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Chapter 4: Transoceanic Interconnections from c. 1450 to c. 1750

Topic 4.1: Technological Innovations

  • Inventions such as the magnetic compass, the astrolabe, the caravel, and cartography allowed Europeans to travel long distances in the ocean

  • Demographic pressures pushed Europe into exploration and trade for work, food, land, and religion

  • Transoceanic developments - Europeans became active in Indian Ocean trade for wealth and converts but faced competition from Middle Eastern traders → Omani-European rivalry and extensive trade formed maritime empires

  • Christopher Columbus - connected people across the Atlantic Ocean

    • From Americas - sugar, tobacco, rum

    • From Africa - slaves

    • From Asia - silk, spices, and rhubarb

  • Classical, Islamic, and Asian technology - Western European countries (Portugal, Spain, and England) developed naval tech. and sailing based on classical Greeks combined with Islamic and Asian knowledge

    • Prince Henry the Navigator - Portuguese ruler financed expeditions along Africa’s coast and Cape of Good Hope; explored African coastal communities

  • Advances in ideas - improved safety of sailing

    • Newton’s discovery of gravity increased knowledge of tides → sailors predicted depth of water and increased records on the direction and intensity of winds

    • Cartography -  charts helped locate specific constellations on astronomical charts

  • Advances in equipment - made sailing safer and faster such as rudder and the astrolabe

    • Compass - a primary direction-finding device originally invented in China

    • Lateen sail - ship sail in the shape of a triangle used by Arab sailors; could catch the wind on either side of the shape to travel in large bodies of water

    • Carrack from Portugal, caravel from Portuguese and Spanish, fluyt from Dutch

  • Long-term results - the rapid expansion of exploration and global trade; the introduction of gunpowder from China helped Europeans with conquests; the rapid spread of Islam with Muslim merchants

Topic 4.2: Exploration: Causes and Events

  • Causes - hoped to find riches overseas, convert others to Christianity, and technological breakthrough

  • Christopher Columbus increased interest in the discovery of new land

  • Role of states - looked to expand authority and control of resources; brought new wealth and new trade; European rivalries looked to expand before another power claims territory; religious duty to convert people to Christianity; countries set policies to sell as many good as possible to maximize the amount of gold/silver coming in

    • Mercantilism - heavy government involvement

  • European maritime exploration - Portugal led European exploration

    • Prince Henry the Navigator - first European monarch to sponsor seafaring expeditions for African gold; Portugal began importing African slaves by sea

    • Bartholomew Diaz - sailed around southern tip of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope

    • Vasco Da Gama - landed in India and claimed territory for Portugal → ports in India expanded Portugal trade

    • Little impact on Chinese Society until Roman Catholic missionaries come along (Jesuits)

  • Trading post empire - ensured control of trade; fort construction to establish monopoly over spice trade and made Portugal a global trading post empire

  • Spanish in the Philippines - first to circumnavigate the globe; government-sponsored by Ferdinand Magellan; annexed the Philippines and conquered the Filipinos; Manila became a Spanish commercial center

  • Riches - European interest in the Americas after Spanish came into contact with the Aztecs and the Incas who had gold and silver, and made exploration, conquest, and settlement profitable; realized using enslaved Natives and Africans could grow wealth by raising valuable crops (sugar and tobacco)

  • Trade across the Pacific - China was a consumer of silver from the Western Hemisphere; Europeans exchanged silver for luxury goods using galleons, Spanish ships; the Chinese gov. used silver as its main form of currency and became a dominant force in global economy; Spain’s rivals explored and claimed regions in the Americas through a northwest passage

  • French exploration - sponsored expeditions in search of a northwest passage; hoped to find gold but found furs and natural resources; established Quebec as a trading post for French traders and priests; New France (French colonies) had better relations with Natives

    • Jacques Cartier - claimed part of what is now Canada

    • Samuel de Champlain - realized there were valuable goods and rich resources in the Americas

  • English exploration - declared itself a major naval power and competed for land and resources in the Americas; established colonies called Virginia and Jamestown

    • John Cabot -  looked for northwest passage and claimed land south to Chesapeake Bay

  • Dutch exploration - claimed the Hudson River Valley and settled into New Amsterdam, known as New York City; important to Dutch transatlantic trade trade

    • Henry Hudson - explored East Coast of North America and sailed to Hudson River

Topic 4.3 Colombian Exchange

  • Colonization of Americas was disastrous for Natives - they were overpowered by superior weapons and decimated by disease, forced to submit to new rulers and religions

  • Interactions of indigenous American, European, and African culture; Eastern and Western Hemispheres were linked; established by Christopher Columbus

  • Disease and population decline - Western and Eastern Hemispheres were isolated and without exposure and no immunity to germs and disease brought by Europeans, population declined

    • Conquistadores - Francisco Pizarro and Hernan Cortes brought smallpox

    • Insects, rats, and other disease-carrying animals

    • Measles, influenza, and malaria

  • Animals and food - new crops and livestock; Europeans introduced pigs and cows and Mediterranean foods like wheat were introduced to Western Hemispheres; Europeans brought horses to the Americas; Europeans took back maize, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, peppers, and cacao

  • Cash crops and forced labor - coerced African slaves to the Americas caused demographic changes; tobacco and cacao produced in American plantations

    • Sugar - Brazil, center of of the Portuguese-American empire, was good for sugarcane cultivation

    • Slavery - sugar’s profitability in Europe increased the number of African slaves in the transatlantic slave trade

    • Spanish noticed Portugal’s success with agriculture and pursued cash crop cultivation (sugar and tobacco)

