A snapshot of the world from about 1200 to 1450, region by region: Song China, the fragmenting Islamic world, the Hindu, Buddhist and Muslim states of South and Southeast Asia, the Mexica and Inca, African kingdoms, and feudal Europe. The thread through all of it is how states gained and kept power, and how belief systems shaped societies.
The Song Dynasty ruled through Confucianism and a merit-based imperial bureaucracy. Neo-Confucianism, filial piety and Buddhism shaped East Asia, and Chinese traditions spread to Japan and Korea. Champa rice, the Grand Canal and booming iron, porcelain and textile production made the Song economy the most commercialized in the world, still built on free peasant and artisan labor.
As the Abbasid Caliphate fragmented, new Islamic states arose, most led by Turkic peoples: the Seljuks, the Mamluks of Egypt and the Delhi Sultanate. Islam spread first by conquest and then through merchants, missionaries and Sufis. Muslim states fostered advances in math, medicine and literature, preserved Greek philosophy, and passed learning to Europe through Spain.
Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism shaped South and Southeast Asia: the bhakti movement, Sufism and Buddhist monasticism all reached ordinary people. New Hindu and Buddhist states rose: Vijayanagara and the Rajputs in India, sea-trading Srivijaya and Majapahit, the Khmer Empire of Angkor, Sukhothai, and the Sinhala kingdoms of Sri Lanka.
States in the Americas grew in scope and reach. The Maya ruled through rival city-states; the Mexica built a tribute empire from Tenochtitlan; the Inca built a centralized empire using mit'a labor and roads. In North America, Chaco, Mesa Verde and Cahokia were major centers.
African states grew in scope and reach. Great Zimbabwe grew rich from gold and ivory trade to the Swahili coast. Ethiopia was a Christian kingdom with rock-cut churches and a dynasty claiming descent from Solomon. The Hausa kingdoms were walled city-states tied into trans-Saharan trade, whose rulers adopted Islam.
Christianity, especially the Roman Catholic Church, dominated European life, alongside Jewish communities that faced persecution and Muslim rule in parts of Spain. Europe was politically fragmented, with weak monarchies, feudalism and manorialism. It was mostly agricultural, worked by free peasants and coerced serfs.
Comparison means explaining similarities and differences, and why they exist. Across the world, states showed continuity, innovation and diversity. They differed in how centralized they were, how they got labor and revenue, and how religion legitimized rulers.