Chapter 1

India and the World

 Coverage

East and
The Arab Southeast
Europe World Asia

Growth of Africa
Feudalism
  In Europe, the mighty Roman empire
Europe
had broken into two by the 6th century.

 The western part with its capital at

Rome had been overwhelmed by the

Slav and Germanic tribesmen coming

from the side of Russia and Germany.

 The eastern part of the old Roman

empire had its capital at Byzantium or

Constantinople, under Byzantine

empire.
 It included most of eastern Europe as well as modern Turkey,

Syria and North Africa, including Egypt.

 It acted as a bridge between Greco Roman civilization and

Arab world.

 It disappeared finally in 15th century when Constantinople

fell to Turks.

 The Dark Age - After collapse of the Roman empire in West -

cities virtually disappeared in West Europe & foreign and

inland trade received a severe setback.

 However, from tenth century onwards trade and city life
began to revive.

 Between 12th and the 14th century - Western Europe was

again able to attain a high level of prosperity.

 A notable feature of this period was

growth of science and technology

growth of towns

establishment of universities in Padua and Milan in Italy.

 The universities played an important part in the growth of new

learning and new ideas.
Growth of Feudalism

 A new type of society and new system of government

rose in Western Europe after the Roman empire.

 The new order is called feudalism.

 In this society, the most powerful elements were the

chiefs who commanded huge military - dominated

large tracts of land and also played important part in

government.
 The king was just like one of the more powerful feudal
chiefs.

 In course of time - the monarchy became stronger and

an attempt was made to limit the power of the chiefs.

 So, the king swore the chiefs to an oath of loyalty to him

as his vassal and in, return, recognised the tract of land
dominated by the Chiefs as their fiefs.

 The chief, in turn, could appoint sub-chiefs as vassals

and allot a tract out of their fief to them.
 The king could, in theory, take away the fief of a disloyal
vassal, but, in practice, this was rarely done.

 Thus, in the feudal system, government was dominated

by a landed aristocracy.

 The aristocracy was hereditary.

 But, it was never a completely closed aristocracy.

 In Europe, feudal system is associated system of serfdom.

 A serf was a peasant who worked on the land but could

not change his profession, or migrate or marry without
the permission of his lord or master.
 Associated with this was the system of the manor.

 The manor was the house or castle where the lord

lived.

 A part of the land was cultivated by the lord directly

with the help of serfs who had to divide their time
between cultivating their own fields and the fields of
their master.

 Since the land belonged theoretically, to the lord, the

serf had to pay him other dues in cash and kind.

 The lord of the manor also had the responsibility of

maintaining law and order, dispensing justice etc.
 Since there was a lot of lawlessness, even free peasants
were prepared to accept vassalage of the lord for
protection.

 In India, there was no serfdom and no manor system.

 But, the local landed elements (samantas) exercised many

powers of the feudal lords and peasantry was dependent
on them.

 The second feature associated with the feudal system in

Europe is the system of military organisation.

 The system of cavalry warfare can be traced back in

Europe only to the 8th century.
 In the Roman times, the chief wings of the army were
the heavy and light infantry, armed with long spears and
short swords.

 The Arabs had a large supply of horses and their swift

movements and mounted archers made the infantry
useless.

 This new mode of warfare helped in the growth of

feudalism in Europe.

 No king could maintain out of his own resources the

large body of cavalry needed and to provide them with
armour and equipment.
 Hence, the army was decentralized - the fief-
holders were responsible for maintaining a fixed
force of cavalry and infantry for service of the king.

 Cavalry became new mode of warfare due to the

development of iron stirrup (a heavily armoured
person to ride on a horse without falling).

 The second invention was a new type of harness

which enabled a horse to draw twice the amount
of load.

 The pattern of life in Europe was shaped by the

Christian Church.
 In the absence of a powerful empire in the West, the
Catholic Church took on some of the functions of the
government as well.

 The Pope became not only a religious head, but also

had political and moral authority.

 With the help of grants of land from the princes and

feudal chiefs and donations from rich merchants, many
monastic orders were set up.

 Some served the needy and the poor, gave medical

help, shelter and served as centres for education.
 However, some of the monasteries which
became exceedingly wealthy began to
behave like feudal lords.

 This led to conflict with the rulers who resented

the worldly power of the Church and of the
Popes.
  The rise of Islam was instrumental
The Arab World in uniting the warring Arab tribes
into a powerful empire.

 The Arab empire founded by early

Caliphs embraced Arabia, Syria,
Iraq, Iran, Egypt, North Africa and
Spain.

 Abbasids came to power as

Caliphs at Baghdad in the middle
of the 8th century.
 The Abbasids controlled the important trade routes
linking the Mediterranean with India and China.

 The safety and security which the Abbasids provided

created wealth and prosperity among people.

 The Arabs were keen and enterprising merchants and

seafarers.

 The standard of living and the cultural environment of

the Arab towns was unmatched.

 The most famous Caliphs were al-Mamun and Harun al-

Rashid who patronized men of science and learning.
 Arabs displayed a remarkable capacity of assimilating the
scientific knowledge and administrative skills of ancient
civilisations.

 They had no hesitation in employing non-Muslims,

particularly Iranians, for running the administration.

