AP WORLD CHAPTER 13-15
Mughal India
Akbar created a consciously inclusive, multicultural empire where a Muslim minority ruled over a Hindu majority by blending cultures rather than suppressing them
Muslum Minority ruled over Hindu majority
European and Asian Commerce
Europeans wanted
Spices
Silks
Porcelain
Cotton textiles
Notes: Portuguese in the Indian Ocean Trade Network
1. The Indian Ocean World Before the Portuguese
Highly diverse commercial network: participants included East Africans, Arabs, Persians, Indians, Malays, Chinese, and others.
Majority of traders were Muslim, but Hindus, Buddhists, Christians, Jews, and Chinese communities also took part.
Trade was largely peaceful and free, with no single dominant power after the Chinese fleet withdrew in the early 1400s.
Indian Ocean merchant ships:
Mostly unarmed or lightly armed.
Lacked European-style onboard cannons.
European goods were crude and unattractive in Asian markets → Europeans couldn’t compete economically.
2. Portuguese Opportunity and Military Superiority
Portuguese realized their main advantage was military, not economic.
Their ships:
Carried heavy cannons.
Could outgun and outmaneuver local vessels.
This allowed them to target key coastal cities and choke points.
3. Establishment of a “Trading Post Empire”
A trading post empire = controlling commerce through force, not territory or population.
Key fortified bases:
Mombasa (East Africa) – taken violently; city sacked in 1505, ~1,500 killed.
Hormuz (entrance to Persian Gulf)
Goa (west coast of India)
Malacca (Southeast Asia)
Macao (China) – the only one obtained through negotiation/bribery.
Mostly taken from small, weak states that could not resist Portuguese firepower.
4. How the Portuguese Tried to Control the Trade
Sought to monopolize the spice trade.
Portuguese king styled himself “Lord of the Conquest, Navigation, and Commerce of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, and India.”
Enforced the cartaz system:
All merchant ships had to buy a pass (cartaz).
Ships had to pay 6–10% customs duties on cargo.
Blocked or restricted the Red Sea route to the Mediterranean.
Controlled, for about a century, the route around Africa to Europe.
5. Limits and Failures of Portuguese Control
Never controlled more than about half of the spice trade to Europe.
By mid-1500s, older land and sea routes via the Ottoman Empire revived and prospered.
Their economy was too small and too weak to dominate fully.
Trading post empire began to decline by 1600.
6. Portuguese Assimilation into Asian Trade
Couldn’t sell many European goods → shifted to the carrying trade (shipping Asian goods between Asian ports).
In Portuguese settlements:
They were often outnumbered by Asian merchants.
Many married local women.
Hundreds deserted Portuguese authority:
Lived in Asian or African cities.
Learned local languages.
Sometimes converted to Islam.
Became part of the region’s diverse commercial cultures.
7. Reasons for Decline
Overextension of a small European country.
Rising Asian powers—Japan, Burma, Mughal India, Persia, Oman—resisted Portuguese control.
Other European states (Dutch, English) also challenged Portuguese monopoly efforts.
By 1600, Portuguese power in the Indian Ocean was severely weakened.
Notes: Spain and the Philippines
1. Background: Why Spain Entered the Region
Spain was the first European rival to challenge Portuguese influence in Asia.
They targeted the Philippine Islands, named after King Philip II.
The islands were:
An archipelago of thousands of islands.
Populated by culturally diverse peoples.
Organized into small, competitive chiefdoms with no central authority.
Some chiefdoms traded with China, and small numbers of Chinese lived in port towns.
China and Japan showed little interest in the region politically.
2. Why Spain Could Conquer the Philippines
Conditions favored Spanish takeover:
Proximity to China and the Spice Islands (valuable trade region).
Societies were small, militarily weak, and decentralized.
No competing European claims.
These factors led Spain to establish outright colonial rule, unlike Portugal’s trading post empire.
3. Spanish Conquest and Colonization (after 1565)
Conquest was mostly done from Spanish Mexico.
Methods included:
Small-scale military operations.
Gunpowder weapons.
Alliances with local chiefs.
Gifts and ceremonial pageantry.
Much of the conquest was relatively easy and sometimes bloodless.
4. Christian Missionary Efforts
The Philippines became the major Christian outpost in Asia.
Catholic missionaries heavily shaped colonial society.
Conflict with Islam:
On Mindanao, Islam was spreading.
Mindanao resisted Spanish rule for 300 years.
It remains a region of conflict into the present.
5. Spanish Colonial Practices (Modeled After the Americas)
Indigenous people were relocated into concentrated Christian villages.
Tribute, taxes, and unpaid labor became routine.