  • African presence in the Americas - African diaspora retained aspects of their cultures; West Africans combined European colonizers’ languages with their own to create new languages known as creole; music became jazz, rock, hip-hop, samba, etc.; blended European Christian music with their own, Negro spirituals; okra and rice

  • Environmental and demographic impact - Europeans used agricultural land more intensively than American Indians, deforestation and soil depletion, strain on water resources and pollution

Topic 4.4 Maritime Empires Link Regions

  • Political, religious, and economic rivalries established new maritime empires and trading posts in Asia, Africa, and the Americas

  • Indentured servitude - servants are contracted to work for a specified period of time in exchange for passage

  • Chattel slavery - individuals are considered property to be bought and sold

  • Trading posts in Africa and Asia - African city-states grew wealthy by selling African city-states; Asante Empire and Kingdom of the Kongo development

    • Japan - Japan restricted its networks; after Japanese converted to Christianity, Japanese government banned Christian worship services, persecuted Christians, and limit foreigner

    • Ming Dynasty - tried limiting outside influences

  • European rivalries - political, economic, and religious motives shaped empires

    • British East India Company - commercial relationships the Mughal Empire

    • Portugal controlled coastal trading post in Goa

    • France controlled Pondicherry, a city of Tamil Nadu

    • Seven Years’ War -  France and Britain competed for power; British victory and drove the French out of India

  • British in India - East India Company established forts on coasts and focused on profit through trade but controlled little territory; EIC expanded and took advantage of Muslim and Hindu tension in India and increased political power through treaties with local rulers → movd inland, spread infuence and intervened in India politically and militarily

  • British Global Network - set trading posts in West Africa where Asante Empire limited their impact; trading posts in Africa and India paved way for globalization; posts became nodes of intersection as trade centers

  • Europeans in the Americas - before their arrival, Aztec and Inca empires had 10-15 mil people until the spread of European disease caused population decline; Cortes overthrew the Aztecs and established the New Spain colony, destroyed Tenochtitlan and built Mexico City, its new capital; Francisco Pizarro attacked the Inca and killed their ruler, Atahualpa

  • Spain vs Portugal - Treaty of Tordesillas caused Spain and Portugal to divide Americas between them

  • France vs Britain - Iroquois had conflict with French over trade until they realized the British posed more of a threat → Iroquois and French signed a peace treaty, the Great Peace of Montreal; British drove French out of Canada (French and Indian War)

  • Europeans in the Indian Ocean Trade - Portuguese arrived with superior naval forces, religious zeal, and determination to profit used to take control of trade; victory in Battle of Diu in the Arabian Sea

    • Porcelain and silk from China, cloth from Gujarati weavers in India, agricultural goods with Java, and spices created abundant trade and profit

  • Spain and gold in the Americas - Columbus convinced there was gold in Hispaniola but was actually sparse, but took enslaved Tainos to Spain

    • Encomienda - used to access gold and other resources; Encomenderos (landowners) compelled indigenous people to work for them in exchange for food and shelter; brutal and harsh living conditions

    • Conquistadores were granted land as rewards

    • Hacienda system - landowners developed agriculture on land and used coerced labor to work the fields (wheat, fruit, vegetables, sugar)

  • Silver - discovery of silver in Mexico and Peru revived economic fortune for Spanish conquistadores and became centers of silver mining; Spanish needed labor and transformed the Incan mita system of labor obligation; villages compelled to send male population to do dangerous work in the mines

  • Silver and mercantilism - silver strengthened Spanish economy; Europeans developed mercantilism, economy system that increased government control of economy with high tariffs and colonies and make a colonizing country export more than it imported

  • Slaves - Portuguese trading fleets arrived in the Kingdom of the Kongo seeking slaves and took enslaved Africans to Europe; used enslaved people to establish wealth and power; Arab merchants brought slaves during travels to the Swahili Coast of East Africa

    • Europeans forced indigenous people to do hard labor, but disease wiped out coerced laborers and could escape bondage to due familiarity of territory and Native American enslavement failed

    • Plantation owners recruited European indentured servants to grow tobacco for a specified period of time but were not used to climate of Americas and left after they became free laborers (not ideal workers)

    • Capturing Africans for slavery was invariably violent; African leaders economically benefited from slave trade and invaded neighboring societies and handed over individuals from the lower rungs of their own societies

    • Middle Passage - captive Africans taken to slave castles, barracoons, and were crammed into the cargo section of a ship with little water, food, or room for movement; 6 week journey and up to half a ship’s captives might die

  • Demographic, social, and cultural changes - caused by growth of plantation economy and slavery expansion in the Americas; physical migration of captives led to population decline in Africa; migration of status from free person to enslaved, setting social classes; disrupted family organization, more men than women were taken, polygyny (having more than one wife); social and family groupings determined by supply than demand than by kinship; mixing of ethnic groups and multracial people (mestizos and mulattos)

  • Indian Ocean slave trade - slaves from eastern Africa sold to buyers in northern Africa, Middle East, and India; likely to work in seaports as laborers in the shipping industry and household servants; some opportunity to develop communities along free laborers; those in Islamic communities had certain rights

Topic 4.5 Maritime Empires Develop

  • Maritime empires transformed commerce from small-scale trading to large-scale international trade using gold and silver; joint-stock companies where investors financed trade by buying shares in corporations such as the East India Company, supported increased trade in Asia; new ocean trade routes with rise of global economy; Atlantic trading system with movement of labor and slaves → mixing African, American, and European cultures (cultural synthesis)

