1. 500-1500

2.   Most classical civilizations fell  Transatlantic voyages of 15 th century define next era  How are we to understand the thousand years between the end of the classical era and the beginning of the modern world?  Difficulty to define this millennium's identity  Medieval—too Euro centric  “third wave civilizations”—ones following river valley, and classical Defining the Millennium

3.   Not easy to identify clearly defined features that encompass all the major civilizations during this period  Several patterns are true  Greater cultural interactions  Wholly new but small civilizations arose where none existed before  Swahili City States, Kievan Rus (Eastern Europe), Japan Korea and Vietnam witnessed new centers of civilization… Defining the Millennium

4.   Largest, most expansive and widely influential new third wave civilization was Islam  Began in Arabia 7 th century  Arab people built an enormous empire based on new, attractive religion  Islam defined this new civilization  Encompassed vast area—East Africa, Spain, Southeastern Europe, Persia, Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia, interior Africe A New Player on the World Stage

5.   The Byzantine empire—eastern Roman Empire/continued Christianity lasted until 1453  China—Sui, Tang, Song unified China under reasserted Confucian tradition  India retained caste and Hinduism along with cultural diversity –some fell under Muslim rulers  West Africa—Ghana, Mali, Songhay sustained trans Saharan trade.  Collapse of the Roman Empire and Western Europe—kings abdchurch leaders sought to maintain links with the older Greco-Roman-Christian traditions of classical Mediterranean civilizations.  Decentralized societies emerged  Became a backwater compared to rest of the world  Competition  Mesoamerica—Mayan collapse  Mexico saw the birth of the Aztecs  South America—Inca The Old Civilizations