Large landed estates (haciendas) developed, owned by:
Spanish settlers
Catholic religious orders
Prominent Filipino elites
Women lost important social and religious roles:
Previously ritual specialists, healers, and midwives.
Replaced by male Spanish priests.
Women’s sacred tools and symbols were destroyed or defiled.
Filipino responses:
Short-lived revolts.
Many fled to interior mountains.
6. Manila: A New Colonial Capital
Manila became the capital and a major cosmopolitan city.
Population by 1600: over 40,000.
Included:
Spanish officials and settlers.
Many Filipino migrants.
3,000 Japanese
20,000+ Chinese, who became central to the economy.
The Chinese served as traders, artisans, and sailors.
Their economic importance + resistance to Christianity → Spanish hostility.
7. Anti-Chinese Violence
Distrust of the Chinese led to:
Discriminatory laws.
Periodic revolts by Chinese communities.
Spanish-led massacres and expulsions.
In 1603, the Spanish killed around 20,000 Chinese, nearly the entire Chinese population on the islands.
8. Key Themes (AP Exam Focus)
Colonial strategies differ: Spain = territorial empire; Portugal = trading-post empire.
Christianity as a major colonial motive in the Philippines.
Cultural disruption: gender roles, labor systems, religious practices.
Diverse colonial cities (Manila) and long-term ethnic tensions.
Enduring resistance: especially from Muslim Mindanao.
Notes: The East India Companies (Dutch & British)
1. Overview: European Competition in the Indian Ocean
By the early 1600s, Dutch and English became the major European powers in the Indian Ocean.
They surpassed and displaced the Portuguese, often using force.
Both nations had strong maritime capabilities and commercial backgrounds.
Used private joint-stock companies:
Dutch East India Company (VOC)
British East India Company (EIC)
These companies:
Raised money from many investors.
Shared financial risks.
Received government charters granting:
Trading monopolies
Permission to wage war
Authority to govern conquered peoples
2. General Features of the East India Companies
Both had their own trading-post empires, separate from the state.
Dutch focused on Indonesia.
English focused on India.
French also created a smaller company (from 1664).
3. Dutch in Indonesia (VOC)
Political Context
Operated in regions with weak and fragmented political authority.
This allowed them to use violence to establish dominance.
Methods
Dutch sought control over both trade and production of key spices:
Cloves
Nutmeg
Mace
Cinnamon
Used extreme violence:
Destroyed crops of non-cooperating islanders.
Forced local producers to sell only to the Dutch at low prices.
Banda Islands:
Population of ~15,000 was killed, enslaved, or starved.
Replaced with Dutch planters + enslaved laborers from Asia.
Results
Dutch achieved a temporary monopoly on nutmeg, mace, cloves.
Sold spices in Europe and India at 14–17 times the purchase price.
Dutch profits soared.
But local economies of the Spice Islands were devastated, and people were impoverished.
4. British in India (EIC)
Differences from Dutch
Less financed and less commercially powerful than the Dutch.
Excluded from the Spice Islands due to Dutch dominance → turned toward India.
Trading Bases
Established three major coastal settlements:
Bombay (Mumbai) – west coast
Calcutta – east coast
Madras – east coast
Interaction with the Mughal Empire
Mughal Empire = strong and centralized.
British could not use “trade by warfare.”
Instead:
Gained access through permission, payments, and bribes.
When independent English pirates attacked a Mughal ship (1636), Mughal authorities:
Arrested British officials for 2 months.
Imposed a huge fine.
Economic Focus
Pepper still important, but cotton textiles became the main trade item.
Cotton textiles from India became popular in England & American colonies.
Hundreds of Indian villages specialized in producing for the British market.
5. Asian Trade and “Carrying Trade”
Like the Portuguese, Dutch and English also participated in intra-Asian trade.
Profits from carrying Asian goods → allowed them to buy more Asian products without paying in gold or silver.
Began dealing in bulk goods (mass-market):
Pepper
Textiles
Tea (later)
Coffee (later)
Shift from purely luxury items to larger consumer markets.
6. Long-Term Evolution
By late 1700s, both companies transitioned from trading-post empires to territorial colonial empires.
British → full control of India.
Dutch → full control of Indonesia.
7. AP Exam Themes to Remember
Economic role: both companies used private capital to dominate trade.
Political role: they wielded state-like powers (waging war, governing islands/ports).
Continuity & Change: early trade dominance through force → later territorial colonialism.
Regional Impact: devastated economies (Indonesia), reshaped textile production (India).
Notes: Asians and Asian Commerce
1. Limited European Impact in Asia
European presence in Asia was far less significant than in the Americas or Africa.