  • Economic strategies - Europeans measured wealth w/ how much gold and silver they had; accumulation of capital (material wealth to produce more wealth) with long-distance markets

  • Commercial Revolution - transformation to a trade-based economy using gold and silver; resulted from development of European overseas colonies, opening new ocean trade routes, population growth, and inflation

  • Price Revolution - high rate of inflation

  • Joint-stock companies - owned by investors who bought shares of companies of global economy; invested capital in companies and shared both profits and risks of exploration and trade; driving force behind development of maritime empires bc they allowed continued exploration, colonize, and develop resources

    • Limited liability - principle that investors were not responsible for company’s debts; made investing safer

    • Ex. British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company

  • Commerce and Finance - Dutch were commercial middlemen and set up trade routes to Latin America, North America, South Africa, and Indonesia; Dutch East India Company was highly successful and made profits in the Spice Islands and Southeast Asia; stock exchange and traded currency internationally

    • Financial bubbles in France and England - schemes based on the sale of shares to investors who were promised a certain return → bubble burst and investors lost huge amount of money → bankruptcy and damage to the economy

  • Triangular trade - European desire for slaves in the Americas + Portugal discovery of West Africa meant that Africa became a source for new labor; slaves became part of the Atlantic trading system, the triangular trade; ship carried European manufactured goods to West Africa, then transported slaves to the Americas, then took sugar or tabacco back to Europe

  • Rivalries in the Indian Ocean trade - trade over the Atlantic Ocean became significant but fought for control of Indian Ocean trade routes as well AMSCO Indian Ocean Trade

    • Portuguese defeated Muslim and Venetian forces in naval battles in the Arabian Sea

    • Morocco looked inland to capture Songhai Kingdom riches which fell → Spanish and Portuguese took much of the territory

  • New monopolies - granted merchants or the exclusive government rights to trade

    • Spanish government established monopoly over domestic tobacco in the American colonies

  • Regional markets - flourished in Afro-Eurasia; improved shipping offered merchants opportunities to increase volume of products; increased output of peasant and artisan labor

  • Effects of Atlantic Slave Trade - weakened West African kingdoms (Kongo) with slowed population growth; trade competition led to violence and made Africa slave-raiding kingdoms economically dependenton goods from Europe; slow to develop complex economies and set stage for European conquest and imperialism

    • Dahomey and Oyo - African societies that conducted slave raids and became richer from sellng captives to Europeans; took advantage of rivals with firearms; neighboring groups could not fight out with slave raids and intergroup warefare increased

    • Slavery and gender - gender distributions were imbalanced → polygny and forced women to assume traditionally male roles

    • New foods - spurred population growth with improved diets when introduced with new crops like maize, peanuts, and manioc

  • Political and cultural changes for indigenous peoples - grappled with conquered people’s traditions and cultures that were either allowed to exist or erased (managing to erase basic social cultures)

    • Colonial administration - indigenous political structures in Latin America replaced by Spanish and Portuguese colonial administration; Spanish royalty appointed viceroys to act as representatives of the crown and established audiences (royal courts) to appeal viceroys’ decisions; slow communication made it difficult for the Spanish crown to exercise direct control over New Spain

    • Cultural changes - indigenous people lost culture and history bc of conquerors; Cortes ordered the burning of native books → few original accounts in Nahuatl; Spanish and Portuguese planted their own languages and religion; creoles (born in America of Spanish origin) had political dominance and claimed independence from the Spanish throne

  • Syncretism - combining religious beliefs and practices in the Americas

    • Africans melded aspects of Christianity with West African religious traditions (santeria, vodun, Candomble)

    • Islam - African slaves practiced Islam and became 1st signifcant presence of Islam in the Americas

    • Religion in Latin America - Catholic religious orders in Europe such as Dominicans, Jesuits, and Franciscans sent missionaries to convert people to Christianity (Virgen de Guadalupe)

  • Religious conflicts - Mughal leader Akbar tried to mediate Muslim and Hindu conflicts; split between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims worsened conflicts between Ottomans and Safavid empires; split between Catholicism and Protestantism

Topic 4.6: Internal and External Challenges to State Power

  • Resistance to Portugal in Africa - Ana Nzinga became ruler of Ndongo in south-central Africa + slave raids by Portugul and African peoples → Nzinga became ally of Portugal for protection; alliance broke down and her people fled west to take over Matamba and incied a rebellion in Ndongo allied with the Dutch

  • Local resistance in Russia - as demand for grain increased, nobilities imposed harsh conditions on serfs and their debt increased

    • Serfdom, power, and control - Russian serfs chained to the lands where they were born and ensured their service to their landlord

    • Cossacks and Peasant Rebellions - near the Black Sea, skilled fighters and runaway serfs lived in small groups influenced by nomadic Mongols; Cossack warriors were at odds with central, autocratic governments of tsars but were hired as mercenaries to defend “Mother Russia” and were important to Russia expansion; Yemelyan Pugachev began peasant rebellion against Catherine the Great for giving nobility power over serfs, Pugachev Rebellion increased oppression of peasants

  • Rebellions in South Asia - Mughal empire controlled much of now India and Pakistan and spread Persian and Islam culture, but population remained Hindu; The Marath, a HIndu warrior group, fought the Mughals and created the Maratha Empire

  • Revolts in the Spanish Empire - Pueblo Revolt against the Spanish in now New Mexico where the Pueblo and Apache indigenous groups fought colonizers who forced religious conversions; killed Spaniards, drove the rest out, and destroyed churches until the Spanish reconquered the area

