
steppe: extensive grassland plain

Overview 2  |   The ancient to the modern world 189

   Source 15      The first page of a sixteenth-century book for
use by navigators. The illustration featured two sailors with
Journeys to the ‘New World’
sounding leads, used to gauge the depth of water, and a range The Portuguese and the Spanish led the Europeans
of other navigational instruments. into the Atlantic Ocean and across the ‘green sea of
darkness’, which took them to the unknown land
they called the ‘New World’.

Henry the Navigator

In 1419 Prince Henry of Portugal employed some
mapmakers to begin charting the coast of west
Africa. For this initiative he has been recorded in
history as ‘Henry the Navigator’. Henry’s dream was
for Portugal to become the first European country to:
• establish direct trade links with west Africa
• circumnavigate the African continent
• discover new routes to the wealth of the Far East.

Christopher Columbus
In 1492 an Italian adventurer named Christopher
Columbus began a great journey of exploration,
which took him from Europe to the West Indies. This
voyage expanded European horizons, and opened
the way for the exploration and conquest of the
Americas. Columbus established contact between
Europeans and the people of the ‘New World’.

Ferdinand Magellan
Most Europeans of the Middle Ages still believed the
world was flat. Sailors following Middle Ages’ maps
feared sailing off the edge of the Earth, or arriving
at destinations inhabited by terrifying fire-breathing
monsters.
In 1519 a Portuguese sailor named Ferdinand
Magellan left Spain with five ships and 260 men.
His goal was to find a sea route to the Spice Islands
in modern Indonesia. Magellan was speared and
killed in the Philippines, so he never reached his
destination. One of his officers, Juan de Elcano, took
command and steered his ships to Indonesia and
ACTIVITIES then onward across the Indian Ocean and back again
to Europe. These Spanish ships circumnavigated the
COMPREHENSION AND COMMUNICATION
world in their search for a westerly sea route to the
1 Great technical skill was needed to safely chart
Spice Islands. Europeans now knew that the earth
a course across thousands of kilometres of
open and unknown ocean. The mariners of the was round and the world’s great oceans, continents
Middle Ages developed a wide range of navigation and people were connected. This contact brought
instruments, featured in the source 15 guide for Europe knowledge, power and wealth. The spirit
mariners. Research the following instruments. of discovery now gave way to a brutal desire for
a  Compass b  Astrolabe European control of foreign lands.
c  Divider d  Jacob’s staff
e  Quadrant f  Sextant
2 Identify the instruments that you can find pictured
charting: creating a map showing special features or
in source 15 and then write an explanation of facts
each instrument’s use, and the significance to circumnavigate: to sail completely around something
navigation during this age of exploration. mariner: person who sails or navigates a ship

190 Retroactive 1: Stage 4 History

  Source 16      An illustration of the people of the island of Portuguese explorers and the Gold Coast
Andaman, lying off the coast of Burma. The Europeans of the
The long west African coast has few harbours,
Middle Ages believed the world beyond their own continent to
and dangerous shores and coastal currents.
be inhabited by strange creatures that were part animal and
part human. Exploration was slow until major fifteenth-century
developments in shipbuilding, seamanship and
navigation. It was not until 1444 that Portuguese
sailors made their first direct contact with
black Africa when they reached Cape Verde,
600 kilometres off Africa’s west coast.
The African world was opened up to Europe when
the Portuguese navigator, Bartolomeu Dias, finally
rounded the southern tip of Africa and entered
the Indian Ocean in 1488. Ten years later Vasco
da Gama rounded the Cape, sailed into the Indian
Ocean and headed north along the east coast of
Africa. He finally returned to Portugal in 1499 with
a shipload of spices and a detailed knowledge of the
African coastline and the Indian Ocean. This led
the Portuguese to establish trading settlements all
the way along Africa’s Atlantic coastline. Portuguese
officials and merchants negotiated treaties with
African rulers and traded in goods such as cloth,
salt and slaves.

