Human societies change, but not everything changes all the time. Some things have continuity. This means that they stay the same even when other things change. You can think about continuity and change in your own history, too. You probably still have some of the same likes and dislikes, but you’re not the exact same person you were five years ago. Still, human history is usually more about the changes than the continuities.

Collapse and restructuring

One of the big changes in the history of the world involves communities, networks, and how things are produced and distributed. Everything just seems to get bigger as time moves forward. By the time we reach the period covered in this unit (200–1500 CE), human societies have gone from small extended families to large states and vast empires. Before, trade between neighbors was a big deal. Now, trade networks might extend thousands of miles. Once, belief systems were local. Now, people might share a religion across distances so big that they will never meet each other!

But though change happens, it doesn’t always happen in one direction. For example, sometimes networks and communities get smaller for a while, which we call periods of collapse. But periods of collapse don’t last forever. They’re usually followed by another period of growth, which we call eras of restructuring.

Systems collapse

The biggest collapse and restructuring we look at in this unit takes place in Eurasia. In the year 200 CE, two very large states—the Roman Empire and China under the Han Dynasty—sat at either end of a trade route. It connected the Mediterranean Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Then, both states collapsed. As a result, the system that connected them broke down, too.

Collapse can mean different things. It might mean total destruction, where cities are burned, populations decline, and knowledge is lost. It might be used to describe a change of government or ruler.

Several other Eurasian states experienced collapse around the same time, including the Gupta Empire in South Asia. The collapse of large empires often affected other states beyond their borders. So, for example, the total human population grew during this period. But in large areas of Eurasia, the population sharply declined between 300 and 600 CE.

A dark age?

Sounds pretty terrible, right? In fact, so terrible that we might call this era, at least for Eurasia, a “dark age.”

Or should we?

For some people, empire collapse was probably a terrible thing. Trade slowed, so it was harder to get goods. Law and order broke down, making everything less safe. Wars increased while learning decreased. The land that is now England — once part of the Roman Empire— suffered from invasions and raids after the Roman Empire collapsed.

Yet, other parts of the world didn’t suffer as much. Recovery in Asia was more rapid.

One important way to look at this question of a “dark age” is to look at the lives of women. They changed dramatically in both China and western Europe in this period.

Systems restructure

Eurasia recovered, but the recovery looked different depending on the area. China was sometimes united and sometimes divided. Much of the eastern Roman Empire lived on as the Byzantine Empire. In southwestern Asia and North Africa, Roman rule was replaced by governments built around Islam. In western Europe, societies restructured around the Catholic Church.

The reorganization of Eurasia had a new, strong center. The religion of Islam emerged in the seventh century. It helped to provide trading links, shared morals, and political stability. Islam also politically united several large empires in Southwest Asia and facilitated trade between East and West. The Indian Ocean also became important for trade. Rising trade created new possibilities for taxation, which strengthened governments. Sometimes, as in the Crusades, conflict between religious communities created political tension.

In East Africa, the once-powerful state of Aksum declined. Swahili-speaking city-states arose on the coast. For a time, they dominated trade between the Indian Ocean and the African interior. In West Africa, large states, including Mali, emerged for the first time. In Mesoamerica, states (including the Maya) and systems grew and collapsed. Many of these fell apart in the ninth century.

Conclusion

The Silk Road was a major long-distance trade route across Eurasia. It grew even wider and busier than it had been before the collapse of the Roman Empire and the Han Dynasty. Other large, long-distance trade networks also developed in the Americas.

Religion was important in the Afro-Eurasian system in the period of restructuring. Europeans lacked a strong, central government, but Christianity provided a sense of unity. In Southeast Asia, Buddhism and Hinduism acted as networks to support traders. They also offered ideologies and principles for states to organize around. But the relationship between the state and religion was not exact or perfect. In Western Europe, the Christian (Catholic) pope had authority. However, he did not rule over vast territory. The Orthodox Church was based in Byzantium. At times, it was friendly with Catholic countries and empires, but at other times, they were enemies. The Muslim world was also frequently divided. Also, some peoples who didn’t have their own states thrived. This was true in particular of the Jewish community.

All this leads us to ask more questions about collapse. What do historians mean when they say that some societies collapse or fall? What actually changed and who was affected by those changes? How did things either change back or start growing again? Finding some answers to these questions about the past might help us to look at our own society in the present. It might even help us to plan for the future.