7. States of the East in the Middle Ages

Features of the development of E

• China

• Japan

• Arab Caliphate

7.1. Features of the development of Eastern countries in the Middle Ages

The term "Middle Ages" is used to designate the period of history of the countries of the East of the first seventeen centuries of the new era. The natural upper boundary of the period is considered to be the 16th - early 17th centuries, when the East became an object of European trade and colonial expansion, interrupting the development process characteristic of Asian and North African countries. Geographically, the Medieval East covers the territory of North Africa, the Near and Middle East, Central and Central Asia, India, Sri Lanka, Southeast Asia and the Far East.

The transition to the Middle Ages in the East in some cases was carried out on the basis of already existing political entities (for example, Byzantium, Sassanian Iran, Kushana-Guptskaya India), in others it was accompanied by social upheavals, as it was in China, and almost everywhere processes were accelerated due to participation in them "barbarian" nomadic tribes. At this time, on the historical arena, such obscure peoples as Arabs, Seljuk Turks, and Mongols appeared and rose up. New religions were born and civilizations arose on their basis.

The countries of the East in the Middle Ages were associated with Europe. The Byzantium remained the bearer of the traditions of Greco-Roman culture. The Arab conquest of Spain and the crusader campaigns to the East contributed to the interaction of cultures. However, for the countries of South Asia and the Far East, acquaintance with Europeans took place only in the XV-XVI centuries.

The formation of medieval societies in the East was characterized by the growth of productive forces — iron tools spread, artificial irrigation expanded, and irrigation technology improved, leading the trend of the historical process both in the East and in Europe — there was an affirmation of feudal relations. Various results of development in the East and the West by the end of the 20th century. due to a lower degree of dynamism.

Among the factors contributing to the "lag" of Eastern societies, the following are highlighted: the preservation, along with the feudal structure, of extremely slowly disintegrating primitive communal and slaveholding relations; the resilience of communal dormitory forms that constrained the differentiation of the peasantry; the predominance of state property and power over private land ownership and private power of the feudal lords; the undivided power of the feudal lords over the city, weakening the anti-feudal aspirations of the townspeople.

Periodization of the history of the medieval East. Taking into account these features and proceeding from the idea of ​​the degree of maturity of feudal relations in the history of the East, the following stages are distinguished:

I-VI century. AD - The transitional period of the birth of feudalism;

VII-X centuries. - a period of early feudal relations with its inherent process of naturalization of the economy and the decline of ancient cities;

XI-XII centuries. - pre-Mongolian period, the beginning of the heyday of feudalism, the formation of the estate-corporate structure of life, cultural take-off;

XIII centuries. - the time of the Mongol conquest, which interrupted the development of the feudal society and reversed some of them;

XIV-XVI centuries. - the post-Mongol period, which is characterized by a slowdown in social development, the conservation of a despotic form of power.

Eastern civilizations. The motley picture was represented by the Medieval East and in a civilizational sense, which also distinguished it from Europe. Some civilizations in the East originated in antiquity; Buddhist and Hindu - on the Indian subcontinent, Taoist-Confucian - in China. Others were born in the Middle Ages: Muslim civilization in the Middle East, Indo-Muslim in India, Hindu and Muslim in Southeast Asia, Buddhist in Japan and Southeast Asia, Confucian in Japan and Korea.