The Pacific pioneers

ACTIVITIES The most remarkable story of human exploration
occurred across the vast Pacific Ocean, one third
DEVELOP SOURCE SKILLS of the Earth’s surface. By the tenth century CE,
1 Describe the Andaman people according to the Polynesian people had travelled the Pacific,
source 16. found and colonised all the inhabitable islands.
2 Using the source as your evidence, suggest why They sailed large double-hulled canoes across the
the achievements of men like Columbus and enormous empty ocean. The Polynesian navigators
Magellan were of such great significance. observed the sun and stars, winds, ocean currents
and the flight of birds. Their last major journey
of discovery and exploration took them to New
Voyages to Africa Zealand.
In the fifteenth century, Sub-Saharan Africa was
linked to the outside world through the network of
  Source 17      The voyaging canoes that took Polynesian
explorers across the Pacific Ocean had a double hull carved
ancient trade routes. The wealth of Sub-Saharan
from huge logs and sails woven from pandanus leaves.
Africa reached world marketplaces on the backs
of donkeys, camels and slaves. Ships from Spain,
Portugal and Italy regularly called in to Africa’s
Mediterranean ports to exchange trade goods. The
ancient Mediterranean world had also traded with
Africa along the coast of the Red Sea.
Despite centuries of trade, the land to the south
of the Sahara remained a ‘dark continent’ that
existed as a place of mythology to Europeans. All
black Africans were known as Ethiopians and
were believed to be ferocious people with peculiar
physical features. The fantastic wealth of the west
African empires was glimpsed through the stories
told in the marketplaces of medieval southern
Europe.

Overview 2  |   The ancient to the modern world 191

 • In the early fifteenth
The influence of religion and the
century, the emperor of Islamic pioneers
China’s Ming dynasty sent Admiral Zheng He Christianity began in the Middle East. During the
on a voyage to the southern oceans. Admiral medieval period, the Christian Church expanded its
Zheng He’s giant vessels, called junks, were over boundaries and influence across Europe and moved
100 metres in length. The 28  000 men on board were along the trade routes into Asia and Africa. This was
fed with fresh vegetables and fruit grown on gardens the ‘age of faith’, a time when the Christian Church
built on the decks. was widely regarded as the highest authority. From
• Admiral Zheng He rounded Africa’s Cape of Good the eleventh century, the head of the Catholic
Hope 70 years before the first Europeans would, and Church, the pope, was regarded as the leader of
eventually returned to China with exotic gifts such western Europe. Christian beliefs provided unity
as a giraffe. and shaped the European understanding of the
• In the fourteenth century, the Chinese drew a map of world. In the thirteenth century, the Mappa Mundi,
the world with China at the centre of a round earth. or world map, was created. The Mappa Mundi
placed the holy city of Jerusalem at its centre.
Palestine was considered to be the holy land, and
Christians showed its significance by drawing it as
the central and largest region on Earth.
•  Non-European exploration
Muslims also regarded their holy city, Mecca, as the
centre of the world. The maps of their known world
  Source 18      A seventeenth-century drawing showing were nevertheless more accurate, due to Islam’s
European ambassadors being received at the court of King advanced knowledge of measuring, mathematics and
Alvaro II of the Congo. The kingdom of Kongo was located along navigation. Over many centuries the Muslim map-
the southern edge of the west African rainforests of the Congo makers (cartographers) marked out long trade routes
River. The Kongolese were famous for the beautiful fabrics on detailed maps called portolani. By the thirteenth
they wove. The Kongo King welcomed Europeans believing century, Islamic scholars and sailors had developed
they would give his people education and guns. sophisticated navigation instruments such as the
astrolabe and the quadrant. They set off in search of
distant lands armed with their new technology and
the desire to spread Islam.

  Source 19      An account of his visit to the west African city
of Songhai by the early sixteenth-century Moorish (Spanish
Muslim) explorer Leo Africanus

Its inhabitants are rich merchants who travel constantly about

the region with their wares. A great many Blacks come to the
city bringing quantities of gold with which to purchase goods
imported from the Berber country and from Europe, but they
never find enough goods on which to spend all their gold and
always take half or two-thirds of it home.
  The city is well-policed in comparison to Timbuktu. Bread
and meat exist in great abundance, but one can find neither
wine nor fruit. In truth, melons, cucumbers, and excellent
pumpkins are abundant and they have enourmous quantities
of rice. Fresh-water wells are numerous. there is a place
where they sell countless .  .  . slaves on market days. A fifteen-
year-old girl is worth about six ducats and a young man
nearly as much; little children and aged slaves are worth
about half that sum.
  The king has a special palace set aside for women,
concubines, and slaves, and for the eunuchs charged with
astrolabe: instrument for measuring the altitude of the watching over these women. He has … a necessary guard of
sun and stars horsemen and of foot-soldiers armed with bows. Between
the public gate and the private door to his palace is a great
quadrant: instrument used in navigation and
courtyard surrounded by a wall. A gallery on each side of this
astronomy to measure altitude courtyard is used for holding audiences.

