Technological Innovations

💡Compare the technological advances of the Mongols and Chinese of those of naval tech in the 12/13th centuries

Developments of Transoceanic Travel and Trade

• Social Organizations and Interactions

  • European men were typically traders, while Asian women mainly handled economics like trade and markets

• Interactions with the Environment

  • Many European empires became maritime empires, relying on the sea

    • Spain, Portugal, Great Britan, France, Holland, etc.

• Economic Systems

  • Silk Road trade

  • Indian Ocean Trade

  • Europeans faced conflict w Middle Eastern traders

    • Omani-European Rivalry: Caused Christopher Columbus’ search for new route to India

      • Americas → Sugar, tobacco, rum

      • Africa → Slaves

      • Asia → Silk, spices, rhubarb

Classical, Islamic, and Asian Technology

• Politics and Governance

  • Prince Henry the Navigator: Portuguese ruler who strongly supported exploration, financing expeditions across African coasts

  • Gunpowder aided Europeans in their conquests

  • Sea Beggars: Dutch rebel sailors/pirates

    • Also began to utilize gunpowder

• Interactions with the Environment

  • Maritime trade continues to increase with the use of new/improved naval technology

• Cultural Developments

  • Europeans combined previous Greek knowledge with theirs, along w Islamic and Asian sailors (got knowledge from trade)

  • Islam continued to spread through trade

  • Interactions between Africa and other regions brought many different cultures to Africa

• Technology and Innovations

  • Western European countries developed their naval technology

  • Technology resulted in the expansion and increased efficiency of trade routes

    • Newton’s understanding of gravity changed understanding of tides

      • Sailors could predict when the tides would recede, exposing dangerous rocks

    • Astronomical Charts: Maps of the stars and galaxies, used mainly before the compass in order to calculate direction and location

      • Continuity across many empires, including Chinese, Greek, Mesopotamia, and Babylonia

    • Astrolabe (Improved by Muslims): Used to determine how far north/south you are from the equator

    • Magnetic Compass: Used to steer in the right direction

    • Lateen Sails: Triangular sails used by Arabic traders on the Indian Ocean; capable of catching wind on both faces, allowing for steering in multiple directions

    • Three new types of European ships were created by altering the ratio of length:width, and adjusting the number of other features (ex. masts, sails, etc.)

      • Carrack

        • Used for trade

        • Portuguese

      • Caravel

        • Used for long voyages at great speed

        • Portuguese and Spanish

      • Fluyt

        • Used for trade

        • Dutch

      • Galleons

        • Spanish

        • Heavily armed ships used for trading silver

Exploration: Causes and Effects

💡Explain how one European explorer compares to Marco Polo

The Role of States in Maritime Exploration

• Politics and Governance

  • States funded conquests to:

    • Increase their power and influence

    • Acquire new trading opportunities

    • Preserve/spread their religions

• Cultural Developments

  • Christians believed it was their duty to seek out people in foreign lands and convert them to Christianity, which was motivation for conquest

• Economic Systems

  • Conquests brought wealth in the form of taxes and new trading opportunities

    • Material Wealth: The accumulation of goods and resources that people can own

      • Commonly silver in Europe

  • Conquests were expensive and had to be funded by the state to be affordable

  • Mercantilism: Maximize exports (the amount of gold and silver coming into the country) while buying as little as possible (decreasing imports) from foreign states in order to minimize the number of precious metals exiting the country

Expansion of European Maritime Exploration

• Politics and Governance

  • Portugal

    • Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460): First European monarch to sponsor naval expeditions, going east and to Africa

      • Portugal began importing slaves from Africa

    • Bartholomew Diaz (1488): Sailed around southern tip of Africa

    • Vasco Da Gama (1498): Made it to India and claimed some territory

    • Won control of African and Indian coasts

    • Corruption among government officials

  • Dutch

    • Captured Malacca + built a fort (1620)

    • Attempted to take over spice trade

  • England

    • Focused on taking over India from Portuguese

  • Spanish

    • Ferdinand Magellan: One of the ships in his fleet successfully made it across the globe (circumnavigated)

    • Conquered the Philippines in 1521, turning many Filipinos Christian

• Interactions with the Environment

  • Portugal could only expand overseas

• Cultural Developments

  • China

    • Portuguese visits, followed by Roman Catholic missionaries, led to the conversion of some Chinese people to Christianity

    • Jesuits tried to impress Chinese elites with their learning, failed to win converts bc Christians seen as “barbaric”

  • Japan

    • Portuguese, followed by Christian missionaries, traveled to Japan to establish trade cities

      • Christianity outlawed - 1600s

• Economic Systems

  • Trading Post Empires: Maritime empires established primarily for commercial purposes, where European powers built fortified trading posts to control trade

