AP World
Topic 1
Developments in East Asia 1200-1450
Revival of Large Empires
● Song dynasty of China was wealthiest & most innovative
● Regional trade led to growth in Sub-Saharan (SS) Africa &
SE Asia
Unity of Central Asia
● After a devastating conquest, the Mongols brought unity
and an unprecedented exchange of goods, ideas, and
diseases along the Silk Roads.
Song Dynasty in a Nutshell
● At the beginning of the 1200s, China was rich in wealth,
culture, and the most innovative state in the world.
● Porcelain, the compass, and gunpowder were invented.
● Hangzhou as the largest city in the world (over 2 million)
,Government of Song China 960 - 1279 CE
● Smaller than Tang before it, but government was wealthy,
supported arts
● Bureaucracy – large hierarchy of workers – ran all levels of
government
● Confucian Exam System – rewarded talented nobles and
gave bureaucracy talented workers
● Meritocracy – Emperor Song Taizu encouraged promising
poor men to take exam, giving his government highly
motivated workers (earned it through merit, not bribes)
● Filial Piety – children respecting their parents/elders
Economy of Song China
● Agriculture, foreign trade, improved roads/canals led to
population growth and money $$$
● Grand Canal – linked north and south; 30,000 miles long
Internal trade boomed, and government could store rice from
south for times of famine
● Gunpowder – invented earlier, the Song make the first guns
● Agricultural Productivity
● Champa Rice – imported from Vietnam was drought
resistant and fast-ripening
● Improved plows, irrigation, fertilizer and water wheels
increased food
● Population grew from 25% to 40% of all humans by 1279
,Manufacturing and Trade
● “Black Earth”/Coal led to mass-produced steel for goods,
ships and structure-reinforcement (Pagodas)
● Proto-industrialization – Song Government hired
home-based workers – made porcelain & silk
● These workers were called artisans
● Artisans – skilled crafts-people
● Invention of the compass & paper money helped China
become world’s most commercialized society
● Taxes – paying $ replaced doing labor; led to economic
growth
● Tributes – neighboring countries forced to pay “tribute”
● Kowtow – Zheng He led hugh fleets into Indian Ocean
collecting tribute
Social Structure
● New Social Class – nobles whose son passed exam, move
ABOVE
● Scholar-gentry – educated government bureaucracy
● Power Gap – well below the nobles were 3 groups:
Farmer
Artisan/craftsman
Merchant
● Role of Women – defer to men; have sons
● Foot Binding – noble wives were required (“social status”),
but symbol of constraint
, Intellectual and Cultural Developments
● Paper & Printing – block printing helped China pass along
info on many subjects (ex. Farm efficiency, war tactics, etc.)
● Wood-block Printing – 100s of years ahead of the Gutenberg
Press
● Reading & Poetry – Confucian classics and Li Bo poems in
high demand by the numerous literate upper class.
Religious Diversity
Topic 1
Developments in East Asia 1200-1450
Revival of Large Empires
● Song dynasty of China was wealthiest & most innovative
● Regional trade led to growth in Sub-Saharan (SS) Africa &
SE Asia
Unity of Central Asia
● After a devastating conquest, the Mongols brought unity
and an unprecedented exchange of goods, ideas, and
diseases along the Silk Roads.
Song Dynasty in a Nutshell
● At the beginning of the 1200s, China was rich in wealth,
culture, and the most innovative state in the world.
● Porcelain, the compass, and gunpowder were invented.
● Hangzhou as the largest city in the world (over 2 million)
,Government of Song China 960 - 1279 CE
● Smaller than Tang before it, but government was wealthy,
supported arts
● Bureaucracy – large hierarchy of workers – ran all levels of
government
● Confucian Exam System – rewarded talented nobles and
gave bureaucracy talented workers
● Meritocracy – Emperor Song Taizu encouraged promising
poor men to take exam, giving his government highly
motivated workers (earned it through merit, not bribes)
● Filial Piety – children respecting their parents/elders
Economy of Song China
● Agriculture, foreign trade, improved roads/canals led to
population growth and money $$$
● Grand Canal – linked north and south; 30,000 miles long
Internal trade boomed, and government could store rice from
south for times of famine
● Gunpowder – invented earlier, the Song make the first guns
● Agricultural Productivity
● Champa Rice – imported from Vietnam was drought
resistant and fast-ripening
● Improved plows, irrigation, fertilizer and water wheels
increased food
● Population grew from 25% to 40% of all humans by 1279
,Manufacturing and Trade
● “Black Earth”/Coal led to mass-produced steel for goods,
ships and structure-reinforcement (Pagodas)
● Proto-industrialization – Song Government hired
home-based workers – made porcelain & silk
● These workers were called artisans
● Artisans – skilled crafts-people
● Invention of the compass & paper money helped China
become world’s most commercialized society
● Taxes – paying $ replaced doing labor; led to economic
growth
● Tributes – neighboring countries forced to pay “tribute”
● Kowtow – Zheng He led hugh fleets into Indian Ocean
collecting tribute
Social Structure
● New Social Class – nobles whose son passed exam, move
ABOVE
● Scholar-gentry – educated government bureaucracy
● Power Gap – well below the nobles were 3 groups:
Farmer
Artisan/craftsman
Merchant
● Role of Women – defer to men; have sons
● Foot Binding – noble wives were required (“social status”),
but symbol of constraint
, Intellectual and Cultural Developments
● Paper & Printing – block printing helped China pass along
info on many subjects (ex. Farm efficiency, war tactics, etc.)
● Wood-block Printing – 100s of years ahead of the Gutenberg
Press
● Reading & Poetry – Confucian classics and Li Bo poems in
high demand by the numerous literate upper class.
Religious Diversity
