Cultures in Contact
ANT 326L (30410) Spring, 2008
Samuel M. Wilson
• Europe was internally diverse
• It was disorganized and economically weak
• It was flanked by other more powerful groups
Objectives:
• Europe and other powers: 400-1400 A.D.
• Forces of change in Europe after 1000 A.D.
• “Triggers” for European exploration
• How Europeans’ interactions with others conditioned their interactions with New World People
Extents of the Roman empire
Augustus
After the Fall of Rome
• The Byzantine Empire (The Eastern Church)
• What was to become the Islamic World (Arabia, the Near East, and North Africa
• Europeans (Germanic groups and others)Europe in 814 A.D.
The Byzantine (yellow) and Islamic Empires (orange) controlled most of the Mediterranean world
The Byzantine Empire
• Similar in political organization and religion to the late Roman Empire
• More successful in holding off Germanic invaders
• Controlled Mediterranean territory from southern Italy to the eastern Black Sea until ~1000 A.D.
Justinian
San Vitale, Ravenna
c. 548
Hagia Sofia
1000 AD
Byzantine Influence
• Helped form ideology of Europe
• preserved classical text
• basis for Eastern European and Russian ideology -- Eastern Orthodox Church
• Strong artistic / stylistic continuity with later EuropeByzantine Influence
• Buffered Western Europe from the Islamic Expansion
• Byzantine traders supplied Europe with goods and generated demand
• Called for the Crusades and thus pulled Western Europe into the battle and forced it to compete in the larger world system
Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire
The Islamic World
The Islamic World
• Expansion centered on a regional trading center
• Eventually very diverse
• Practices that promoted expansion
• Honored scholarship and became one of the most intellectually sophisticated societies (math, sciences, medicine, arts).
The Prophet Mohammed (c. 570-632)
• From a wealthy trading family in Mecca; widely traveled in the Near East, and familiar with other cultures
Tenets of Islam
• Monotheism
• Gradual revelation by prophets (Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed)
• Importance of adherence to code of laws concerning diet, marriage, reproduction, praying, giving to the poor
• Hajj or pilgrimage to Mecca
• Promoting the spread of Islam
Extents of Islamic Expansion
(ca. 750 A.D.) Islam eventually expanded further, into the Balkans and Indonesia
Islamic Expansion into Europe
What factors made the Islamic Expansion possible?
• Ability to be viewed as liberators rather than conquerors
• Common language: Classical Arabic
• Ideological importance of gaining converts
• Relative tolerance of other cultures and religions
• Powerful infrastructure based on control of trade routes in Europe, Africa, and Asia
Reconquista
Alhambra Palace, Grenada, Spain
Moorish Palace and citadel, built beginning 1248, conquered by Castille and Aragon in 1492
Alhambra Interior
• Six centuries of Islamic control had profound impacts on Iberian society
• Iberian people share part of the long tradition of the Moors
• The “reconquest” -- with centuries of warfare -- strongly influenced Spanish cultureSignificance of the reconquista?
Spain had a centuries-long tradition of battling non-Christians, institutions dealing with cultural difference
The situation in Europe, 500-1000 A.D.
• Compared to Byzantium and the Islamic world, Europe was the least powerful and integrated
• Simple agricultural economy
• Land was the primary means of production
• the “Villa System”, from the Roman model, was still the primary way of organizing land, people, and production
Four important institutions...
•
“Villa” system
• Roman Catholic Church
• The Papacy
• The Monastic Orders
monastery
Situation 1000-1450
• Populations rapidly growing
• Rising demand for foreign goods
• Demand for land and expansion
• Religious fervor / proselytization
Marco Polo’s Route
With many other Europeans, M.P. traveled to the court of Kublai Khan,
and returned to Venice in 1295 (b. 1254- d.1324)
Marco Polo
Sir John Mandeville
Powerful Trading Cities
The Impetus for Exploration
– Looks at what prompted Europeans to look to the West
• Why Europe headed West
• Trade routes to the east closing
• Islamic control of Constantinople / Istanbul
• Rising class of traders
• Increasing population
• Increasing competition between Nobles
European Expansion