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A History of
World Societies
CONCISE EDITION
CONCISE EDITION
A History of
World Societies
ELEVENTH EDITION
MERRY E. WIESNER-HANKS
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
ROGER B. BECK
Eastern Illinois University
JERRY DÁVILA
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
JOHN P. McKAY
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
FOR BEDFORD/ST. MARTIN’S
Vice President, Editorial, Macmillan Learning Humanities: Edwin Hill
Program Director for History: Michael Rosenberg
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Photo Researcher: Bruce Carson
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Text Design: Boynton Hue Studio
Cover Design: William Boardman
Cover Art: Armenian Woman from Isfahan, painting, 20th century/Armenian Cathedral and Museum, Julfa, Isfahan,
Iran/De Agostini Picture Library/G. Dagli Orti/Bridgeman Images
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by
any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except as may be expressly permitted by the
applicable copyright statutes or in writing by the Publisher.
2 1 0 9 8 7
f e d c b a
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Acknowledgments and copyrights appear on the same page as the text and art selections they cover; these
acknowledgments and copyrights constitute an extension of the copyright page.
PREFACE
We are pleased to introduce the first Concise Edition of our popular textbook A History of World Societies. The
Concise Edition provides the social and cultural focus, comprehensive regional organization, and global
perspective that have long been hallmarks of A History of World Societies in a smaller, more affordable trim
size. Featuring the full narrative of the eleventh edition of the comprehensive parent text plus select features,
images, maps, and pedagogical tools, the Concise Edition incorporates the latest and best scholarship in the field
in an accessible, student-friendly manner. Each of the authors on our collaborative team is a regional expert with
deep experience in teaching world history, who brings insights into the text from the classroom, as well as from
new secondary works and his or her own research in archives and libraries. In response to the growing emphasis
on historical thinking skills in the teaching of history at all levels, the book’s primary source program offers a
wide variety of sources, both written and visual, presented in different ways to allow students to practice
different skills. The rich primary sources and innovative tools of the Concise Edition — both print and digital —
have been carefully designed to help students think historically and master the material.
The Story of A History of World Societies
In this age of global connections, with their influence on the economy, migration patterns, popular culture, and
climate change, among other aspects of life, the study of world history is more vital and urgent than ever before.
An understanding of the broad sweep of the human past helps us comprehend today’s dramatic changes and
enduring continuities. People now migrate enormous distances and establish new lives far from their places of
birth, yet migration has been a constant in history since the first humans walked out of Africa. Satellites and cell
phones now link nearly every inch of the planet, yet the expansion of communication networks is a process that is
thousands of years old. Children who speak different languages at home now sit side by side in schools and learn
from one another, yet intercultural encounters have long been a source of innovation, transformation, and at times,
unfortunately, conflict.
This book is designed for twenty-first-century students who will spend their lives on this small
interconnected planet and for whom an understanding of only local or national history will no longer be
sufficient. We believe that the study of world history in a broad and comparative context is an exciting,
important, and highly practical pursuit. It is our conviction, based on considerable experience in introducing
large numbers of students to world history, that a book reflecting current trends in scholarship can excite readers
and inspire an enduring interest in the long human experience.
Our strategy has been twofold. First, we have made social and cultural history the core elements of our
narrative. We know that engaging students’ interest in the past is often a challenge, but we also know that the
emphasis on individual experience in its social and cultural dimensions connects with students and makes the
past vivid and accessible. We seek to re-create the lives of ordinary people in appealing human terms and also to
highlight the interplay between men’s and women’s lived experiences and the ways they reflect on these to create
meaning. Thus, in addition to foundational works of philosophy and literature, we include popular songs and
stories. We present objects along with texts as important sources for studying history, and this has allowed us to
incorporate the growing emphasis on material culture in the work of many historians. At the same time, we have
been mindful of the need to give great economic, political, and intellectual developments the attention they
deserve. We want to give individual students and instructors an integrated perspective so that they can pursue —
on their own or in the classroom — the themes and questions that they find particularly exciting and significant.