    • Portuguese constructed series of trading forts → complete control over spice trade and license all vessels used in trade

• Technology and Innovations

  • Portuguese ships and weapons were superior to the rest of Europe

The Lure of Riches

• Politics and Governance

  • French

    • Jaques Cartier: Atlantic Ocean → St Lawrence River

      • Claimed Quebec for the French

    • Samuel de Champlain → Realized there were valuable goods in the Americas

    • Traded with First Nations people, establishing better relationships than the Spanish + British

    • New France: American French population

  • English

    • John Cabot: Sent to look for the “Northwest Passage”

    • Jamestown established

  • Dutch

    • Henry Hudson: Sailed up Hudson’s River to see if it led to Asia (it didn’t). Also established New Amsterdam (Modern-day New York City)

    • Sent Canadian goods back to the Netherlands

• Interactions with the Environment

  • Northwest Passage: Route through/around North America that would lead to East Asia

• Economic Systems

  • Many explorers were motivated by the opportunity of finding new riches

    • Found very little → Considered stopping expeditions

  • Spanish came into contact w Aztecs and Incas

    • Had a lot of gold and silver, in addition to more people to enslave

      • American Silver → China

Columbian Exchange

💡Compare the economic practices of Spain in the Americas and Portugal in South, Southwest, and Southeast Asia

Disease and Population Catastrophe

• Interactions with the Environment

  • The Indigenous people in the Americas had never had contact with European diseases before, as they’ve never had contact w Europeans

    • Spanish → Smallpox

    • Rodents/Organisms → Measles, Malaria, Influenza

Animas and Food

• Cultural Developments

  • Europe → America

    • Meat (beef, pork, etc.) hadn’t been eaten in the Americas until introduced by the Europeans

    • Horses were also introduced for travel/hunting

      • Caused food surplus bc hunting became so efficient

  • America → Europe

    • Crops

      • Maize, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, pepper, cacao

    • Caused pop. growth in Europe

Cash Crops and Forced Labor

• Social Organizations and Interactions

  • Portuguese imported African slaves to cultivate sugar

• Interactions with the Environment

  • Pop. growth in Africa due to introduction of nutritious Amercian crops

    • ex. Yams from Brazil

• Cultural Developments

  • Okra + rice from African Slaves

• Economic Systems

  • Tobacco + cacao grown in Americas → Sold to Europe

  • Money Europeans earned from slaves caused an increase in the transatlantic slave trade

    • >90% of slaves were shipped to the Americas instead of Europe

  • Cash Crops: Agricultural crops which are grown to sell for profit

African Presence in the Americas

African Diaspora: Dispersion of Africans outside of Africa

• Cultural Developments

  • Language

    • Combined European + African languages to create a creole

    • Creole: A language that develops from the process of different languages simplifying and mixing into a new form (often a pidgin), and then that form expanding and elaborating into a full-fledged language with native speakers

  • Music

    • Gospel

    • Blues

    • Jazz

    • Rock and Roll

    • Hip Hop

    • Rap

    • Country Music

    • Music was used as a form of communication

  • Food

    • Knowledge of how to prepare foods

      • ex. Gumbo

Maritime Empires Link Religions

💡Compare slavery during Sub-Saharan Africa’s early colonial period with slavery from 600-1450

💡Explain the extent to which the slave trade impacted Africa

• Economic Systems

  • American plantations relied on labor systems

    • Indentured Servitude: Form of labor in which an individual is under contract to work without a salary to repay a loan.

    • Chattel Slavery: Individuals were considered property to be bought and sold

State-Building and Empire Expansion

Trading Posts in Africa and Asia

• Politics and Governance

  • Japan → isolated from the rest of the world for two centuries

    • No travelling outside

    • No foreigners entering

  • Voyages of Zheng He as a show of power

• Cultural Developments

  • Thousands of Japanese converted to Christianity

    • Some became intolerant of other religions and destroyed Buddhist shrines

    • Government banned Christianity → was a “threat to Buddhism”

  • Ming Dynasty wanted to limit foreign influence on the empire

    • Prohibited trade

    • Destroyed dockyards

    • Reconstructed the great wall

• Economic Systems

  • Trading posts in Africa grew wealthy by selling slaves to Europeans

    • Some villages raided others to capture and sell their people as slaves

  • Expansion of maritime trade allowed for many African empires to flourish

    • Asante Empire

    • Kingdom of the Kongo

  • Despite isolation, Japan continued trade w/ China

European Rivalries on Five Continents

• Politics and Governance

  • British East India Company → Commercial relationship w Mughal Empire

    • Took advantage of tensions between Muslims + Hindus → Increased power through treaties

