Jade Guerrero
12/5/17
Ms. Cruz P.6
World History
The Era of Wealth and Power
Since historians had a tough time depicting what went on throughout 600-1450 CE, the era of wealth and power would be a fitting name for this nameless era. The reasons why I chose this name was because of the impact the Crusades, trade network, and the rise and spread of Islam left through those years. These three reasons show strong evidence on why this era was filled with much power over empires and people and wealth within them.
The rise and spread of Islam showed wealth and power through their government, military, and their successful trade during that time. Islam’s government was mostly fair and not corrupted towards is people, they had freedom of religion, which attracted more people towards them. Islam was also able to offer them protection, but they had to follow the Ordinance of Government and pay a tax called Jizyah. Due to their stable government they were able to acquire more followers, which gave them strength. Their military held much power because of their method of fighting and they were able to conquer different empires straight across. They were also feared because the military was violent and usually spared no mercy, which gave them even more power. Their wealth came from trade, because most of the routes were through Islam and there was high demand of items during that period.
Trade networks was what made many people so wealthy and powerful. The consumers wanted more of the goods to be traded and when these items were being demanded it created an expansion of empires. Several empires were powerful due to the many routes that would go through their empire, which also caused more people to accumulate which was a good outcome for the empires. The middle class were the ones that got the wealth because they were the traders. One of the most famous trade routes was the Silk Road, because it brought more of the luxuries the consumers wanted and the people that were handling the trade were able to spread religion, which was influential at the time. The trade networks also gave them new ideas that the people were able to adopt to their own uses, and with these concepts they were able to create new technological advances. Overall this was a good time for the middle class and the empires because of the money and the influence it brought to them.
The crusades was a religious period, were the Pope and the leaders of the churches wanted much of the power that others withhold. A holy war had started, and two strong groups fought because of religious beliefs. The amount of people that went took a lot of land and they brought back luxury items, which in turn started trading because of the demand for said items. Due to that the Crusades increased trade and the economy, and it brought them a lot of wealth to them.
In conclusion, I believe that throughout 600-1450 CE, it should be called the Age of Wealth and Power. The reason why I think that is because many fought for power and traded for their wealth. The rise and spread of Islam gave them more power to conquer empires and it jump started trade in a way. The trade networks gave the producers of the goods power over the consumers and it also gave those producers (who most were middle class) wealth. Last but not least the crusades showed how a holy war made two groups fight over power and even more encouraged trade.
