State Building, Expansion, and Conflict 1450-1750

Expansion and overtaking increased during this time period. The creation of gunpowder, cannon, and gunships helped build new fortresses and fortified cities capable of defending against gunpowder artillery * Statecraft: Old and New Techniques of Technology * Nation-states emerged * Political and Administrative centralization became more sophisticated and led to a higher degree of state consolidation and efficiency. Features of a modern government became more common * State-building techniques included architectural displays, and religious authority * Many states depended on bureaucratic elites * Some governments started a parliamentary systems * The nations of Europe started to create empires * Empire-Building- The Age Of Exploration and Colonization * The nations of Europe started to explore, discover and mapped major oceans and landmasses * Europe eventually became the planet’s dominant civilization * Many parts of the world remained under European control * Motivation and Capabilities * Europe’s primary motivation for exploration was economic * Europe wanted direct access to goods such as silk and spices * Europe explored further using the astrolabe, compass, and the sternpost rudder * Europeans were developing stable sailing ships * Europeans depended on gunpowder weaponry for faster and easier colonization * Europeans invented galleons and gunships for greater firepower quantity * The Iberian Wave: Portugal and Spain * The first European nations to systematically explore the wider Atlantic world were Portugal and Spain, on the Iberian peninsula * Around 1410 Prince Henry the Navigator started Portugal’s exploration efforts * Portugal reached the southern tip of Africa and named it the Cape of Good Hope because it was an important step to India * The Italian captain Christopher Columbus started his voyage in 1492 * The lines of demarcation declared which parts of the New World would be given to Portugal, and which to Spain * Portugal and Spain formed maritime empires in the New World * maritime empires: which overseas colonies were fully under their control * Mainlands fell into the hands of conquistadors: generals who bought huge parts of North and South America under Spanish control * Conquests were completed due to military advantages such as horses and gunpowder weapons * Spain’s and Portugal’s successes in the Columbian Exchange were measles and smallpox. The diseases killed indigenous Americans in massive numbers * Mining was important to Spanish and Portuguese explorers * They collected cash crops from plantation monoculture, the most important being sugarcane * New Spain was ruled by a viceroyalty: “in place of the king” * Colonial economic activity was run by the House Of Trade * Spanish and Portugal colonization led to coerced labor * The Spanish wanted to enslave American natives by the encomienda system but the system was deemed inhumane by the Catholic clergy * Instead they used the mitt’s system, and relied heavily on African slaves, which led to the rapid rise of the Atlantic slave trade * Thee Northern Wave: The French, Dutch and English * Other European nations began to explore and colonize, France, the Dutch Republic, and England * They wanted to use a Northeast or Northwest Passage to ex[;pre * They discovered rich fishing and whaling grounds * In 1620, France created the Company of New France in North America * France and England had the French and Indian Wars in which England took Canada from France * This led to the Seven Years’ War * Dutch explorers disrupted Spanish trade and attached their ports * Dutch created the Dutch East India Company * In 1670, England created the Hudson’s Bay Company which intruded into Canada and French colonies * The English relied on coerced labor, indentured servitude, and The Atlantic Slave Trade for labor * In 1600, England created the British East India Company to manage economic and military relations with Southeast Asia * Russia in Siberia and America * The Russian government set the Bering Expedition to explore the waters separating Siberia from North America * The fur trade stimulated the Russian settlement * Native Siberians were subjected to the coerced-labor system known as yasak: paying tribute and hunting fur bearing animals for Russians * Major States and Empires

Europe had become the world’s most powerful region * Europe * Most parts of Europe became nation-states and were politically and administratively centralized * Europe followed two forms of monarchy: absolutism and parliamentarism * Absolutism followed the divine right: monarchs reign by the will of God * Serfdom eventually disappeared from Europe, except for Russia * Parliamentarism: The ruler governed with a lawmaking body appointed by the aristocracy or elected by some or all of the people * The Middle East * Ottoman and Safavid states are gunpowder empires because of their ,assert of weaponry and effective use of it * Ruled by the circle of justice ideology * Devised the devshirme system: recruiting civil servants and elite troops * Used a musketeer infantry system known as janissaries: ensalving sons of Christian families and placing them in positions of civil servitude * Used the millet system: sorted and administered non-Muslims according to religious categories * Unbelievers paid jizya, or tax * Africa * A long term European presence was established * Effects of the Atlantic slave trade were still being endured * West Africa had the most powerful states * The Ashanti kingdom leaders sold gold and slaves to Europeans in exchange for gunpowder and muskets * Omani arabs stood upto Portuguese rule in East Africa * East Asia * Zheng He led global exploration * Influx of silver led to inflation and economic breakdown * Agricultural yields decreased, soil worsened, population grew, and famines occurred regularly * The new Qing dynasty emerged * China sold high amounts of tea, silk and porcelain but allowed few imports due to the policy of trade protection * Rulers came to power from the mandate of heaven * Japan was ruled by shoguns, but the emperor took control * Japan was reunified by warlords and harsh social stratification * Japan continued to follow the Confucian ideology * South Asia * The Mughal Empire was established in India * It was considered a gunpowder empire * The economy thrived due to a cotton trade * Akbar The Great bought the peak of the Mughal Empire * He attempted to outlaw sati * His grandson Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal * Bombay, now Mumbai was ceded to the British East India Company * The Americas * Both continents fell under European control * War and State Rivalries * Eurasian states experienced military revolution: nations fully incorporated gunpowder weaponry into their way of war * Europe was separated under Catholic-Protestant religious wars * Ottoman-European conflict * 1453 conquest of Constantinople by Turks