  • Struggles for power in England and its colonies - slave revolts common in the Americas

    • Maroon wars where slaves in the Caribbean and former Spanish territory fought for freedom (Queen Nanny, national hero)

    • Gloucester County Rebellion - in Virginia, enslaved Africans and white indentured servants demanded freedom from the governor

    • Metacom’s War - final major effort of the indigenous people to drive out British from New England; subjugation of the Wampanoag people to the English colonists

    • James II - becomes king of England and was Catholic; William of Orange, his nephew, invaded England became the new king, and was Protestant → the English throne remained in Protestant hands after that

    • Glorious Revolution - strengthened the power of the Parliament, forbidding Catholic rule in England

Topic 4.7: Changing Social Hierarchies

  • Civilizations developed social hierarchies and different groups sought power and influence; merchants and artisans formed the middle class; peasants, serfs, and slaves struggled to survive

  • Civilizations created policies that discriminated against groups based on religion, ethnicity, or social class

    • Huguenots - French Protestants in a Catholic country suffered persecution

  • Ottoman society - built around warrior aristocracy that competed for positions in the bureaucracy; Janissaries gained power and tried to mount coups against the sultans; sultan became ineffective and viziers (advisors) gained influential positions, but sultans granted land or tax revenues to those he favored; paid tax, jizya, for non-Muslims; women played social and political roles in court

    • Relative tolerance for Jews and Christians but no full equality

    • Harem politics - a residence where a powerful man’s wives and concubines lived; Roxelana became powerful when married to Suleiman, a sultan, and commissioned public work projects

  • Middle class - merchants and artisans above the peasants and slaves

  • Mughal empire - religious tolerance and ended jizya tax

  • Manchu power and Qing Dynasty - Manchu people from Manchuria ruled over Han Chinese and other ethnic groups and were less tolerant than the Mongol leaders, made their culture dominant in China; Qing put their own people in top gov positions but maintained Chinese traditions such as the civil service exam and bureaucracy

    • Conflicts with the Han - Han ethnicity experienced Qing intolerance; men forced to wear hair in queues, braided pigtail style of the Manchu to test their loyalty but was reminder of Qing authority challenging Confucian values; Qing used Han Chinese defectors to carry out massacres against the Han who refused to assimilate

  • European hierarchies - top level was royalty then aristocracy/nobility who were granted special privileges

    • Gain - nobility in the Netherlands and England held power and had active role in government; Dutch landowners provided stable local provincial government; landowners controlled Parliament in England

    • Loss - noble struggle for power with royalty and emerging middle class, priestly class, and the common people

    • Power of royalty over nobility - technological advancements allowed rulers to destroy noble land and fortresses; rulers believed in absolute power (Louis XIV)

    • Acceptance of Jews - expulsion from Spain and resettlement around the Mediterranean Sea; prejudices against the Jews declined w/ influence from the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment; important in banking and commerce; faces less discrimination in the Netherlands

  • Russian social classes - landowning noble class (boyars) then merchants, and the peasants (serfs); boyar class experienced tensions with rulers and opposed expansionist policies of Ivan IV and had land taken from them

  • Elites in the America - European settlers + imported Africans + conquered indigenous populations → social hierarchy based on race and ancestry

    • Casta system in Latin America - peninsulares born in the Iberian peninsula,, criolles with European ancestry, mestizos of mixed European and indigenous ancestry, mulattoes of mixed European and African ancestry, zambos of mixed African and Indigenous ancestry, and the indigenous people and African slaves; could not move up without intermarriage

Topic 4.8: Continuity and Change from c. 1400 to c. 1750

  • Transoceanic travel and trade - integration of the Western Hemisphere into global trading network from wanting to find a sea route to Asia; developed naval tech: astronomical charts, astrolabe, compass, lateen sail, carrack, caravel, fluyt; biological exchange of crops, animals, people, and diseases

  • Atlantic system - regions of Western Europe, Western Africa, and the Americas; Columbian Exchange changed who grew foods where and how; diseases on populations with no immunity; massive migration and new social structures; syncretic beliefs

  • Economic changes - maritime empires emerged led by Portuguese, Dutch, and the English; European trading posts and cities along Africa and Indian Ocean; Europeans dominated global trade at the expense of Arab, Indian, and Chinese merchants

  • Colonies in the Americas - Spain created an empire in the Americas followed by Portugal, England, France, and the Netherlands; discovery of silver in Spain’s colonies integrated Europeans into global economy (China desired silver)

  • Mercantilism and capitalism - Europeans rulers benefited from encouraging trade; participated in wealth accumulation with mercantilist economic policies; international trade was the goal; gave way to capitalism as a predominant economic system; joint-stock companies so they could share risks and rewards of global trade

  • Effects of new global economy - flow of wealth expanded middle class and provided capital that would lead to the Industrial Revolution; increase in silver and gold caused inflation; regional markets prospered; funding for arts increased as merchants and governments used rising profits and revenue, sponsorship of arts to legitimize rule

  • Demand for labor - demographic shift in Africa and Atlantic slave trade intensivfied; gender imbalance and Africa population decline but increased with new diets; coerced labor systems developed in the Americas with chattel slavery of the Atlantic slave trade; European identured servants for a period of time; encomienda, hacienda, and mita systems for coerced labor by the Spanish

  • New social structures - Europeans, Africans, and Natives coexisted in new American colonies and new social groups appeared based on race or ethnicity; Europeans had most of wealth and power; subculture of mixed European and African heritage

