Studied by 11 people
Empire building
largely discredited today
Imperialist has become a negative term
Europe moved to America
European empires distinctive
conquered areas were an ocean away from country —> not all European countries
Advantages: geography
countries in Europe were closer on the Atlantic Ocean compared to Asian countries
Winds
Innovations
mapmaking
Navigation
Sailing techniques
Ship design
Allowed for sea travel
Motivations: market attraction
new area had lots of new and rich natural resources
Underpinned Europe economy for long time
3 G’s: Gold, Glory, God
conversions
enlarged range of Christendom by missionaries
Freedom
persecuted people were free in new land
Wealth
Rich and poor had ways of making money
Conquests of Aztec/ Cortes
led assault on conquest of these people
Final battle was @ Tenochtitlán
Carved out huge mesoamerican country from this
This tribe was a dominant tribe
He rallied tribes at key city
Portuguese during Cortes
went to Africa before Spanish America in search of Asian goods
Conquests of inca/ pissaro
This tribe’s elite welcomed Spanish
He led the Spanish conquest of Incan empire
Caused civil war in capital city
Spanish / native alliances
They worked together
Key to success of Spanish conquest
The Great Dyig
Due to unfamiliarity of European disease such as smallpox and malaria —> mass amounts of native people died
Estimated around a million
Little Ice Age
Period of unusually cool temps that spanned much of early modern times in Northern Hemisphere
Interacted with Great Dying
Caused famine
Causes of LIA
Debated
Low sunspot activity
Volcanic eruptions
Demographic collapse
“General Crisis”
Widespread global crisis in early 17th c.
Lots of droughts and fighting
much of china, Europe, and North America had problems
Environment/ human action
Human action destroyed it
New societies
Various combinations of indigenous, European, and African people
Replaced previous and varied cultures
Colombian exchange
New plants —> wheat, rice, grapes, sugar cane, and other fruits and veggies
Transformed European life
Things moved back and forth
Corn and potatoes popular in east
Animals
Horses from old world to new world
Pigs, goats, cattle
Tariff
Tax on import goods
Effects:population
These crops caused major booms for different countries in this field
Provided nutritional foundation
Corn and potatoes lead it
Cheap and nutritious foods —> immense growth
American silver mines/effects
Fueled transplanting and transpacific commerce
Encouraged Spain to attempt to dominated Europe
Europe was able to buy Chinese goods
China drew this product in
These were in Mexico and Peru
Allowed for trade and inflation
Industrialization
The wealth from metals, natural resources, new crops, slaves, and financial activities caused this
new tools and machines built
Mercantilism
The belief in the benefits of profitable trading/commercialism
Popular during this time but NOT in Spanish America
Closed markets in AmericaS
export goods —> accumulate bullion
Certain countries would only trade for hard currencies
Spain v England
S was catholic and feudal; more urban area brought politics and Econ with them
E was Protestant and changing
Very different cultures in this new area
Spanish America: development
The settler dominated farming and mining and slave trade influenced the development of the area
Native American culture affected it as well trough its cultures and urban-natures
Encomienda
Rewarded conquerers with goods and labors of local people
Encouraged conquests and colonization
Repartimiento/ hacienda
R allowed (From the royals) colonists to recruit indigenous people for labor
Similar to slavery
H was large estate owners directly employed native workers
Social order: Spaniards
Top was male Spanish settlers who were dominant in many fields
Accommodated different races (by oppressing them)
Mestizo
A man of mixed Spanish and indigenous race
Indigenous/ indians
Bottom of social hierarchy
Exploited and abused
Had to pay tribute
Not many left after Spanish conquests
Asimlmilimated into Spanish and Catholicism
Sugar colones: Brazil and Caribbean
Spanish, British, French, Dutch, all ruled in C and Portugal ruled B
High demand for sugar in Europe b/c it had many uses
Not very large/wealthy
Portugal/British/French/Dutch
P ruled Brazil
The others ruled Caribbean
Export
Thee places ONLY existed to export
Imported food and other stuff
EXPORT VERY PROFITABLE
Sugar production-
large scale was first started by the Arabs
Europe learned technique and then used it in the Americas
Brazil had monopoly until caribeña
Very laborious
First modern industry for international and mass market
Slaves/ slave trade
B/c indigenous people fled inwards or died slaves were got from African slave trade
Vast majority came from the atl. Ocean
Conditions
Very bad
Lead to high death rates per year (5-10%)
New slaves bought each year
Female slaves
Mostly did domestic work
Less compared to male slaves
Same punishments and rations
Separated from family
Racial mix/ mulattoes
Non-African background made you not African
Racial predjuice favored whit features
Skin color in Brazil determined class status
These people where people of mixed white and black race
Slavery:British S.N. America
Different here
Less slaves freed
Less job opportunities for the freed
Less importation —> only in South North America
Northern british settler colonies
Less prominent
Literate men by 1170s
Local self-government
Protestant
Land left was not very good
Independent family farmers
Run by people who were used to having power
Women
Role emphasized by puritan values
More likely to be persecuted for “fornication”
Less inheritance Value
Little schooling
No minister position
Slaves/race
Slaves not needed in small-scale dominated farming areas
90% of pop was euro