European political control was limited to:
Philippines (Spain)
Parts of Java (Dutch)
Some Spice Islands (Portuguese & Dutch)
Major Asian powers—Mughal India, China, Japan—faced no real military threat from Europeans.
European economic role remained minor in the large, rich Asian economies.
Some Asian states (like Siam) expelled Europeans (French expelled in 1688).
2. Japan: A Case Study in Limiting European Influence
Initial Acceptance (mid-1500s)
Japan initially welcomed Europeans due to internal civil war among daimyo.
Europeans offered:
Useful military technology
Ships and geographic knowledge
Attractive commercial opportunities
Christianity (300,000 converts + Japanese-led church)
Competing feudal lords used Europeans to their advantage.
Tokugawa Unification & Reversal (early 1600s)
Japan unified under the Tokugawa shogunate.
Europeans now seen as a threat to national unity.
Actions Taken:
Expelled Christian missionaries.
Violently suppressed Christianity: 62 missionaries & thousands of Japanese converts executed.
Banned Japanese from traveling abroad.
Banned most European traders → only Dutch allowed at a single site (Dejima).
Closed Country Policy (1635–1850)
Japan largely isolated from European trade.
Maintained Asian trade connections with:
China
Korea
Southeast Asia
Rangaku (“Dutch Learning”)
Limited Dutch contact allowed:
Transfer of Western science, medicine, and tech.
Laid groundwork for Japan’s rapid modernization in the 1800s.
3. Japanese Merchants Abroad
In the early 1600s, many Japanese merchants operated in Southeast Asia.
Behaved similarly to Europeans (used force to support commerce).
Key difference: Tokugawa government denied responsibility for them.
Shogun advised Southeast Asian rulers to punish Japanese traders if they caused problems.
Japanese merchants had no state backing, unlike Europeans.
4. Persistence of Asian Merchants Despite European Intrusion
Asian merchants remained dominant
in trade networks:
Arab, Indian, Chinese, Javanese, Malay, Vietnamese traders remained active.
Asian traders benefited from increased Indian Ocean commerce during this era.
Europeans militarized sea routes but did not eliminate Asian competition.
Chinese merchants
Continued to migrate to Southeast Asian port cities.
Dominated spice trade linking Southeast Asia ↔ China.
Southeast Asian merchants
Many women participated in trade.
Women had a long tradition of commercial involvement.
Example: 16th-century Malay proverbs encouraged teaching daughters business skills.
Overland Asian trade
Entirely controlled by Asians; grew considerably.
Armenian merchants (from New Julfa near Safavid Iran’s capital):
Connected Europe ↔ Middle East ↔ Central Asia ↔ India.
Some traveled as far as the Philippines and Mexico.
Indian (Hindu) merchants & moneylenders:
Tens of thousands spread through Central Asia, Persia, and Russia.
Operated sophisticated family firms.
Linked vast regions to Indian markets.
5. Asian Economic Power vs. European Companies
Asian firms could overpower Europeans economically
In India, wealthy merchant families (e.g., Virji Vora) dominated internal trade.
Vora monopolized products like pepper & coral.
Forced European companies to accept his terms:
Set prices
Controlled supply
Europeans depended on Asian financing:
Vora was the only major lender.
Charged 12–18% interest.
Europeans complained but had no alternative.
6. Big AP Themes
Continuity: Asian commercial systems remained strong & sophisticated.
Limits of European Power: Europeans influenced sea trade, but Asian states controlled land-based trade.
Asian agency: Asians shaped commerce; Europeans adapted to their systems.
Japan’s exception: actively limited European influence, unlike many other regions.
NOTES: Silver & Global Commerce (Early Modern Era)
A Truly Global Trade
Silver trade created the first genuine global network of exchange.
Major silver sources: Bolivia (Potosí) and Japan.
Spanish America produced ~85% of the world’s silver.
The Philippines (Manila) connected the Americas and Asia; it became the hub where American silver entered Asian markets.
Why Silver “Made the World Go Round”
China’s enormous economy was the center of global demand.
1570s: Chinese government required taxes to be paid in silver, causing:
Demand for silver to rise sharply.
Global value of silver to increase.
Massive inflows of silver into China (“silver drain”).
Key Global Routes
Silver from Bolivia → transported to Mexico → shipped to Manila → exchanged for Chinese goods.
Silver also traveled:
From Japan → China (via Dutch and Portuguese merchants).
From Spain → Europe → used to pay for Asian goods.
Spanish “piece of eight” = first globally recognized currency, used across:
Europe
Americas
West Africa
Russia
China
Why Silver Ended Up in Spain & China
Spain received massive shipments from its American colonies.