Chapter 4: Transoceanic Interconnections from c. 1450 to c. 1750

Topic 4.1: Technological Innovations

  • Inventions such as the magnetic compass, the astrolabe, the caravel, and cartography allowed Europeans to travel long distances in the ocean

  • Demographic pressures pushed Europe into exploration and trade for work, food, land, and religion

  • Transoceanic developments - Europeans became active in Indian Ocean trade for wealth and converts but faced competition from Middle Eastern traders → Omani-European rivalry and extensive trade formed maritime empires

  • Christopher Columbus - connected people across the Atlantic Ocean

    • From Americas - sugar, tobacco, rum

    • From Africa - slaves

    • From Asia - silk, spices, and rhubarb

  • Classical, Islamic, and Asian technology - Western European countries (Portugal, Spain, and England) developed naval tech. and sailing based on classical Greeks combined with Islamic and Asian knowledge

    • Prince Henry the Navigator - Portuguese ruler financed expeditions along Africa’s coast and Cape of Good Hope; explored African coastal communities

  • Advances in ideas - improved safety of sailing

    • Newton’s discovery of gravity increased knowledge of tides → sailors predicted depth of water and increased records on the direction and intensity of winds

    • Cartography -  charts helped locate specific constellations on astronomical charts

  • Advances in equipment - made sailing safer and faster such as rudder and the astrolabe

    • Compass - a primary direction-finding device originally invented in China

    • Lateen sail - ship sail in the shape of a triangle used by Arab sailors; could catch the wind on either side of the shape to travel in large bodies of water

    • Carrack from Portugal, caravel from Portuguese and Spanish, fluyt from Dutch

  • Long-term results - the rapid expansion of exploration and global trade; the introduction of gunpowder from China helped Europeans with conquests; the rapid spread of Islam with Muslim merchants

Topic 4.2: Exploration: Causes and Events

  • Causes - hoped to find riches overseas, convert others to Christianity, and technological breakthrough

  • Christopher Columbus increased interest in the discovery of new land

  • Role of states - looked to expand authority and control of resources; brought new wealth and new trade; European rivalries looked to expand before another power claims territory; religious duty to convert people to Christianity; countries set policies to sell as many good as possible to maximize the amount of gold/silver coming in

    • Mercantilism - heavy government involvement

  • European maritime exploration - Portugal led European exploration

    • Prince Henry the Navigator - first European monarch to sponsor seafaring expeditions for African gold; Portugal began importing African slaves by sea

    • Bartholomew Diaz - sailed around southern tip of Africa, the Cape of Good Hope

    • Vasco Da Gama - landed in India and claimed territory for Portugal → ports in India expanded Portugal trade

    • Little impact on Chinese Society until Roman Catholic missionaries come along (Jesuits)

  • Trading post empire - ensured control of trade; fort construction to establish monopoly over spice trade and made Portugal a global trading post empire

  • Spanish in the Philippines - first to circumnavigate the globe; government-sponsored by Ferdinand Magellan; annexed the Philippines and conquered the Filipinos; Manila became a Spanish commercial center

  • Riches - European interest in the Americas after Spanish came into contact with the Aztecs and the Incas who had gold and silver, and made exploration, conquest, and settlement profitable; realized using enslaved Natives and Africans could grow wealth by raising valuable crops (sugar and tobacco)

  • Trade across the Pacific - China was a consumer of silver from the Western Hemisphere; Europeans exchanged silver for luxury goods using galleons, Spanish ships; the Chinese gov. used silver as its main form of currency and became a dominant force in global economy; Spain’s rivals explored and claimed regions in the Americas through a northwest passage

  • French exploration - sponsored expeditions in search of a northwest passage; hoped to find gold but found furs and natural resources; established Quebec as a trading post for French traders and priests; New France (French colonies) had better relations with Natives

    • Jacques Cartier - claimed part of what is now Canada

    • Samuel de Champlain - realized there were valuable goods and rich resources in the Americas

  • English exploration - declared itself a major naval power and competed for land and resources in the Americas; established colonies called Virginia and Jamestown

    • John Cabot -  looked for northwest passage and claimed land south to Chesapeake Bay

  • Dutch exploration - claimed the Hudson River Valley and settled into New Amsterdam, known as New York City; important to Dutch transatlantic trade trade

    • Henry Hudson - explored East Coast of North America and sailed to Hudson River

Topic 4.3 Colombian Exchange

  • Colonization of Americas was disastrous for Natives - they were overpowered by superior weapons and decimated by disease, forced to submit to new rulers and religions

  • Interactions of indigenous American, European, and African culture; Eastern and Western Hemispheres were linked; established by Christopher Columbus

  • Disease and population decline - Western and Eastern Hemispheres were isolated and without exposure and no immunity to germs and disease brought by Europeans, population declined

    • Conquistadores - Francisco Pizarro and Hernan Cortes brought smallpox

    • Insects, rats, and other disease-carrying animals

    • Measles, influenza, and malaria

  • Animals and food - new crops and livestock; Europeans introduced pigs and cows and Mediterranean foods like wheat were introduced to Western Hemispheres; Europeans brought horses to the Americas; Europeans took back maize, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, peppers, and cacao

  • Cash crops and forced labor - coerced African slaves to the Americas caused demographic changes; tobacco and cacao produced in American plantations

    • Sugar - Brazil, center of of the Portuguese-American empire, was good for sugarcane cultivation

    • Slavery - sugar’s profitability in Europe increased the number of African slaves in the transatlantic slave trade

    • Spanish noticed Portugal’s success with agriculture and pursued cash crop cultivation (sugar and tobacco)

