The Connected World
(476 – ~1000 CE)

The fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE traditionally marks the start of Europe’s “Dark Ages.” Byzantium preserved Roman law and culture, especially under Justinian I (r. 527–565), who codified Roman law and built the Hagia Sophia.

But the era’s real center was found among the trade and knowledge networks. Islam emerged in Arabia after 610 CE, and within a century the Caliphates stretched from Iberia to Central Asia, producing the Abbasid Golden Age and Baghdad’s House of Wisdom.

Tang Dynasty China (618–907) was a cosmopolitan superpower linked by both the Silk Road and Indian Ocean maritime trade, and the Ghana Empire controlled the trans-Saharan gold trade in West Africa.

Historical Cultures: Tang/Song China, the Islamic Golden Age, Heian Japan, and Mali/Songhai.

Contemporary Cultures: Chinese, Persian/Armenian, Japanese, and West African LA.