China absorbed most of the world’s silver because:
Large population required silver for taxes.
High demand for Chinese luxury goods (silk, porcelain) drew silver in.
Effects of the Silver Trade
1. In Spanish America: Potosí
Potosí became largest city in the Americas (160,000 people).
Terrible working conditions:
Forced labor drafts.
Toxic mercury exposure.
Extremely high mortality.
Environmental damage: deforestation, soil erosion, flooding.
Some opportunities for women:
Ran shops, taverns, pawnshops.
Rented property.
Market trading.
2. In Spain
Initially became wealthy and powerful.
Silver funded:
Wars
Imperial expansion
Long-term problem:
Inflation instead of real economic growth.
Rigid, aristocratic economy.
When silver value dropped → Spain declined as a European power.
Contributed to General Crisis of the 17th century (inflation + Little Ice Age).
3. In Japan
Japan used silver much more effectively than Spain.
Tokugawa shogunate used silver profits to:
Unify the country by defeating rival daimyo.
Support merchant classes.
Develop a strong market economy.
Invest in industry and agriculture.
Proactive environmental policies:
Forest conservation.
Population management:
Delayed marriage, contraception, abortion, infanticide.
Slowed population growth → avoided ecological crisis.
Result: stable, commercialized economy, helping set the stage for 19th-century industrialization.
Why the Silver Trade Mattered
Connected Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Americas in one economic system.
Shifted economic power toward China, the world’s largest economy.
Reshaped societies:
Boosted some (Japan).
Strained others (Spain).
Devastated Indigenous laborers in the Americas.
NOTES: The Transatlantic Slave System
Overview
Largest forced migration in world history between 1500–1866.
12.5 million Africans taken; 10.7 million arrived in the Americas.
1.8 million died (≈14.4%) during the Middle Passage.
System defined by violence, coercion, and dehumanization:
Capture, repeated sale, branding, chains, imprisonment.
Forced labor, family separation, enslavement for life.
Impact on African Societies
Slave trade disrupted, weakened, or corrupted many African communities.
African elites sometimes enriched themselves; millions of others suffered.
Africans who were enslaved were typically:
POWs, criminals, debtors, pawned individuals—outsiders, not “their own people.”
Africa became deeply tied into the Atlantic world economically and demographically.
Population growth slowed compared to Europe and China.
Created economic stagnation—profits did not go into productive development.
How the Slave Trade Operated
Roles of Europeans
Europeans created and controlled the Atlantic-side system:
Plantation demand, shipping, financing, and New World markets.
Waited on the coast to buy slaves; rarely conquered African territory.
Sought to exploit African rivalries; sold firearms into West Africa.
Roles of Africans
African merchants and political elites conducted the capture and inland transport.
Africans managed:
Raiding
Transport to the coast
Negotiating prices
Europeans depended on African-controlled coastal trade networks.
African sellers wanted:
Indian & European textiles
Cowrie shells (currency)
Metals & guns
Tobacco & alcohol
Decorative items
Trade tied to global silver—Europeans used American silver to buy Asian textiles and cowries.
Experiences of the Enslaved
Captured inland → force-marched to coast → sold multiple times.
Held in slave forts/dungeons in horrific conditions.
Some resisted by starving themselves or drowning.
Middle Passage mortality: 14% average, worse in some voyages.
Massive suffering during capture, coastal imprisonment, and crossing.
Scale and Timing
1500s: Fewer than 3,000 enslaved people exported annually.
1600s: Slave trade intensifies; Britain, France, and the Dutch challenge Portugal.
1700–1850: Peak period—plantations in Brazil & Caribbean expand.
Main regions targeted: West Africa & West-Central Africa (Mauritania → Angola).
Resistance
Roughly 10% of slave voyages saw major rebellions.
Resistance in the Americas:
Work slowdowns
Escapes
Rebellions
Maroon societies formed by escaped slaves:
Largest: Palmares (Brazil) → 10,000+ people.
Only successful slave revolution: Haitian Revolution (1790s).
Consequences in Africa
Demographic & Economic
Millions removed, slowing population growth.
Demand for slaves → economic stagnation, since profits didn’t create development.
No major technological advances as a result of slave trade.
African exports of crops were less desired than African labor.
Social
Legal systems corrupted to produce slaves for sale.
Severe insecurity: raids, kidnappings, breakdown of social stability.
Oral traditions describe constant fear and lack of safety.
Impact on Women
More men than women exported → gender imbalance.
Women’s workloads increased; cassava cultivation was labor-intensive.
Rise of polygyny (men marrying multiple wives).
