Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The World in the Year 500

Starting point is 00:00:00 The year 500 was a turning point between the ancient and medieval worlds. The Western Roman Empire at this point was gone. New kingdoms were rising across Europe. Persia and Byzantium remained great powers, and civilizations flourished from China and India to Africa and the Americas. It was a world divided by distance, yet connected by trade, migration, warfare, and religion, though probably not as much as it had been just a few centuries earlier. Learn more about what was happening around the world,

Starting point is 00:00:30 world in the year 500 on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. This episode is sponsored by What Could Go Right? The news has a way of making it feel like everything is getting worse, but what if that isn't the whole story? What Could Go Right is a podcast that challenges the constant narrative of Doom by asking a simple but powerful question. What could go right? Hosted by Zachary Carabelle, each episode takes on a major issue shaping our world.

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Starting point is 00:02:35 this time going back 500 years from the year 1000 to the year 500. And before I begin, I should note something that's going to become more of an issue as we go back in time. It is quite a major problem yet, but it's becoming one in more and more parts of the world. We simply have no historical record. When I began this project of covering the state of the world every 100 episodes going forward, I eventually had to do episodes every 50 years in the 19th century and then every 25 years in the 20th and 21st centuries because things were changing too fast and because we had documentation for everything.

Starting point is 00:03:15 But now as we go backwards in time, we have the opposite problem, which is why I'm covering every 500 years instead of every 100. Not nearly as much was written down as literacy wasn't as widespread, and the vast majority of what was written in the ancient world has disappeared over time. For example, in the Roman world, of which we have a lot of documentation, an estimated 99% of all published texts, have been lost. In some of the parts of the world that I've been covering, they didn't even have a written language, so we have nothing. We have to rely on archaeology for what little we know. Also, technology changed very little in the ancient world. Life for people living 1,000 years apart,

Starting point is 00:04:01 was basically the same, at least materially. We do know more about certain times and certain places, and we can be relatively specific about their history. However, for most of the world, I'm going to have to speak in very broad generalities. So, with that being said, on to the year 500. The year 500 fell in the middle of one of the greatest transitional periods in world history. The Roman Empire had disappeared from Western Europe as a unified political system, but Roman government continued in Constantinople and survived in modified form in several Western successor kingdoms.

Starting point is 00:04:41 Christianity was spreading throughout Europe, northeastern Africa, and Western Asia, while Buddhism was expanding across central and East Asia. Powerful states existed in Persia, India, China, Ethiopia, Mesoamerica, and the Andes, but none exercised anything approaching a global influence. The world of the year 500 was overwhelmingly rural. Probably more than nine people out of 10 lived by farming, herding, fishing, or gathering. Most people rarely traveled more than a few miles from the place that they were born. Political authority at the time was often indirect, resulting on local landowners, chiefs, religious

Starting point is 00:05:20 institutions, and military elites. Nevertheless, long-distance trade connected the Mediterranean, East Africa, Persia, Southeast Asia, and China. Goods and ideas could cross continents, even though no individual merchant usually traveled the entire route. Historians commonly treat this period as part of the late antiquity period, particularly in Europe, the Mediterranean and Western Asia. It was a very important. It was a very much of the was not simply an age of collapse. Some cities and commercial networks declined, that's true, but New Kingdoms, religions, and political systems were taking shape all over. In the year 500, the Roman Empire still existed in the East. Its emperor was Anastasius I, who had ruled from

Starting point is 00:06:02 Constantinople since 491. Modern historians normally refer to his state as the Byzantine Empire, but its inhabitants called themselves Romans, and Anastasius regarded himself as the legitimate Roman Emperor, something I covered in the very first episode of this podcast. The Eastern Roman Empire controlled the Balkans south of the Danube, most of Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, parts of Mesopotamia, and islands throughout the Eastern Mediterranean. Constantinople was one of the largest, richest, and most heavily fortified cities in the world. His strategic location allowed it to control shipping between the Black Sea and the Mediterranean and to serve as the center of an enormous taxation and administrative system.