  • African presence in the Americas - African diaspora retained aspects of their cultures; West Africans combined European colonizers’ languages with their own to create new languages known as creole; music became jazz, rock, hip-hop, samba, etc.; blended European Christian music with their own, Negro spirituals; okra and rice

  • Environmental and demographic impact - Europeans used agricultural land more intensively than American Indians, deforestation and soil depletion, strain on water resources and pollution

Topic 4.4 Maritime Empires Link Regions

  • Political, religious, and economic rivalries established new maritime empires and trading posts in Asia, Africa, and the Americas

  • Indentured servitude - servants are contracted to work for a specified period of time in exchange for passage

  • Chattel slavery - individuals are considered property to be bought and sold

  • Trading posts in Africa and Asia - African city-states grew wealthy by selling African city-states; Asante Empire and Kingdom of the Kongo development

    • Japan - Japan restricted its networks; after Japanese converted to Christianity, Japanese government banned Christian worship services, persecuted Christians, and limit foreigner

    • Ming Dynasty - tried limiting outside influences

  • European rivalries - political, economic, and religious motives shaped empires

    • British East India Company - commercial relationships the Mughal Empire

    • Portugal controlled coastal trading post in Goa

    • France controlled Pondicherry, a city of Tamil Nadu

    • Seven Years’ War -  France and Britain competed for power; British victory and drove the French out of India

  • British in India - East India Company established forts on coasts and focused on profit through trade but controlled little territory; EIC expanded and took advantage of Muslim and Hindu tension in India and increased political power through treaties with local rulers → movd inland, spread infuence and intervened in India politically and militarily

  • British Global Network - set trading posts in West Africa where Asante Empire limited their impact; trading posts in Africa and India paved way for globalization; posts became nodes of intersection as trade centers

  • Europeans in the Americas - before their arrival, Aztec and Inca empires had 10-15 mil people until the spread of European disease caused population decline; Cortes overthrew the Aztecs and established the New Spain colony, destroyed Tenochtitlan and built Mexico City, its new capital; Francisco Pizarro attacked the Inca and killed their ruler, Atahualpa

  • Spain vs Portugal - Treaty of Tordesillas caused Spain and Portugal to divide Americas between them

  • France vs Britain - Iroquois had conflict with French over trade until they realized the British posed more of a threat → Iroquois and French signed a peace treaty, the Great Peace of Montreal; British drove French out of Canada (French and Indian War)

  • Europeans in the Indian Ocean Trade - Portuguese arrived with superior naval forces, religious zeal, and determination to profit used to take control of trade; victory in Battle of Diu in the Arabian Sea

    • Porcelain and silk from China, cloth from Gujarati weavers in India, agricultural goods with Java, and spices created abundant trade and profit

  • Spain and gold in the Americas - Columbus convinced there was gold in Hispaniola but was actually sparse, but took enslaved Tainos to Spain

    • Encomienda - used to access gold and other resources; Encomenderos (landowners) compelled indigenous people to work for them in exchange for food and shelter; brutal and harsh living conditions

    • Conquistadores were granted land as rewards

    • Hacienda system - landowners developed agriculture on land and used coerced labor to work the fields (wheat, fruit, vegetables, sugar)

  • Silver - discovery of silver in Mexico and Peru revived economic fortune for Spanish conquistadores and became centers of silver mining; Spanish needed labor and transformed the Incan mita system of labor obligation; villages compelled to send male population to do dangerous work in the mines

  • Silver and mercantilism - silver strengthened Spanish economy; Europeans developed mercantilism, economy system that increased government control of economy with high tariffs and colonies and make a colonizing country export more than it imported

  • Slaves - Portuguese trading fleets arrived in the Kingdom of the Kongo seeking slaves and took enslaved Africans to Europe; used enslaved people to establish wealth and power; Arab merchants brought slaves during travels to the Swahili Coast of East Africa

    • Europeans forced indigenous people to do hard labor, but disease wiped out coerced laborers and could escape bondage to due familiarity of territory and Native American enslavement failed

    • Plantation owners recruited European indentured servants to grow tobacco for a specified period of time but were not used to climate of Americas and left after they became free laborers (not ideal workers)

    • Capturing Africans for slavery was invariably violent; African leaders economically benefited from slave trade and invaded neighboring societies and handed over individuals from the lower rungs of their own societies

    • Middle Passage - captive Africans taken to slave castles, barracoons, and were crammed into the cargo section of a ship with little water, food, or room for movement; 6 week journey and up to half a ship’s captives might die

  • Demographic, social, and cultural changes - caused by growth of plantation economy and slavery expansion in the Americas; physical migration of captives led to population decline in Africa; migration of status from free person to enslaved, setting social classes; disrupted family organization, more men than women were taken, polygyny (having more than one wife); social and family groupings determined by supply than demand than by kinship; mixing of ethnic groups and multracial people (mestizos and mulattos)

  • Indian Ocean slave trade - slaves from eastern Africa sold to buyers in northern Africa, Middle East, and India; likely to work in seaports as laborers in the shipping industry and household servants; some opportunity to develop communities along free laborers; those in Islamic communities had certain rights

Topic 4.5 Maritime Empires Develop

  • Maritime empires transformed commerce from small-scale trading to large-scale international trade using gold and silver; joint-stock companies where investors financed trade by buying shares in corporations such as the East India Company, supported increased trade in Asia; new ocean trade routes with rise of global economy; Atlantic trading system with movement of labor and slaves → mixing African, American, and European cultures (cultural synthesis)