 Although the Abbasid Caliphs were orthodox Muslims,

they opened the gate of learning from all quarters if it
didn’t challenge fundamental tenets of Islam.

 The Caliph al-Mamun set up a House of Wisdom (bait-ul-

hikmat) at Baghdad for translating the learning from
various civilisations into Arabic.
 Many Chinese inventions such as the
compass, paper, printing, gun powder
and wheel barrow travelled to Europe
via the Arabs.

 Venetian traveller, Marco Polo, travelled

to China to breach the Arab monopoly.

 The decimal system which had

developed in India in 5th century,
travelled to the Arab world.

 In the 9th century, it was popularized by

the Arab mathematician al-Khwarizmi.
 Works on astronomy, Surya Siddhanta, works of Charak
and Sushruta etc. were also translated.

 Indian physicians and master-craftsmen were received

at the caliph‘s court at Bagdad.

 Sanskrit works, such as Kalila wa-Dimna (Panchatantra),

were translated into Arabic and formed the basis of
Aesop’s Fables in West.

 The growth of geometry, algebra, geography,

astronomy, optics, chemistry, medicine etc. made Arabs
the leader in the field of science.
 Some of the best libraries and laboratories in the world
were established in the Arab world.

 Many of these achievements were the result of work

done by people outside Arabia, in Khorasan, Egypt,
Spain, etc.

 The Arab science was truly international.

 Arabic became the language of literature and thought.

 People from various countries could move freely and

work or settle down anywhere they liked.
 There was a remarkable degree of intellectual and
personal freedom enjoyed by scholars.

 Such freedom was not available in Europe.

 Perhaps, conditions in India were similar, for hardly any

of the Arab sciences could filter into India.

 Arab science declined after the 14th century due to

political and economic developments and growing
orthodoxy which stifled free thought.
Africa  The Arabs brought Africa more actively
into the Indian Ocean/Middle Eastern
trade.

 Arab migrations and mercantile activity

along the east coast of Africa
increased enormously.

 It included export of slaves to West Asia

and North Africa and gold, ivory etc.
 In Africa, Ethiopia was a powerful kingdom with many
towns.

 They were engaged in the Indian Ocean trade.

 Many Ethiopians, called Habshis, were Christians.

 They were closely allied to the Byzantine empire in

the Indian Ocean.

 The trade position of Ethiopia weakened with the

decline of the Byzantine empire.
East and Southeast Asia
 China‘s society and culture had attained a climax
in the 8th and 9th centuries under Tang rule.

 The Tang rulers extended their over lordship over

Central Asia.

 This gave fillip to the overland trade across ‘Silk

Road‘.

 Not only silk, but fine quality porcelain and works in

jade were exported to West Asia, Europe and India.

 Foreign traders were welcome in China.

 Mongols conquered China in the 13th century and
wrought death and destruction.

 But, Mongol rulers were able to unify North and South

China under one control for the first time.

 They also brought under their sway Tonkin and Annam

(Vietnam).

 They overran Korea.

 Marco Polo spent some time at the court of Kublai Khan.

 China developed a strong navy and Southeast Asian

countries had to meet expansionist urges of some rulers.
 The two most powerful kingdoms were the Sailendra and
Kambuja empires.

 The Sailendra dynasty arose in the 7th century constituted

the Sri Vijaya empire.

 At its height, it included Sumatra, Java, Malaya peninsula,

parts of Siam (modern Thailand) and Philippines.

 India had close trade and cultural contacts with them.

 Many Chinese and Indian scholars visited

Palembang(Indonesia), the capital of the empire, which
had been a Sanskrit and Buddhist centre of study.
 The rulers built magnificent temples during
the period, such as temple of Borobodur.

 Indian epics, such as Ramayana and

Mahabharata are displayed in the panels of
the temple.

 These epics continued to provide the themes

for literature, folk art, puppet-plays, etc.

 The Kambuja empire extended over

Cambodia and Annam (south Vietnam) and
replaced the Hinduized kingdom of Funan.
 Its most magnificent achievement is the
group of temples near Ankor Thom in
Cambodia.

 It has passages covered with statues of

Hindu gods, goddesses and nymphs
(apsaras) and panels containing scenes
from the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.

 Thus, India had close commercial and

cultural contacts both with the West,
Southeast Asia, China, Madagascar and
countries on east coast of Africa.
 In the early phase, Arab traders did not make any special
effort to convert the people of the area to Islam.

 Thus, there was a remarkable degree of religious freedom

and tolerance.

 The conversion of Indonesia and Malaya to Islam took place

gradually.

 Elsewhere, Buddhism continued to flourish.

 Commercial and cultural contacts between India and

southeast Asia was snapped only with the establishment of
Dutch rule in Indonesia, English rule in Burma and Malaya
and French rule in Indo-China.
2015 With reference to Indian history, which of the following is/are the
essential elementary elements of the feudal system?
1. A very strong centralized political authority and a very weak
provincial or local political authority
2. Emergence of administrative structure based on control and
possession of land
3. Creation of lord-vassal relationship between the feudal lord and
his overlord
Select the correct answer using the code given below.
(a) 1 and 2 only (b) 2 and 3 only
(c) 3 only (d) 1, 2 and 3
Thank You