Starting point is 00:06:48 North Africa was divided between the Eastern Roman Empire, the Vandals, Berber communities, and smaller regional powers. The Vandal kingdom controlled Carthage, much of present-day Tunisia, parts of Algeria, and most of the islands in the Western Mediterranean. King Thrasamund was on the throne from 496 to 523. The Vandals were a relatively small Germanic military elite. governing a much larger Roman African population. They preserved many Roman administrative and economic practices.

Starting point is 00:07:20 Italy was no longer ruled directly by a Western Roman emperor. The last Western Emperor had been deposed in 476, and in 493, the Austrogothic King Theodoric had conquered Italy and established his capital at Ravenna. Theodoric was a Germanic military ruler, but he did not attempt to destroy Roman civilization. He governed through a combination of Gothic military power and Roman civil administration.

Starting point is 00:07:46 Roman senators, lawyers, tax collectors, and officials continued to serve the state. Roman law generally covered the Roman population while Gothic customs applied within the Gothic army and community. Much of what is now France was divided among the Franks, Visigoths, Burgundians, and smaller groups. The most powerful ruler in the region was Clovis, king of the Salian Franks. He had begun expanding from a relatively small base in northern Gaul during the 480s, and by 500 he controlled much of northern and central Gaul and was establishing the foundations of the Meravengian Frankish kingdom. Southern Gaul and most of the Iberian Peninsula were ruled by Visigothic King Alaric II. His capital was in Toulouse. The Visigoths governed a large Roman population and gradually adopted Roman legal and administrative practices.

Starting point is 00:08:38 In Britain in the year 500, society was fragmented and poorly documented. Roman imperial government had ended early in the 5th century. In its place were numerous British, Anglo-Saxon, and possibly mixed kingdoms and local warlords. Germanic-speaking settlers, traditionally identified as the Anglo-Saxons and Jutes, had established communities in eastern and southern Britain. The other great power in Western Eurasia was the Sasanid Persian Empire. It stretched from Mesopotamia in the Persian Gulf across the Iranian plateau towards Central Asia. Its ruler in the year 500 was COVID I, who had recently regained the throne after being deposed and imprisoned by members of the Persian nobility.

Starting point is 00:09:21 The Sassanids considered themselves the heirs of the ancient Persian Empire. Their king bore the title King of Kings, and the government relied on a powerful aristocracy and a Zoroastrian priesthood. Zoroastrianism was closely associated with the state. Fire temples and priests played important roles in the government, but Persia was quite religiously diverse. Christians, Jews, Buddhists, and the followers of local religions all lived within its borders. The church in the east had become increasingly independent of the Roman imperial church and was beginning to expand along trade routes into Central Asia and eventually China. Islam didn't exist yet, as the Prophet Muhammad wouldn't be born for enough.

Starting point is 00:10:02 other 70 years. Central Asia was one of the world's most important zones of cultural contact and trade. Caravans crossed a network of routes later collectively called the Silk Road, carrying silk, horses, spices, metals, and precious stones, as well as religion and art. The dominant military power in much of the region was the Hephthalite Confederation, often called the White Huns. They controlled territories in Bactria, Afghanistan, and parts of Central Asia and exerted pressure on both Persia and Northern India. Around the year 500, India was politically fragmented, although the Gupta dynasty still retained some prestige in parts of northern India. The Gupta Empire had reached its height during the

Starting point is 00:10:47 fourth and early fifth centuries, but now was weakening due to internal divisions, regional autonomy, and invasions by Hunna groups associated with the Hephthalites. Sri Lanka was dominated by the kingdom centered at Anuradapura. Irrigation, systems and canals supported intensive rice farming, allowing rulers to maintain cities, monasteries, and big construction projects. Theravada Buddhism was firmly established in Sri Lanka, and monasteries possessed land, received loyal patronage, copied religious texts, and influenced politicians. China was divided between northern and southern dynasties. Northern China was controlled by the Northern Wei dynasty, founded by the Tuoba people from the