Second, we have made every effort to strike an effective global and regional balance. The whole world
interacts today, and to understand the interactions and what they mean for today’s citizens, we must study the
whole world’s history. Thus we have adopted a comprehensive regional organization with a global perspective
that is clear and manageable for students. For example, Chapter 7 introduces students in depth to East Asia, and
at the same time the chapter highlights the cultural connections that occurred via the Silk Road and the spread of
Buddhism. We study all geographical areas, conscious of the separate histories of many parts of the world,
particularly in the earliest millennia of human development. We also stress the links among cultures, political
units, and economic systems, for these connections have made the world what it is today. We make comparisons
and connections across time as well as space, for understanding the unfolding of the human story in time is the
central task of history. We further students’ understanding of these connections with the addition of new timelines
in each chapter that put regional developments into a global context.
Primary Sources for Historical Thinking
A History of World Societies offers an extensive program of primary source assignments to help students master
a number of key learning outcomes, among them critical thinking, historical thinking, analytical thinking, and
argumentation, as well as learning about the diversity of world cultures.
To encourage comparisons across chapters and across cultures, we offer the Global Viewpoints feature,
which provides students with perspectives from two cultures on a key issue. This feature offers a pair of primary
documents on a topic that illuminates the human experience, allowing us to provide more concrete examples of
differences in the ways people thought. Anyone teaching world history has to emphasize larger trends and
developments, but students sometimes get the wrong impression that everyone in a society thought alike. We hope
that teachers can use these passages to get students thinking about diversity within and across societies. The 33
Global Viewpoints assignments — one in each chapter — introduce students to working with sources, encourage
critical analysis, and extend the narrative while giving voice to the people of the past. Each includes a brief
introduction and questions for analysis. Carefully chosen for accessibility, each pair of documents presents
views on a diverse range of topics such as “Roman and Chinese Officials in Times of Disaster” (Chapter 6),
“Early Descriptions of Africa from Egypt” (Chapter 10), “Aztec and Spanish Views on Christian Conversion in
New Spain” (Chapter 16), “Declarations of Independence: The United States and Venezuela” (Chapter 22), and
“Gandhi and Mao on Revolutionary Means” (Chapter 29).
A second type of original source feature, Analyzing the Evidence (one in each chapter), features an
individual visual or written source, longer and more substantial than those in other features, chosen to extend and
illuminate a major historical issue considered in each chapter, with headnotes and questions that help students
understand the source and connect it to the information in the rest of the chapter. Selected for their interest and
carefully integrated into their historical context, these in-depth looks at sources provide students with firsthand
encounters with people of the past and should, we believe, help students “hear” and “see” the past. Topics
include “The Teachings of Confucius” (Chapter 4), “Sufi Collective Ritual” (Chapter 9), “The Abduction of
Women in The Secret History of the Mongols” (Chapter 12), “Courtly Love Poetry” (Chapter 14), “Duarte
Barbosa on the Swahili City-States” (Chapter 20), “Rain, Steam and Speed — the Great Western Railway”
(Chapter 23), “Slaves Sold South from Richmond, 1853” (Chapter 27), “A Member of China’s Red Guards on
Democratic Reform” (Chapter 32), and “Protest Against Genetically Modified Foods” (Chapter 33).
Taken together, the primary source features in this book offer the tools for building historical skills, including
chronological reasoning, explaining causation, evaluating context, and assessing perspective. In LaunchPad
these features are each accompanied by autograded questions that test students on their basic understanding of the
sources so instructors can ensure students read the sources, quickly identify and help students who may be
struggling, and focus more class time on thoughtful discussion and instruction.
In addition, our primary source documents collection, Sources of World Societies, includes written and
visual sources that closely align the readings with the chapter topics and themes of this edition. The documents
are available in a fully assignable and assessable electronic format within each chapter in LaunchPad, and the
multiple-choice questions — now accompanying each source — measure comprehension and hold students
accountable for their reading.