  • Economic strategies - Europeans measured wealth w/ how much gold and silver they had; accumulation of capital (material wealth to produce more wealth) with long-distance markets

  • Commercial Revolution - transformation to a trade-based economy using gold and silver; resulted from development of European overseas colonies, opening new ocean trade routes, population growth, and inflation

  • Price Revolution - high rate of inflation

  • Joint-stock companies - owned by investors who bought shares of companies of global economy; invested capital in companies and shared both profits and risks of exploration and trade; driving force behind development of maritime empires bc they allowed continued exploration, colonize, and develop resources

    • Limited liability - principle that investors were not responsible for company’s debts; made investing safer

    • Ex. British East India Company and the Dutch East India Company

  • Commerce and Finance - Dutch were commercial middlemen and set up trade routes to Latin America, North America, South Africa, and Indonesia; Dutch East India Company was highly successful and made profits in the Spice Islands and Southeast Asia; stock exchange and traded currency internationally

    • Financial bubbles in France and England - schemes based on the sale of shares to investors who were promised a certain return → bubble burst and investors lost huge amount of money → bankruptcy and damage to the economy

  • Triangular trade - European desire for slaves in the Americas + Portugal discovery of West Africa meant that Africa became a source for new labor; slaves became part of the Atlantic trading system, the triangular trade; ship carried European manufactured goods to West Africa, then transported slaves to the Americas, then took sugar or tabacco back to Europe

  • Rivalries in the Indian Ocean trade - trade over the Atlantic Ocean became significant but fought for control of Indian Ocean trade routes as well AMSCO Indian Ocean Trade

    • Portuguese defeated Muslim and Venetian forces in naval battles in the Arabian Sea

    • Morocco looked inland to capture Songhai Kingdom riches which fell → Spanish and Portuguese took much of the territory

  • New monopolies - granted merchants or the exclusive government rights to trade

    • Spanish government established monopoly over domestic tobacco in the American colonies

  • Regional markets - flourished in Afro-Eurasia; improved shipping offered merchants opportunities to increase volume of products; increased output of peasant and artisan labor

  • Effects of Atlantic Slave Trade - weakened West African kingdoms (Kongo) with slowed population growth; trade competition led to violence and made Africa slave-raiding kingdoms economically dependenton goods from Europe; slow to develop complex economies and set stage for European conquest and imperialism

    • Dahomey and Oyo - African societies that conducted slave raids and became richer from sellng captives to Europeans; took advantage of rivals with firearms; neighboring groups could not fight out with slave raids and intergroup warefare increased

    • Slavery and gender - gender distributions were imbalanced → polygny and forced women to assume traditionally male roles

    • New foods - spurred population growth with improved diets when introduced with new crops like maize, peanuts, and manioc

  • Political and cultural changes for indigenous peoples - grappled with conquered people’s traditions and cultures that were either allowed to exist or erased (managing to erase basic social cultures)

    • Colonial administration - indigenous political structures in Latin America replaced by Spanish and Portuguese colonial administration; Spanish royalty appointed viceroys to act as representatives of the crown and established audiences (royal courts) to appeal viceroys’ decisions; slow communication made it difficult for the Spanish crown to exercise direct control over New Spain

    • Cultural changes - indigenous people lost culture and history bc of conquerors; Cortes ordered the burning of native books → few original accounts in Nahuatl; Spanish and Portuguese planted their own languages and religion; creoles (born in America of Spanish origin) had political dominance and claimed independence from the Spanish throne

  • Syncretism - combining religious beliefs and practices in the Americas

    • Africans melded aspects of Christianity with West African religious traditions (santeria, vodun, Candomble)

    • Islam - African slaves practiced Islam and became 1st signifcant presence of Islam in the Americas

    • Religion in Latin America - Catholic religious orders in Europe such as Dominicans, Jesuits, and Franciscans sent missionaries to convert people to Christianity (Virgen de Guadalupe)

  • Religious conflicts - Mughal leader Akbar tried to mediate Muslim and Hindu conflicts; split between Sunni and Shi’a Muslims worsened conflicts between Ottomans and Safavid empires; split between Catholicism and Protestantism

Topic 4.6: Internal and External Challenges to State Power

  • Resistance to Portugal in Africa - Ana Nzinga became ruler of Ndongo in south-central Africa + slave raids by Portugul and African peoples → Nzinga became ally of Portugal for protection; alliance broke down and her people fled west to take over Matamba and incied a rebellion in Ndongo allied with the Dutch

  • Local resistance in Russia - as demand for grain increased, nobilities imposed harsh conditions on serfs and their debt increased

    • Serfdom, power, and control - Russian serfs chained to the lands where they were born and ensured their service to their landlord

    • Cossacks and Peasant Rebellions - near the Black Sea, skilled fighters and runaway serfs lived in small groups influenced by nomadic Mongols; Cossack warriors were at odds with central, autocratic governments of tsars but were hired as mercenaries to defend “Mother Russia” and were important to Russia expansion; Yemelyan Pugachev began peasant rebellion against Catherine the Great for giving nobility power over serfs, Pugachev Rebellion increased oppression of peasants

  • Rebellions in South Asia - Mughal empire controlled much of now India and Pakistan and spread Persian and Islam culture, but population remained Hindu; The Marath, a HIndu warrior group, fought the Mughals and created the Maratha Empire

  • Revolts in the Spanish Empire - Pueblo Revolt against the Spanish in now New Mexico where the Pueblo and Apache indigenous groups fought colonizers who forced religious conversions; killed Spaniards, drove the rest out, and destroyed churches until the Spanish reconquered the area

