Medieval Russia Ancient Russia - PowerPoint Presentation

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Medieval Russia

Ancient Russia

For thousands of years, Slavs lived in the Dnieper River Region

850 C.E.

Russia settled by

Scandinavians

(called Rus)

People from Norway, Sweden, Finland

Main city is Novgorod, then moved to Kiev

Map of Russia (850-1235 A.D.)

Yaroslav the Wise (1019-1054 A.D.)

Codified Rus laws

Collected religious books and translated them from Greek to Slavic

Encouraged Artists

Made alliances with other states through marrying his daughters to their princes

Divided the country up among his children when he died

Christianity in Russia

Before the Rus, the Slavic people were polytheistic, worshiping nature and their many gods

In 863 CE, the Byzantine Empire sent two monks into Russia to give them Christianity

Cyrillic Alphabet- the alphabet used by Russia, that is very similar to Greek

The monks learned Slavonic and celebrated mass in Slavonic instead of Greek or Latin. Therefore, the

Byzantinian

form of Christianity (Orthodox) spread around Russia

In 988, Vladimir I made Christianity the state religion

Built schools, libraries, churches,

Helped solidify political alliances with Byzantine Empire

After the Schism in 1054, the head of the church in Kiev set up a semi independent Russia church

RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH.

Map of Russia (1235)

Invasion of Mongols (1237)

Most of Russia conquered by Mongols

States forced to pay “tribute” to Mongols

Mongols control Russia for next 200 years

City of Novgorod remains in Russian control

Most control is left to local princes, and the Mongols didn’t mess with the Church

Ivan the Great (1480)

Leads rebellion against the Mongols

Freed Russian cities from Mongol control

Ivan the Terrible (1533)

Becomes Tsar of Russia as a 3 yrs. old

Ivan IV

New legal code

Created a council from all levels of society

Government jobs based on skill not name

Expanded Russia into Siberia

Ivan the TERRIBLE

Attacked his own followers if they displeased him (including his own son)

Created a private police force – punished anyone who spoke against the Czar

Time of Trouble

No heir left Russia without a Czar

Michael- a relative of Ivan’s wife crowned Czar in 1613 - ROMANOV

Medieval Japan

Introduction

-Japan consists of a series of thousands of Islands that form an archipelago, or large island chain.

-Japanese practice Shintoism, or “way of kami”

According to Shinto beliefs everything in nature has a “kami”

Shintoism does not have a formal text or structure but followers build shrines and pray to the “kami”

-The first emperor of the Japanese were the Yamato clan, thought to the descendants of one of the Sun gods.

Other clans gained power over the Yamato, but did not get rid of the emperor. Instead they controlled him from the outside.

Social Society

-By the 1100s Japan’s central government had begun to lose control of the empire and local clans began to fight for power.

Large landowners hired samurai, or trained professional warriors, for protection.

-Japan adopted a feudal society very similar to Europe

In exchange for their service , landowners paid samurai with food, usually rice.

-Samurai were trained warriors that wore armor, were trained in weapons, and rode on horseback.

Samurai followed a strict code of ethics called Bushido, which means “the way of the warrior”

Samurai were required to be courageous, honorable, obedient, and loyal

Many samurai adopted Zen Buddhism, a form of Buddhism that spread from China to Japan and stressed discipline and meditation as ways to focus the mind and gain wisdom

Shogun

-After many years of warfare, Japan was united by the Tokugawa family who became the SHOGUN, or generals, of Japan.

The emperor of Japan acted as a figurehead, or ruler, with no political power

-During Tokugawa rule agricultural production rose, population grew, and economic activity increased

Under Tokugawa rule, feudal society hierarchy became rigid

Ruling class: Emperor > Shogun > Daimyo (landowners) > Samurai

Below the ruling class were the peasants, artisans, and merchants

Korea

The Korean peninsula lies southwest of China and just northwest of Japan, leaving them open to invasion by the Chinese and the Japanese

The first Koreans were nomadic and traveled in clans that formed their own culture

China defeated these nomadic tribes and shared Confucianism as well as their writing system, agricultural practices, and government systems

The

Koryo

Dynasty in Korea continued some of the Chinese practices and worked to develop a distinct Korean identity

Korean society was sharply divided between the nobility and the rest of the people

Medieval

AFrica

Pre-Civilization Africa

-Africa’s large size has contributed to the wide variety of cultures that have emerge in Africa.

Each section has its own climate and provides different resources for the people who live there

-Northern Africa is dominated by the Sahara Desert while central and southern Africa is characterized by plains called the savanna.

-In the early phase of their history, most Africans lived as hunter-gatherers.

Their villages were based around their clans or families with very strict division of labor between men and women

They were animistic, meaning they believed that bodies of water, animals, trees, and other natural objects have spirits

They did not develop a system of writing but rather passed down their histories through oral traditions

-After the Iron Age, Africans began to migrate throughout the rest of the continent sharing their culture, beliefs, and languages

The bantu language formed and was shared through southern and eastern Africa creating a more common culture.

Aksum (Ethiopia)

The Aksum kingdom developed in east Africa and controlled trade along the Red Sea

This made it the richest of the kingdoms in east Africa

Aksum was a center of trade for luxury goods like frankincense, ivory, gold, but also had a sustainable agriculture

Aksum became a Christian nation after Christianity was brought from traders

Aksum began to decline in the 700s due to Muslim invaders

GHANA

Ghana did not have access to the sea, however, it still became a trading empire

They used camels to cross the Sahara Desert and trade with the other African Kingdoms

Ghana controlled al the gold and salt trade in West Africa

They taxed the goods that were brought to their empire’s markets which built them great wealth.

Mali

After Ghana declined due to Muslim invaders, Mali rose to power expanding the empire to the Atlantic Ocean

Mali reached its height under Mansa Musa

He gained most of his wealth by taxing the gold-salt trade

Mansa Musa was a devout Muslim

In 1324, he set out with 60,000 Muslims to complete the hajj

When he returned, he built large mosques, schools, and libraries to spread Islam in Timbuktu, the capital

songhai

The rulers following Mansa Musa were not as strong as he had been, and they were eventually overshadowed by the smaller but stronger kingdom of the Songhai

The Songhai were traders along the Trans-Saharan trade routes that became Muslim