Finally, our new Bedford Document Collections modules in LaunchPad, which are also available for
customizing the print text, provide a flexible repository of discovery-oriented primary source projects ready to
assign. Each curated project — written by a historian about a favorite topic — poses a historical question and
guides students through analysis of the sources. Examples include “The Silk Road: Travel and Trade in
Premodern Inner Asia”; “The Spread of Christianity in the Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Centuries”; “The
Singapore Mutiny of 1915: Understanding World War I from a Global Perspective”; and “Living Through
Perestroika: The Soviet Union in Upheaval, 1985–1991.”
Student Engagement with Biography
In our years of teaching world history, we have often noted that students come alive when they encounter stories
about real people in the past. To give students a chance to see the past through ordinary people’s lives, each
chapter includes one of the popular Individuals in Society biographical essays, each of which offers a brief
study of an individual or group, informing students about the societies in which the individuals lived. This
feature grew out of our long-standing focus on people’s lives and the varieties of historical experience, and we
believe that readers will empathize with these human beings who themselves were seeking to define their own
identities. The spotlighting of individuals, both famous and obscure, perpetuates the book’s continued attention to
cultural and intellectual developments, highlights human agency, and reflects changing interests within the
historical profession as well as the development of “micro-history.” These features include essays on people
such as Sudatta, a lay follower of the Buddha (Chapter 3); Queen Cleopatra of Egypt (Chapter 6); Ibn Battuta, the
famous Muslim traveler (Chapter 9); Catarina de San Juan, an Indian woman who had been enslaved by
Portuguese traders and transported to Mexico (Chapter 16); Toussaint L’Ouverture, leader of the Haitian
Revolution (Chapter 22); Samuel Crompton, inventor of the spinning mule (Chapter 23); and Ning Lao, a Chinese
working woman (Chapter 29).
Geographic Literacy
We recognize students’ difficulties with geography, so our text offers Mapping the Past map activities. Included
in each chapter, these activities ask students to analyze a map and make connections to the larger processes
discussed in the narrative, giving them valuable practice in reading and interpreting maps. In LaunchPad, these
maps come with new assignable activities. Throughout the textbook and online in LaunchPad, nearly 100 full-
size maps illustrate major developments in the chapters. In addition, 75 spot maps are embedded in the
narrative to show specific areas under discussion.
Chronological Literacy in a Global Context
The attention to global connections and comparisons that marks this Concise Edition can also be seen in new
timelines at the end of each chapter. Along with graphically displaying major events and developments from the
chapter, they also include key developments in other regions with cross-references to the chapters in which they
are discussed. These comparisons situate events in the global story and help students identify similarities and
differences among regions and societies.
Helping Students Understand the Narrative
We know firsthand and take seriously the challenges students face in understanding, retaining, and mastering so
much material that is often unfamiliar. With the goal of making this the most student-centered edition yet, we
continued to enhance the book’s pedagogy on many fronts. To focus students’ reading, each chapter opens with a
chapter preview with focus questions keyed to the main chapter headings. These questions are repeated within
the chapter and again in the “Review and Explore” section at the end of each chapter that provides helpful
guidance for reviewing key topics. “Review and Explore” also includes “Make Comparisons and Connections”
questions that prompt students to assess larger developments across chapters, thus allowing them to develop
skills in evaluating change and continuity, making comparisons, and analyzing context and causation.
Within the narrative, a chapter summary reinforces key chapter events and ideas for students. This is
followed by the chapter-closing Connections feature, which synthesizes main developments and makes
connections and comparisons between countries and regions to explain how events relate to larger global
processes, such as the influence of the Silk Road, the effects of the transatlantic slave trade, and the ramifications
of colonialism. This also serves as a bridge to the subsequent chapters.
Key terms are bolded in the text, defined in the margin, and listed in the “Review and Explore” section to
promote clarity and comprehension, and phonetic spellings are located directly after terms that readers are
likely to find hard to pronounce.
The chapter ends with Suggested Resources, which includes up-to-date readings on the vast amount of new
work being done in many fields, as well as recommended documentaries, feature films, television dramas, and
websites.
