AP World History: Unit 4 Notes

Technology

Dar al Islam

  • medical advances, advances in astronomy, advances in mathematics, preservation of Greco-Roman philosophy and literature

China

  • gunpowder, magnetic compass, moveable type, paper

Europe

  • Humanism, Enlightment, guns, The Renaissance, discovery of New World, scientific revolution, printing press

  • Indian ocean commerce increased as mariners learned monsoon winds

  • improvements in sails

  • new ships (chinese junks, Indian/arab [middle east] dhows)

  • calculating latitude using astrolabes

    • used Polaris/north star to measure the distance of things

  • evolving versions of magnetic needle or compass

  • Chinese used bigger sails to survive storms

  • Middle East used sails made for rivers

  • increased jobs for cartographers (got their info from explorers)

  • lateen (triangle sails) from middle east

  • compass from china

  • astronomical charts from china and arabs

  • caravel sails (europe)

    • used all of China & Middle East’s inventions

  • North Atlantic currents are fixed year round, unlike monsoon winds

  • Gulf of Mexico stream pushes currents back out into the sea

  • Europeans were motivated by 3G’s: God, gold, glory

  • increased competition & rivalries between Ottoman Empire and European States

  • growing merchant class in Europe wanted to increase trade and wealth

  • desire for easy access to Indian Ocean

    • wanted to bypass Muslim intermediaries

  • Missionaries

  • Henry the Navigator (prince of Portugal) led ventures, didn’t actually travel

  • taught people how to find their way in the sea

    • astrolabes, magnetic compass, Jewish cartographers, caravel, cannons for enemy ships

      • used for measuring the positions of celestial bodies to determine time, location, and other astronomical data

      • can’t know latitude and longitude at same time, memory was important

Travel

  • Portuguese very early explorers (Africa & India), didn’t want to go out of sight of land, superstitious thought it led to death

    • ended up in Calicut, India, founded and made it trade capital

  • Atlantic ocean unpredictable weather, dangerous

  • Cape of good hope had many sharks

  • Vespucci one of the first to realize the Americas weren’t familiar

  • Named Continents after him (Amerigo)

  • Cortes important for conquering the Aztec Empire

  • Pizarro conquered the Incan Empire

  • Ponce de Leon looking for Fountain of Youth

  • Magellan first person to travel the world (his expedition)

    • died in the Philippines before reaching Africa, pickled his body for the rest of the expedition

  • Reconquista, re-conquering Spain

    • King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella overthrew the Moors

      • the Muslim inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula (modern Spain and Portugal) from North African and Arab descent who ruled much of the area from 711 to 1492 CE.

  • Columbus convinced Queen Isabella to sell her crown jewels to fund the expeditions

    • Ships: Nina, Pinta, Santa Maria (flagship, Columbus rode Santa Maria)

  • Cartographers were important but inaccurate

    • overestimated Antarctica, added Northwest Passage

      • sea route connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago.

Trade

Columbian Exchange

  • Exchange also involved plants & animals which transformed the landscape and made a European diet possible

  • Long-term benefits of this Atlantic network were unequally distributed

  • Western Europeans were the dominant players and reaped the greatest rewards

  • New information entered Europe contributing to a revolutionary new way of thinking known as the Scientific Revolution.

  • Wealth of the colonies (precious metals, natural resources, new food crops, slave labor, financial profits, colonial markets) provided foundations (political and economic) for Europe’s Industrial Revolution

  • Colonies provided an outlet for rapidly growing population of European societies

  • Changing global balance of power trust the previously marginal Western Europeans into central and commanding roles on the world stage

  • animals played a big role, horses, cows, sheep, goats, pigs

  • changed worldwide food supply

  • horses were most important

  • used land to grow wanted crops, destroyed natural and native vegetation

  • Strait of Magellan was smaller, but safer than the Drake Passage

Europeans in Africa

  • Portuguese explored West African coast; trading guns, textiles, manufactured goods for African gold and slaves

  • set up trading posts along Africa’s coasts

  • Had interactions with the Kongo and Benin kingdoms

  • Vasco de Gama invaded the Swahili states in 1498 (located on the east coast of Africa)