192 Retroactive 1: Stage 4 History

Ibn Battuta • Christian ‘salvation’ achieved by fighting or dying
in a holy war.
Ibn Battuta was a fourteenth-century Islamic
Christianity’s struggle with Islam continued
explorer. He was born in 1304 in north Africa, and
until the fifteenth century. The Crusades brought
devoted his life to finding out more about the many
slaughter and terrible suffering to both the Islamic
people and places of the Islamic empire. Ibn Battuta
and Western world, but crusading and contact with
left his home in Morocco to travel on a hajj (Muslim
the sophisticated Muslim civilisation also changed
pilgrimage) to Mecca when he was 21 years old.
and improved European life:
Ibn Battuta spent the next 30 years exploring
• Italian trading cities of Venice and Genoa became
the entire known Islamic world: north and west
rich from the trade in weapons and supplies,
Africa, India, China, western and central Asia, and established banking systems linking the
South-East Asia, and southern and eastern Europe. Mediterranean trade cities
He recorded his remarkable adventures in a book • luxury goods such as carpets and glass mirrors,
called Rihlah, meaning The Journey. Rihlah provides new fabrics such as cotton and gauze, and foods
a vivid account of life in many of the world’s great such as coffee and oranges were traded from the
civilisations during the fourteenth century. It is a Arab lands to Europe
unique history of world culture and contact during • science and technology such as the windmill, first
the period of the Middle Ages, and established Ibn used in Persia, were adopted in Europe
Battuta as one of the world’s greatest travellers.. • Islamic knowledge in fields such as medicine and
mathematics was brought to the West.
Contact and conflict The most important and lasting change was the
growth of an awareness of a world, people and
Islam’s culture, technology, trade and government
culture beyond Europe. The European crusaders
unified large parts of the Mediterranean, western
lived with Greek Christians, Jews and Muslims, and
Asia and lands around and across the Indian Ocean.
learned a different way of life.
The spread of Arabic as the language of Islam’s
holy book, the Qur’an, played an important role
in developing unity. In Spain the world of Islam
and the western world were combined to create
ACTIVITIES
the unique Moorish culture. Islam introduced new DEVELOP SOURCE SKILLS
plants and crops from India and South-East Asia to
1 Source 18 shows the relationship between
the arid lands of Spain. The knowledge and culture Europeans and an African ruler in the seventeenth
of Islam flowed from Spain back into medieval century. Refer to the source and the text, and then
Europe, as Arabic texts were translated into Latin. imagine you are one of the Europeans visiting
the King of Kongo. Write a letter back to your king
The Crusades describing the scene and explaining what you
hope to gain from the meeting.
Some Europeans saw Islam as a threat to
2 Use source 19 to answer the following.
Christianity. Centuries of conflict between the Arab
a What food could be found in the city of Songhai?
and western worlds began in 1065 following a call
b What was sold in countless numbers on market
to arms by Pope Urban II. Armies of European
days?
Christians set off for the Middle East (western c Who worked for the king?
Asia) to capture the Holy Lands from Islam, and
a group of Muslim people called the Seljuk Turks. COMPREHENSION AND COMMUNICATION
There were many reasons for the series of wars that 3 The Portuguese sailors of the fifteenth century
followed, including: embarked on their great journeys of discovery in
• defence of the Christian city of Constantinople
caravels, the Chinese set off on board huge junks
and the Polynesians set sail in double-hulled
against the Seljuk Turk army
canoes. All these journeys saw the birth of a new
• creation of unity between Eastern and Western age in human history. Source 17 provides an
Christians image of a vessel of exploration. Research the
• protection of Christian pilgrims on their journey variety of sailing craft during the Middle Ages and
to the Holy Lands Renaissance period. Select images that could be
• opening up European trade opportunities in areas used to promote a TV documentary on the Boats
of Asia controlled by Islam that Explored the World. Write captions to explain
• European desire for adventure, conquest, wealth your chosen images.
and land

Overview 2  |   The ancient to the modern world 193