  • Struggles for power in England and its colonies - slave revolts common in the Americas

    • Maroon wars where slaves in the Caribbean and former Spanish territory fought for freedom (Queen Nanny, national hero)

    • Gloucester County Rebellion - in Virginia, enslaved Africans and white indentured servants demanded freedom from the governor

    • Metacom’s War - final major effort of the indigenous people to drive out British from New England; subjugation of the Wampanoag people to the English colonists

    • James II - becomes king of England and was Catholic; William of Orange, his nephew, invaded England became the new king, and was Protestant → the English throne remained in Protestant hands after that

    • Glorious Revolution - strengthened the power of the Parliament, forbidding Catholic rule in England

Topic 4.7: Changing Social Hierarchies

  • Civilizations developed social hierarchies and different groups sought power and influence; merchants and artisans formed the middle class; peasants, serfs, and slaves struggled to survive

  • Civilizations created policies that discriminated against groups based on religion, ethnicity, or social class

    • Huguenots - French Protestants in a Catholic country suffered persecution

  • Ottoman society - built around warrior aristocracy that competed for positions in the bureaucracy; Janissaries gained power and tried to mount coups against the sultans; sultan became ineffective and viziers (advisors) gained influential positions, but sultans granted land or tax revenues to those he favored; paid tax, jizya, for non-Muslims; women played social and political roles in court

    • Relative tolerance for Jews and Christians but no full equality

    • Harem politics - a residence where a powerful man’s wives and concubines lived; Roxelana became powerful when married to Suleiman, a sultan, and commissioned public work projects

  • Middle class - merchants and artisans above the peasants and slaves

  • Mughal empire - religious tolerance and ended jizya tax

  • Manchu power and Qing Dynasty - Manchu people from Manchuria ruled over Han Chinese and other ethnic groups and were less tolerant than the Mongol leaders, made their culture dominant in China; Qing put their own people in top gov positions but maintained Chinese traditions such as the civil service exam and bureaucracy

    • Conflicts with the Han - Han ethnicity experienced Qing intolerance; men forced to wear hair in queues, braided pigtail style of the Manchu to test their loyalty but was reminder of Qing authority challenging Confucian values; Qing used Han Chinese defectors to carry out massacres against the Han who refused to assimilate

  • European hierarchies - top level was royalty then aristocracy/nobility who were granted special privileges

    • Gain - nobility in the Netherlands and England held power and had active role in government; Dutch landowners provided stable local provincial government; landowners controlled Parliament in England

    • Loss - noble struggle for power with royalty and emerging middle class, priestly class, and the common people

    • Power of royalty over nobility - technological advancements allowed rulers to destroy noble land and fortresses; rulers believed in absolute power (Louis XIV)

    • Acceptance of Jews - expulsion from Spain and resettlement around the Mediterranean Sea; prejudices against the Jews declined w/ influence from the scientific revolution and the Enlightenment; important in banking and commerce; faces less discrimination in the Netherlands

  • Russian social classes - landowning noble class (boyars) then merchants, and the peasants (serfs); boyar class experienced tensions with rulers and opposed expansionist policies of Ivan IV and had land taken from them

  • Elites in the America - European settlers + imported Africans + conquered indigenous populations → social hierarchy based on race and ancestry

    • Casta system in Latin America - peninsulares born in the Iberian peninsula,, criolles with European ancestry, mestizos of mixed European and indigenous ancestry, mulattoes of mixed European and African ancestry, zambos of mixed African and Indigenous ancestry, and the indigenous people and African slaves; could not move up without intermarriage

Topic 4.8: Continuity and Change from c. 1400 to c. 1750

  • Transoceanic travel and trade - integration of the Western Hemisphere into global trading network from wanting to find a sea route to Asia; developed naval tech: astronomical charts, astrolabe, compass, lateen sail, carrack, caravel, fluyt; biological exchange of crops, animals, people, and diseases

  • Atlantic system - regions of Western Europe, Western Africa, and the Americas; Columbian Exchange changed who grew foods where and how; diseases on populations with no immunity; massive migration and new social structures; syncretic beliefs

  • Economic changes - maritime empires emerged led by Portuguese, Dutch, and the English; European trading posts and cities along Africa and Indian Ocean; Europeans dominated global trade at the expense of Arab, Indian, and Chinese merchants

  • Colonies in the Americas - Spain created an empire in the Americas followed by Portugal, England, France, and the Netherlands; discovery of silver in Spain’s colonies integrated Europeans into global economy (China desired silver)

  • Mercantilism and capitalism - Europeans rulers benefited from encouraging trade; participated in wealth accumulation with mercantilist economic policies; international trade was the goal; gave way to capitalism as a predominant economic system; joint-stock companies so they could share risks and rewards of global trade

  • Effects of new global economy - flow of wealth expanded middle class and provided capital that would lead to the Industrial Revolution; increase in silver and gold caused inflation; regional markets prospered; funding for arts increased as merchants and governments used rising profits and revenue, sponsorship of arts to legitimize rule

  • Demand for labor - demographic shift in Africa and Atlantic slave trade intensivfied; gender imbalance and Africa population decline but increased with new diets; coerced labor systems developed in the Americas with chattel slavery of the Atlantic slave trade; European identured servants for a period of time; encomienda, hacienda, and mita systems for coerced labor by the Spanish

  • New social structures - Europeans, Africans, and Natives coexisted in new American colonies and new social groups appeared based on race or ethnicity; Europeans had most of wealth and power; subculture of mixed European and African heritage

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