The high-quality art and map program has been thoroughly revised and features hundreds of
contemporaneous illustrations. To make the past tangible, and as an extension of our attention to cultural
history, we include numerous artifacts — from weapons and armor to dishes, furnishings, and figurines. As in
earlier editions, all illustrations have been carefully selected to complement the text, and all include captions that
inform students while encouraging them to read the text more deeply. Numerous high-quality full-size maps
illustrate major developments in the narrative, and helpful spot maps are embedded in the narrative to locate
areas under discussion.
In addition, whenever an instructor assigns the LaunchPad e-Book (which can be bundled for free with the
print book), students get not only access to all of the additional special features and primary sources of the
comprehensive edition but also full access to LearningCurve, an online adaptive learning tool that promotes
mastery of the book’s content and diagnoses students’ trouble spots. With this adaptive quizzing, students
accumulate points toward a target score as they go, giving the interaction a game-like feel. Feedback for
incorrect responses explains why the answer is incorrect and directs students back to the text to review before
they attempt to answer the question again. The end result is a better understanding of the key elements of the text.
Instructors who actively assign LearningCurve report their students come to class prepared for discussion and
their students enjoy using it. In addition, LearningCurve’s reporting feature allows instructors to quickly diagnose
which concepts students in their classes are struggling with so they can adjust lectures and activities accordingly.
The LaunchPad e-Book with LearningCurve is thus an invaluable asset for instructors who need to support
students in all settings, from traditional lectures to hybrid, online, and newer “flipped” classrooms. In
LaunchPad, instructors can also assign the Guided Reading Exercise for each chapter, which prompts students
to read actively to collect information that answers a broad analytic question central to the chapter as a whole.
Through these tools and more, LaunchPad can make the textbook even easier for students to understand and use.
To learn more about the benefits of LearningCurve and LaunchPad’s other features, see the “Versions and
Supplements” section on page xv.
All the features and tools in the book, large and small, are intended to give students and instructors an
integrated perspective so that they can pursue — on their own or in the classroom — the historical questions that
they find particularly exciting and significant.
Helping Instructors Teach with Digital Resources
As noted, A History of World Societies is offered in Macmillan’s premier learning platform, LaunchPad, an
intuitive and interactive e-Book and course space. Free when packaged with the print book or available at a low
price when used on its own, LaunchPad grants students and teachers access to a wealth of online tools and
resources built specifically for this text to enhance reading comprehension and promote in-depth study.
LaunchPad’s course space and interactive e-Book are ready to use as is (or can be edited and customized with
your own material) and can be assigned right away.
Developed with extensive feedback from history instructors and students, LaunchPad for A History of
World Societies includes the complete narrative and special features of the comprehensive edition print book;
the companion reader, Sources of World Societies; and LearningCurve, an adaptive learning tool designed to
get students to read before they come to class. With an expanded set of source-based questions in the test
bank and in LearningCurve, instructors now have more ways to test students on their understanding of sources
and narrative in the book. The addition of the new Bedford Document Collections modules in LaunchPad
means instructors have a flexible repository of discovery-oriented primary source projects to assign and to
extend the text, making LaunchPad for A History of World Societies a one-stop shop for working with sources
and thinking critically in a multitude of modes.
LaunchPad also offers several other distinctly useful assignment options to help students get the most from
their reading, including Guided Reading Exercises that prompt students to be active readers of the chapter
narrative and autograded primary source quizzes to test comprehension of written and visual sources in the
book, the companion reader, and the Bedford Document Collections modules. These features, plus additional
primary source documents, video sources and tools for making video assignments, map activities,
flashcards, and customizable test banks, make Launchpad a great asset for any instructor who wants to enliven
world history for students.
With training and support just a click away, LaunchPad can help you take your teaching into a new era. To
learn more about the benefits of LearningCurve and LaunchPad, see “Versions and Supplements” on page xv.
