The Global Tapestry

Before anything connects, something has to exist. This unit argues that by c. 1200 CE, distinct civilizations across East Asia, Dar al-Islam, Africa, the Americas, Europe, and South and Southeast Asia had each developed their own logic for organizing power, legitimating rulers, and sustaining economies. The Song Dynasty, the Mali Empire, the Mongols, the Delhi Sultanate these are not background scenery. They are the actors whose internal structures will determine how they respond when contact and exchange intensify in Unit 2. Your job here is not to memorize dynasties but to understand what made each civilization's power structure stable or fragile before external pressure arrived.

8–10% of exam