  • Portugal established → costal trading post (Goa)

  • France controlled city → Pondicherry

  • France + Britain → 7 year’s war

    • Britain won, kicked France out of India

    • Portuguese remained

• Economic Systems

  • Britain established other trading cities in West Africa

  • Set the stage for globalization

Europeans in the Americas

• Politics and Governance

  • Bc of significant decline in pop + power (European disease), empires fell easily to Spanish forces

  • New Spain → New Aztec Spanish colony

  • Destroyed Tenochtitlan and built Mexico city

  • Spanish captured Incan ruler, promised to return him for ransom

    • Took ransom and killed him anyways

  • Treaty of Tordesillas (1494): Spain and Portugal divided the Americas between them

  • Great Peace of Montreal (1701): France and Iroquois peace treaty

• Interactions with the Environment

  • European disease devastated Aztec/Mexica and Inca populations

• Economic Systems

  • Spanish melted down Aztec treasures and sent gold back → Europe

Continuity and Change in Economic Systems

• Economic Systems

  • Increase in European activity in the Indian Ocean

    • Porcelain + Silk → China

    • Cloth from weavers → Western India

    • Agricultural goods → Java

    • Spices → Many places

  • Portuguese took over much of Indian Ocean trade bc strong naval forces

  • Encomienda: Landowners convinced Indigenous ppl to work for them in exchange for food and shelter

    • Goal was to obtain gold to send back to Europe

  • Hacienda: Landowners grew agriculture with the help of slaves

  • Silver discovered

    • Spanish forced certain amount of men to mine from each village

      • Transformed the old Mit’a system

        • Mit’a System: A form of public service that required citizens to contribute their labor to the state for a set number of days each year.

    • Made Europeans wealthy

    • Mercantilism increased w silver

      • Mercantilism: A form of economic nationalism that sought to increase the prosperity and power of a nation through restrictive trade practices

Continuity and Change in Labor Systems

• Slaves

  • Considered property

  • Little to no rights

• Serfs

  • Attached to the land; not free to leave

  • Little to no legal protection

• Indentured Servants

  • Worked w/ no pay to pay off a loan

• Free Peasants

  • Worked on their own land

  • Paid taxes → lord, church

• Nomads

  • Didn’t own land

  • Moved frequently

• Guilds

  • Apprentices → Individual workers

Why Africa?

• Labor for plantations

  • Europeans only worked for 7 years → free

  • African slaves → forever

• African leaders benefited from sale

  • Sometimes handed over people from their own societies

Affects of Slavery on Africa

• Social Organizations and Interactions

  • Set up social classes

  • Disrupted family structures → more men than women were taken

    • Rise in polygyny

      • Polygyny: One man marrying multiple wives

• Interactions with the Environment

  • Decline in African populations

    • Slower population growth

  • Introduced new crops

    • Pop growth again

• Economic Systems

  • Growth of plantation economies

    • Plantation Economy: Economy based on agricultural mass production, usually of a few commodity crops, grown on large farms worked by laborers or slaves

  • Slaves sold across globe, not just Europe

    • Asia, Middle East, etc.

Maritime Empires Develop

💡Compare the impacts of the Spanish vs the Portuguese on native populations

Commercial Revolution

Commercial Revolution: Transformation to a trade-based economy using gold and silver

• Social Organizations and Interactions

  • Developing European “middle class”

• Economic Systems

  • Wealth grew as Europeans gained access to more long-distance trade

  • Price Revolution: High rates of inflation/general rises in prices in the early 15-16th centuries

  • Joint-Stock Companies: Companies owned by investors who bought stocks/shares

  • Limited Liability: Investors are not responsible for a company’s debt

    • Made investing safer

  • Exploration funded by state and joint-stock companies

  • Triangular trade: Trade between the Americas, Europe, and Africa

• Technology and Innovations

  • Dutch had the most innovations → highest standard of living in Europe

Change and Continuities in Trade Networks

• Economic Systems

  • New Monopolies: Merchants or governments given exclusive right to trade

    • Maintained older patterns of trade (continuity)

    • Monopoly: Economic structure where one entity has almost complete control on the production/distribution of a specific good

  • Ongoing Regional Markets: Traditional markets in Afro-Eurasia continued to grow + flourish

    • Improved shipping

Political and Cultural Changes for Indigenous People

• Politics and Governance

  • Indigenous political structures were replaced by those of the Spanish and Portuguese

    • Viceroys: Administrators/representatives of the Spanish crown

    • Audiencias: Royal courts to keep the viceroys under control

• Cultural Developments

  • Conquistadors ordered burning of native books

    • Most accounts of the Aztecs come from Spanish; biased

  • Replaced language and religions

    • English, Portuguese, Christianity

Effects of Belief Systems

• Cultural Developments

  • Syncretic: Composed of traits of multiple things (ex. religion, language, etc.)