Starting point is 00:11:30 steps. Emperor Zhuan Wu had ascended to the throne in 499. During the late 5th century, northern Wei rulers began adopting Chinese court rituals, clothing, administrative practices, surnames, and language. Southern China was ruled by the Southern Qi dynasty, although it was suffering from internal conflict and political instability. The Emperor Zhao Bauan ruled brutally and erratically, provoking opposition amongst officials and military commanders. The dynasty would fall in the year 502 and be replaced by the Liang dynasty. The Korean Peninsula was divided amongst the three kingdoms of Gorguyo, Bakji, and Shila. Gorguyo was the strongest kingdom. It controlled much of northern Korea and parts of

Starting point is 00:12:14 Manchuria. The Bakji controlled much of southwestern Korea. It had strong maritime connections with southern China and Japan. The Shila occupied southeastern Korea. It was still developing a more centralized monarchy in an aristocratic system that would later become the Korean imperial system. Japan was in its co-fund period, named for the enormous burial mounds constructed for rulers and aristocrats. The most famous were shaped like keyholes when viewed from above and surrounded by clay figures called Hanewa. A political federation centered on the Yamoto court was emerging as the dominant power in central and western Japan. It was not yet a completely centralized Japanese state. Regional clans retain their own lands, followers, ancestral cults, and military power.

Starting point is 00:13:03 The traditional imperial chronology places Emperor Buritsu on the throne around the year 500, but early imperialists combine both history and legend. In Africa, Egypt remained one of the richest provinces of the Eastern Roman Empire. The Nile supported dense agricultural settlement and produced grain that helped feed Constantinople. Alexandria was a major center of shipping, scholarship, theology, and religious conflict. Christian monasticism was deeply established in Egypt. Thousands of monks and nuns lived in communities or as hermits. The kingdom of Aksum was a major power in what is now northern Ethiopia and Eritrea.

Starting point is 00:13:43 It controlled highland agricultural areas and had access to the Red Sea through the ports of Adulis. Axum had adopted Christianity in the 4th century. Its rulers minted coins bearing Christian symbols, supported churches, and participated in the religious and diplomatic world of the eastern Mediterranean. South of Egypt, the old kingdom of Kush had declined centuries earlier. New Nubian political formations were developing, including Nodabaya in the north, Makuria further south, and Elodia near the junction of the Blue and White Nile. Much of sub-Saharan Africa was undergoing the long process

Starting point is 00:14:21 conventionally associated with the Bantu-speaking migrations. This was not a single mass movement of people, people, but centuries of gradual settlement, intermarriage, technological transfer, and cultural change. Bantu-speaking farmers and ironworkers had spread into much of central, eastern, and southern Africa. They cultivated crops such as millet and sorghum, raised livestock where conditions permitted, and established permanent or semi-permanent villages. Across the Atlantic, the civilization of the Americas developed without direct contact with Europe, Africa, or Asia. In Mesoamerica, the great city of Teotihuacan and central Mexico remained one of the largest

Starting point is 00:15:02 urban areas in the entire world, although it was approaching the later phases of its history. At its height, it may have contained well over 100,000 inhabitants. Teotihuacan was organized around a monumental Central Avenue, lined with temples, palaces, administrative compounds, and the immense pyramids of the sun and moon. Large residential compounds housed families, artisans, merchants, and immigrant communities from other parts of Mesoamerica. Among the Maya, the classic period was well underway. Numerous city-states occupied the lowlands of what are now Guatemala, Belize,

Starting point is 00:15:38 southeastern Mexico, and parts of Honduras and El Salvador. Mayan rulers conducted pyramids, palaces, plazas, reservoirs, and carved stone mountains. They used sophisticated writing systems to record royal ascensions, wars, rituals, marriages, and dynastic histories. Maya astronomers maintain complex calendars and observe celestial cycles with great precision. 500 years is a long time in human history. While the world wasn't undergoing the type of rapid change we see today, half a millennium is more than enough time for entire empires to rise and fall. And that's something that we'll see 100 days from now when we look at the world during the year,

Starting point is 00:16:24 One. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Austin Otkin and Cameron Kiefer. My big thanks go to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon. Your support helps make this podcast possible. And I also want to remind everyone about the community groups on Facebook and Discord. That's where everything happens that's outside the podcast. And links to those are available in the show notes.

Starting point is 00:16:50 As always, if you leave a review on any major podcast app or in the above community, Community groups, you too can have it read in the show.

Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The World in the Year 500

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