Connecting societies

If you were born in the 1200s, your world would have been pretty small. Most people were farmers. And most farmers stayed close to one place their entire life. Yet the world itself was growing larger in ways such as trade. People who did travel long distances often carried ideas with them. How did communities react when they learned of those ideas from far away? Did they adopt them, reject them, or mix them up with their own traditions and cultures?

As we study how societies were connected, we focus on the trade of goods. But this article will focus on the movement of ideas. Ideas moved through the same networks as goods.

Diffusion of science and technology

One of the big stories in this period is the movement of technologies. Technologies could be physical, like paper. Other technologies were ideas, like mathematics.

Every region of the world contributed new technology. China and the Islamic world made large contributions to technology.

The Islamic world stretched from North Africa to India. It was important to the development of modern mathematics. The Islamic world was involved in trade. Merchants needed to keep track of costs and the money they earned. Muslim practices inspired mathematical innovation. The Muslim calendar, for example, was created using astronomy, or by studying the stars and planets. Muslim mathematicians developed new forms of math. They studied and divided the circle in a way that had not been done before. Arab scholars developed a book (al-Jabr) that became the basis of modern algebra. These ideas traveled to neighboring regions, including Europe. The European scientific revolution of the 1500s and 1600s would not have been possible without these ideas.

In China, more people became scholars. People developed new inventions like the magnifying glass, the compass, and gunpowder. By 1206, the Mongols had conquered China. The Mongols built a huge system of exchange. Trade goods moved from east to west, and so did technologies.

By the late 1200s, gunpowder was being used in many parts of Afro-Eurasia. Gunpowder was not very powerful at first. By the 1380s it was being used for cannons. Cannons allowed the Ottoman Empire to conquer Constantinople and expand Islam. They also transformed power structures in Europe. For the first time, elites in power were not able to hide behind their castle walls.

Spread and transformation of major religions

Religions also moved along trade routes. Often, different religions blended together. This is a process known as syncretism.

Many religions spread in Southeast Asia. Hinduism and Buddhism first emerged in India. Both religions had longstanding connections in Southeast Asia. They were often connected to each other. The great Khmer temple at Angkor Wat began as a temple to the Hindu god Vishnu. It was later transformed into a Buddhist temple. Its design shows influence from both religions.

Hinduism became common in South Asia. A monastic form of Buddhism became popular in Southeast Asia.¹ It was known as Theravada.

Islam spread to more areas. Islam was at first a religion of merchants, but it soon spread more widely. By the 1200s many trading ports had a majority Muslim population.

Islam was also spreading in Africa. The religion had already been in North Africa and across the Sahara Desert. At this time, Islam was reaching the interior of West Africa and along the East African coast. Trade helped the spread of Islam. Sufi brotherhoods were important to spreading Islam beliefs. Sufi beliefs could co-exist with local cultures.

In South Asia, a Sufi version of Islam attracted many people. It also spread through conquest that created major states. These states ruled many Hindus. They usually tolerated both religions. Christianity also spread by conquest in this era. In the 1200s and early 1300s, crusades slowly drove older beliefs out of many regions. The people of these areas became culturally closer to the people to their west.

Conclusion

The spread of technology, religion, and other ideas is complex. When different areas became connected by trade, they influenced each other. Some of the agents of this change were people who made these voyages. Other agents of change were many people they met along the way. Those non-travelers still encountered new ideas and beliefs. They had to decide what to do with them. Should they accept the new idea and change the way they thought or lived? Should they reject it, or mix it with what they already had? These decisions would heavily impact the connected societies of Afro-Eurasia.

1 In a monastic religion, monks and nuns devote themselves to a religious life that they live out in monasteries, away from most other society.