    • Developed in the Americas, and Afro-Eurasia

      • Religions (American): Santeria, Voudou, Candomble

      • Religions (Afro-Eurasia): Sikhism

  • Islam brought to Americas through African slaves

  • Catholics in Europe sent missionaries to the Americas

  • Religious divide caused conflict (ex. Ottoman (Sunni) vs Safavid (Shi’a))

Internal and External Challenges to State Power

Resistance to Portugal in Africa

• Politics and Governance

  • Nzinga temporarily allied with Portugal to end slave raids + protect her kingdom from other African attacks/conflicts

  • Fled west with her people, rebelled against Portuguese with help of Dutch

Local Resistance in Russia

• Social Organizations and Interactions

  • Serfs had decreased rights/quality of life

  • Nobles gained power and wealth

• Politics and Governance

  • Russian conflict came from internal threats, not external

  • Serfdom kept peasants under control of nobles, landowners got free slaves (essentially)

  • Peasant rebellion against Catherine the Great

    • Managed to amass a decently sized group + seize some land

    • Executed

    • Catherine imposed stricter laws against Serfs w/ support of Nobles

Rebellions in South Asia

• Politics and Governance

  • Hindu warrior group rebelled against Islamic Mughal Empire

  • Started Hindu Maratha Empire

Revolts in the Spanish Empire

• Politics and Governance

  • Pueblo Revolt: Indigenous groups fought Spanish colonizers who tried to impose Christianity over their populations

Struggles for Power in England and Its Colonies

• Politics and Governance

  • Maroon Wars: Slaves fought to gain freedom in the Carribean and across the Americas

    • Runaway slaves formed their own settlements, united by Queen Nanny

  • Gloucester County Rebellion: Enslaved Africans and white indentured servants demanded freedom from governor

    • Gov. found out, arrested them

  • Metacom’s War: Final effort of Indigenous people to drive British out

  • Glorious Revolution: Strengthened parliament by forbidding Catholics to rule England

    • Only Protestants are allowed to rule

Changing Social Hierarchies

Social Classes and Minorities in Gunpowder Empires

Ottomans

• Social Organizations and Interactions

  • Warrior aristocracy competed for positions in the bureaucracy

    • Aristocracy: Privileged ruling class

  • Janissaries gained power and influence

  • Viziers: The sultan’s advisor

    • Spoke for the sultan

  • Timar: Sultan granted land and/or tax revenues to those he favors

    • Kept soldiers loyal

  • Women (harem) held roles in court

    • Harem: A powerful man’s wives and concubines

      • Concubine: Concubinage is an interpersonal and sexual relationship between two people in which the couple does not want to, or cannot, enter into a full marriage.

  • Merchants formed a middle class, above peasants and slaves

• Cultural Developments

  • Tolerance towards Christians and Jews, despite being an Islamic empire

    • Invited Jews after being exiled from Spain

    • Paid Jizya

    • Could not hold positions of power

Mughal

• Cultural Developments

  • Tolerance towards all religions in order to keep large, diverse empire united

    • Ended Jizya tax on non-Muslims

    • Supported Sikhism

    • Granted Christians money to build churches

Manchu Power and Conflicts in the Qing Dynasty

• Cultural Developments

  • Manchu leaders were not tolerant of other cultures

    • Han (ethnic Chinese) required to wear hair in queues (shaved front half of head while back half grew long)

    • Humiliating while showing submission

  • Refusal to assimilate could result in execution

European Hierarchies

• Social Organizations and Interactions

  • Social Hierarchy: Royalty/Priests > Nobles > Middle Class > Slaves/Serfs

• Politics and Governance

  • Nobility held positions of power in government, faced criticism

  • Failed uprising in France → King Louis XIV took even more power from the French peasants and nobility

• Cultural Developments

  • (Slow) Growing acceptance of Jews after the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment

Russian Social Classes

• Social Organizations and Interactions

  • Boyars (nobility) were on top of the social hierarchy

    • Ivan (IV) the Terrible forced them to move to Moscow to keep an eye on them

  • Peasants → Became Serfs

Political and Economic Elites in the Americas

• Social Organizations and Interactions

  • The Casta System: Social hierarchy, ranked ppl based on ethnicity

    • Peninsulares: European, born in Europe

    • Creoles: European, born in Americas

    • Mulattos/Mestizos: European + African/Indigenous

    • Zambos: Indigenous + African

    • Slaves + “pure” Indigenous/African at bottom