Little racial mixing
Independent farmers/ religion
Protestant
Less interested in evangelizing to natives
Emphasized mass literacy —> independent farmers had own land
Russian empire: geography
Had a tsar
Moscow became the center of a vast Russian Empire urging the early modern era
Became world’s largest state
Expanded after fall of mongol empire
Eurasian steppe
Vast grassland from Eastern Europe to mongol china
Former home to many pastoralist societies; fought often with settled agricultural cultures of Russia, Persia, China
Siberia
Drew Russians across with animal furs
Under Russian control
These people posed no threat to Russians
Lots of fur paid as tribute
Eastern people drawn in who hunt
Tribute/region
Russians demanded “yasak” (tribute) in cash or valuable goods
Lots of pressure to convert to Catholicism
Not so much single mindedness of Spanish
Tax breaks and other incentives for converts
Russian immigration/ “Russification”
Lots of new settlers
700,00 Russians in serbia by 1720
Reduced native population
Pressure to abandon nomadic ways of life
Rendered local people dependent on Russian goods
Adoption of Russian language and Catholicism
Commonalities = better country
Multiethnic empire
Russia diminished as other groups’s population grew —> Russians still were politically dominant
Most prominent was Ukrainians and Belorussians
Serbia’s steppes held many different people
Westward/southward expansion
18th century
Acquired lend in Baltic region, Poland, and Ukraine
Had military rivals near (ottomans, Poland, Lithuania, Prussia, Austria, Sweden)
Fostered an awareness in Russia’s backwardness
Peter the Great
Modernized Russia
Transformed it into major power
Developed economy and trade, education, science, culture, and foreign policy
Took a trip to the west —> wanted to pick up western culture
Geography very important for expansion of the navy
St. Petersburg/ window of the west
New capital of Russian empire
Solidified Peter’s legitimacy
Catherine the Great
Russian empress
Ruled for 34 years
Also westernized Russia
Led full participation in the political and cultural life in Europeanizing Russia
Viewed herself as a part of the Enlightenment
Her ideas didn’t really go anywhere
Ideas opposed by Russian nobility
Expanded South into Black Sea region—> wanted to push Turks out
British did not like her expansion
Contacts with other empires
Interacted with China, India, Persia, and Ottoman Empire —> became Asian Power
Identity
The closeness of Russia to other nations to have an identity problem
Unanswered today
China: Qing/Manchu Dynasty
Project of imperial expansion
Foreign and nomadic
Came from Manchuria (n of Great Wall)
Borrowing/distinction
Rulers of this era wished to have own distinctiveness
No intermarrying of Manchu and Chinese
Rulers however were required to learn Chinese and use traditional Confucian ideas
Qing Conquest (1680-1760)
8o year military effort that brought Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet under their rule
Motivated by security concerns
Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689)
Marked boundary between Russia and China
stated by eastern expansion of Russia
Came to agreement —> first time in Qing Dynasty
China: Central Asian Power
Qing conquests marked China as it is
Chinese people think of themselves as a unifier of Eurasia
Court of Colonial Affairs/ local elites
New area governed by this
Used nobles to govern
Native officials were often abusive of power
Local elites excused from taxes
imitated Chinese by wearing peacock feathers
Special beaucracy to deal with nomadic people
Transformed Central Asia
Expanded Chinese territory
Added minority of non-Chinese people
Contemporary borders are the same
Tibet and Xinjiang retained identity
Changed welcoming nature of commerce compared to oceanic
Mughal empire
Rare form of unity in 1526-1707
Small states, principalities, tribes, castes, sects
Ethno-linguistic groups
Ruled by the Turks → Muslim group who took over Hindu india
Emperor Akbar/ Religious
Deliberately restrained Islamic ulama and removed jizya (special tax on non-Muslims)
Stated a cult
Constructed House of Worsip
Got rid of the sati
Deliberately accommodated to Hindu population and women
Emperor Aurangzeb (1658-1707)
Reversed policy of accommodation and sought to impose Islamic superiority
Forbade many things
Destroyed temples
Reinstated the jizya
Reactions/ consequences
People very angry at antagonization of Hindu (opposition movements created that lead to downfall of empire)
People angry at Hindu people
Ottoman empire
At its peak in mid 16th century it encompassed a vast diversity of peoples, straddled Europe, Africa, and Asia
Battled Austrian and Safavid empires
Women/ changes
Changed from freedom of pastoralist women to now being under heavy restrictions
War w/ Safavid (1534-1639)
Sumi islam versus Persian Safavid empire Shia
Expressed deep and enduring division within Islamic World
Anatolia: Islamization
Started out Christian
Converted to islam as Byz. Empire weakened
90% of inhabitants were Muslim and turkic speakers by 1500
Strengthened constaninople’s fall in 1453
Called Asia minor Greeks
Balkans Christians
Under early 16th centur had 81% Christian and the rest Muslim
Had accommodations for church’s and scarcity of turkic setters
Welcome conquest because taxes were lighter than former rulers
Devshrime
Ottoman ciphoned off young Christian boys to serve the state as military soldiers
Threat to Christianity
Seizure of Constantinople, conquests of Balkan’s, ottoman naval power, siege of Vienna in 1529 and 1686 —> more Muslim takeover
Cooperation/exchange
Portrayal of Islam world in Italian Renaissance
Philosophers praising toleration
French allied ottomans against Austria
Sometimes in fighting theres exchange
Note 
Flashcard (56)