Acknowledgments
It is a pleasure to thank the many instructors who critiqued the book in preparation for this revision: Gene
Barnett, Calhoun Community College; Amanda Carr-Wilcoxson, Pellissippi State Community College; Ted
Cohen, Lindenwood University; Fiona Foster, Tidewater Community College; Paul J. Fox, Kennesaw State
University; Duane Galloway, Rowan-Cabarrus Community College; Margaret Genvert, Salisbury University;
Richard Bach Jensen, Northwestern State University; Kelly Kennington, Auburn University; Alex Pavuk, Morgan
State University; Franklin Rausch, Lander University; Ryan L. Ruckel, Pearl River Community College; Dr.
Anthony R. Santoro, Christopher Newport University; Chuck Smith, University of the Cumberlands; Molly E.
Swords, University of Idaho; Scott N. West, University of Dayton; Dr. Kari Zimmerman, University of St.
Thomas; and Michael Andrew Žmolek, University of Iowa.
It is also a pleasure to thank the many editors who have assisted us over the years, first at Houghton Mifflin
and now at Bedford/St. Martin’s (Macmillan Learning). At Bedford/St. Martin’s, these include senior
development editor Heidi Hood, associate editor Mary Posman Starowicz, program manager Laura Arcari,
director of development Jane Knetzger, senior program director Michael Rosenberg, photo researcher Bruce
Carson, text permissions editor Eve Lehmann, and senior content project manager Christina Horn, with the
guidance of senior managing editor Michael Granger. Other key contributors were designer Cia Boynton, copy
editor Jennifer Brett Greenstein, proofreaders Angela Morrison and Susan Zorn, indexer Leoni McVey, and
cover designer William Boardman.
Many of our colleagues at the University of Illinois, the University of Washington, the University of
Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and Eastern Illinois University continue to provide information and stimulation, often
without even knowing it. We thank them for it. The authors recognize John P. McKay, Bennett D. Hill, and John
Buckler, the founding authors of this textbook, whose vision set a new standard for world history textbooks. The
authors also thank the many students over the years with whom we have used earlier editions of this book. Their
reactions and opinions helped shape our revisions to this edition, and we hope it remains worthy of the ultimate
praise they bestowed, that it is “not boring like most textbooks.” Merry Wiesner-Hanks would, as always, like to
thank her husband, Neil, without whom work on this project would not be possible. Patricia Ebrey thanks her
husband, Tom. Clare Haru Crowston thanks her husband, Ali, and her children, Lili, Reza, and Kian, who are a
joyous reminder of the vitality of life that we try to showcase in this book. Roger Beck thanks Ann for supporting
him through five editions now, and for sharing his love of history. He is also grateful to the World History
Association for all past, present, and future contributions to his understanding of world history. Jerry Dávila
thanks Liv, Ellen, and Alex, who are reminders of why history matters.
Each of us has benefited from the criticism of his or her coauthors, although each of us assumes responsibility
for what he or she has written. Merry Wiesner-Hanks has written Chapters 1, 2, 5, 6, 8, 14, and 15; Patricia
Buckley Ebrey has written Chapters 3, 4, 7, 9, 12, 13, 17, 21, and 26; Roger B. Beck has written Chapters 10,
20, 25, and 28–30; Clare Haru Crowston has written Chapters 16, 18, 19, and 22–24; and Jerry Dávila has
written Chapters 11, 27, and 31–33.
MERRY E. WIESNER-HANKS
PATRICIA BUCKLEY EBREY
ROGER B. BECK
JERRY DÁVILA
CLARE HARU CROWSTON
VERSIONS AND SUPPLEMENTS
Adopters of A History of World Societies and their students have access to abundant print and digital resources
and tools, the acclaimed Bedford Series in History and Culture volumes, and much more. The LaunchPad course
space for A History of World Societies provides access to the narrative as well as a wealth of primary sources
and other features, along with assignment and assessment opportunities at the ready. See below for more
information, visit the book’s catalog site at macmillanlearning.com, or contact your local Bedford/St. Martin’s
sales representative.
Another random document with
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JEAN MACÉ FÉMINISTE
SUFFRAGISTE
De 1868 à 1908.
*
* *
La société voulut ouvrir un cercle du suffrage, elle loua à cet effet
un joli local occupant tout le premier étage 31, rue de Paradis; mais,
le propriétaire effrayé par notre titre, écrit en grosses lettres sur son
immeuble, nous donna immédiatement congé.