    • took over with heavily armed ships

  • Portuguese dominated for 150+ years, as demand grew, other Europeans joined slave trade

  • European demand for slaves drove African supply

  • African sellers wanted textiles, metal goods, firearms, gunpowder, tobacco, and alcohol

  • Part of a worldwide exchange network

  • 1700-1850 peak of the slave trade due to the American plantation economies

  • Drew slaves from the West and South-Central Africa

  • Moved into the interior as the slave demand increased

Portuguese Maritime Empire

  • Promoted maritime developments

  • Seized Moroccan city of Ceuta (this boosted their confidence)

  • Conquered uninhabited islands of Madeira and Azores Islands which they colonized

  • Cultivated sugarcane on their conquered islands

  • Also explored the West African coast trading guns, textiles, and manufactured goods for African gold and slaves

  • Caused increase demand for slaves, transporting them to Atlantic islands to work as laborers, but some were household slaves in Europe

  • Portuguese merchants and sailors dominated the Indian Ocean

  • Attempted to control all shipping, enforced with superior ships and canons

  • Overpowered Arabs, Persians, Indians, and southeast Asians

  • Beginning of European imperialism in Asia

European Empires

  • Spain focused on Caribbean and then the mainland in the 16th century

    • Conquered the Mexica (Aztecs) and the Inca

  • Portugal established colonies along the coast of Brazil

  • British, French, and Dutch settled eastern coast of North America in the 17th century

  • Natural resources from these colonies would fund additional expansion and the growth of European colonies

  • Spanish attacked the English with the Spanish Armada (1588, Elizabeth I)

    • lost, resulted in bankruptcy

  • Encomienda (replaced by Hacienda) Systems & social standing

    Encomienda System - AP US History Study Guides

    *Mulattos were below mestizos in the social hierarchy, having limited rights and facing discrimination based on their mixed heritage.

  • British began to rise

  • Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

  • After Columbus’ discovery, political rivalries heated up

  • Portugal and Spain disagree over control of Americas

    • Looked to the Church for guidance

    • Agreed on an imaginary line to divide the lands: Treaty of Tordesillas

  • Eventually argue about lands around the Pacific

  • Sugar became a cash crop, desired

    • must be grown in the tropics

  • Primary destination for enslaved Africans (80%)

  • The Great Dying

    • the arrival of European/Old World diseases into the New World

    • lack of domesticated animals meant indigenous populations did not have exposure to disease

      • smallpox, measles, typhus, influenza, malaria, yellow fever

    • Some areas lost 90% of their population

    • 60-80 million deaths

    • Indigenous people on Caribbean islands were gone in 50 years, the same was occurring in Dutch and British colonies in North America

  • Created labor shortage, led to African slave trade

    • changed slaves, first time in history where slavers targeted specific groups and not prisoners of war

    • called chattel slavery, dehumanized slaves (cattle)

    • based largely on plantation agriculture

  • The Middle Passage

    • over packed ships with slaves to maximize profits

      • Male slaves chained together to keep from jumping overboard

      • special nets to catch any that decided to jump together

      • cruel punishments, death from disease, bad food, dysentery, refusal to eat, whippings, occasional executions

  • disrupted African societies

  • added a substantial African presence to the mix of European and Native American peoples

  • African diaspora changed race in American societies

  • loss of millions of young men creating sex ratio imbalance

    • labor demands on women increased

    • slave trade brought political unrest

      • escalated violence

    • Slowed Africa’s growth

      • economic stagnation and social disruption

    • Manioc/cassava and maise from the New World raised calories

  • European colonization based on Mercantilism*

    • goal of economic gain to benefit mother country

    • colonies = raw materials —> mother country

    • mother country = manufactured goods —> colonies

      • colonies didn’t profit much, began trading with foreign markets to maximize profit (Black Market)

  • accomplished by imperialism*

    • policy of extending a country's power and influence through colonization, use of military force, or other means

  • goal was to boost exports and minimize imports

  • New World colonies expanded the mother country’s economy, tilting balance of power towards Europe

  • Triangular Trade vs Trans-Atlantic Trade

    • Triangular: Europe, Africa, Americas