African elites used female slaves domestically for labor and status.
Women Who Gained Power
Signares (Senegal):
African women who married European traders.
Built wealth; owned property
Ran trading networks; employed female slaves.
In some regions (Dahomey, Kongo, Matamba):
Women held political offices, led lineages, advised rulers.
Queen Nzinga of Matamba: resisted Portuguese expansion.
State Responses in Africa
Benin:
Restricted slave trade early; banned export of male slaves (1516).
Resumed limited participation only when other exports declined.
Dahomey:
Became heavily involved; slave trade under royal control.
Annual slave raids; state depended on slave trade revenue.
Slave trade became the core business of the state.
Kongo & Oyo:
Weakened or disintegrated due to internal divisions, decline of central authority, and access to firearms.
Big Picture Significance
Africa became permanently linked to the Atlantic world.
Enslaved Africans shaped the demographic and economic foundation of the Americas.
Until 1800s, African captives outnumbered Europeans in the Americas 3–4 to 1.
Set in motion global inequalities and racial hierarchies that continued long after slavery ended.
Cultural & Religious Transformations of the Early Modern World (1450–1750)
Big Picture
Early modern era saw global cultural connections alongside empire building and trade.
Two major developments:
Global spread of Christianity
Rise of modern science (Scientific Revolution) → new worldview
Cultural change was not one-way European domination; it involved interaction, resistance, and adaptation by non-Western societies.
Christianity Becomes a World Religion
Christianity in 1500
Mostly confined to Europe
Divided internally:
Roman Catholic (Western Europe)
Eastern Orthodox (Eastern Europe & Russia)
Under pressure from Islamic expansion
Fall of Constantinople (1453)
Ottoman sieges of Vienna (1529, 1683)
Protestant Reformation (1517)
Causes
Corruption in Catholic Church:
Selling indulgences
Wealthy clergy
Moral abuses
Martin Luther
Ninety-Five Theses (1517)
Salvation by faith alone
Authority of Bible alone
Rejected papal authority
Effects
Permanent split of Western Christianity
Rise of many Protestant denominations:
Lutheran, Calvinist, Anglican, Anabaptist, Quaker
Encouraged:
Religious individualism
Skepticism of authority
Literacy (Bible reading)
Political & Social Impact
Princes used Protestantism to:
Gain independence from pope
Seize Church lands
Middle class supported it
Peasants used it to challenge social hierarchy
Women:
Some gains in literacy
Lost convent life and veneration of female saints
Still excluded from church leadership
Religious Conflict in Europe
French Wars of Religion (Catholics vs. Huguenots)
Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648)
Extremely destructive
Ended by Peace of Westphalia
States control religion within borders
Christianity in Europe became fragmented but revitalized
Catholic Reformation (Counter-Reformation)
Catholic Response
Council of Trent (1545–1563)
Reaffirmed Catholic doctrines:
Pope’s authority
Good works
Saints, relics
Reforms:
Better education for priests
Reduced corruption
New religious orders:
Jesuits → education, missions
Christianity & European Expansion
Motivations for Expansion
Religious zeal (crusading spirit)
Economic gain (trade, spices)
Political power
Role of Empire
Christianity spread with European conquest
Missionaries followed settlers and armies
Spanish & Portuguese most active overseas
Christianity in the Americas (Spanish America)
Why Christianity Spread Successfully
Native societies defeated & disrupted
Disease and population collapse
No major literate world religions
Christianity seen as the religion of powerful conquerors
Conversion Methods
Mass baptisms
Church building
Missionary teaching
At times, violence & destruction of native religions
Impact on Native Cultures
Indigenous religions attacked and suppressed
Women lost religious leadership roles
Resistance movements (ex: Taki Onqoy in Peru)
Religious Blending (Syncretism)
Christianity merged with local beliefs
Examples:
Virgin of Guadalupe (Mexico)
Saints replacing indigenous gods
Christian rituals mixed with traditional practices
Result: distinctly Latin American Christianity
Comparison: Christianity in China
Different Context
China remained:
Politically independent
Culturally confident
Strong traditions:
Confucianism
Buddhism
Daoism
Jesuit Strategy
Targeted elite scholars, not masses
Learned Chinese language & customs
Shared European science and technology
Tried to accommodate Chinese culture
Allowed ancestor veneration
Limited Success
Only ~200,000–300,000 converts by 1800
Christianity offered little China lacked
Conflicts arose over:
Ancestor worship
Papal authority
Emperor Kangxi banned Christian missions (1715)
Reasons for Failure
Strong existing belief systems
Seen as foreign and disruptive
Suspicion of missionaries as spies
Association with European imperialism