Le Cercle du suffrage des femmes fut installé dans un magasin
8, Galerie Bergère. Les femmes pouvaient venir là, lire, écrire,
causer; elles étaient chez elles. Des réunions hebdomadaires
avaient lieu l’après-midi ou le soir.
Le 13 février 1881 parut La Citoyenne, journal hebdomadaire que
Léon Giraud docteur en droit et Antonin Lévrier licencié en droit,
journaliste, avaient avec moi fondé. Antonin Lévrier et Léon Giraud
véritables apôtres des droits de la femme, m’aidèrent à faire du
journal La Citoyenne un initiateur que les suffragistes ont intérêt à
consulter[11].
L’article ci-dessous précise le but de ce journal dont le seul titre
est un manifeste:
«LA CITOYENNE»
Est Citoyenne—d’après Littré—la femme qui jouit du droit de cité
dans un Etat.
Pour ce journal, dont le but unique est de revendiquer l’égalité de
la femme et de l’homme, nous n’avons pas pensé trouver un
meilleur titre que La Citoyenne, car nous voulons pour la femme non
seulement la qualité civile du Français, mais encore la qualité
politique du citoyen, et même—cela paraîtra peut-être étrange à
quelques-uns-l’examen des événements passés et l’observation des
événements présents nous font subordonner l’affranchissement civil
de la femme à son affranchissement politique.
Qu’entend-on par affranchissement civil de la femme?
Par affranchissement civil de la femme on entend l’abrogation
d’une foule de lois vexatrices qui mettent la femme hors la justice et
hors le droit commun.
Quels sont ceux qui peuvent abroger les lois iniques qui
oppriment les femmes dans la vie civile? Ce sont les électeurs et les
législateurs, c’est-à-dire ceux-là seuls qui font ou qui commandent
de faire les lois. Voilà un point bien établi.
Maintenant, qu’est-ce que l’affranchissement politique de la
femme? C’est l’avènement de la femme au droit qui confère le
pouvoir de faire les lois: par soi-même, si l’on est élu député: par
délégation, si l’on est électeur.
Donc, il ressort de toute évidence que le droit politique est pour la
femme la clef de voûte qui lui donnera tous les autres droits.
Pendant que la femme ne possédera pas cette arme—le vote—
elle subira le régime du droit masculin. Tous ses efforts seront vains
pour conquérir ses libertés civiles et économiques.
Ce qu’il faut aux femmes pour s’affranchir de la tyrannie
masculine—faite loi,—c’est la possession de leur part de
souveraineté; c’est le titre de Citoyenne française, c’est le bulletin de
vote.
La femme citoyenne: c’est-à-dire la femme investie des plus
hauts droits sociaux, aura, par la liberté, sa dignité rehaussée; par le
sentiment de la responsabilité, son caractère augmenté.
La femme citoyenne se relèvera promptement de sa fâcheuse
situation économique, l’Etat et la législation ne l’infériorisant plus,
toutes les carrières, toutes les professions lui seront accessibles, et,
quel que soit son travail, elle ne le verra plus déprécié sous ce
prétexte ridicule qu’il émane d’une femme.
Avant que la femme ait le pouvoir d’intervenir partout où ses
intérêts sont en jeu pour les défendre, un changement dans la
condition politique de la société ne remédierait pas au sort de la
femme.
Un changement de l’ordre social économique n’affranchirait pas
la femme; car, bien que tous les jours la question économique soit
résolue pour un petit nombre de personnes, la condition de la femme
est, chez les favorisés de la fortune, le lendemain, la même que la
veille. En France, les femmes millionnaires sont soumises aux
mêmes lois tyranniques que les femmes pauvres.
Toutes les femmes,—de quelque opinion et de quelque condition
qu’elles soient,—toutes les femmes souffrent ou peuvent souffrir de
la législation actuelle. Et sont intéressées à posséder le pouvoir
d’abroger les lois qui les infériorisent et les asservissent.