AP World History Unit 4: Transoceanic Connections (1450-1750)

4.1 Technology in Sea-based Empires

Access to major trade routes —> Europeans adopting technologies from other areas

• Europe irrelevant ——> Major global power (change)

• Magnetic Compass

  1. Originally from China

  2. Helped determine direction

• Astrolabe

  1. Determines latitude and longitude

• Lateen Sail

  1. Developed by Arab merchants

  2. Takes wind on either side

  3. Triangular shape

• Improved Astronomical Charts

  1. Diagrams of stars and constellations to determine location

• Pax Mongolica —> Europeans gaining access to technologies

Europeans innovated on technologies

• Portugese Caravel

  1. Smaller size —> more navigable, more nimble

  2. Cannons, agility —> powerful fighting abilities

• Portugese Carrack

  1. Large ships built for trade and cargo

  2. Storage for guns —> Control of Indian Ocean Trade Route

• Dutch Fluyt

  1. Trade ships with massive cargo holds

  2. Small crews, lower cost

  3. Fluyt —> dethroning of Portugese in Indian Ocean Trade (change)

4.2 Causes of European Exploration

State Sponsored Exploration

• European monarchs:

  1. Built up militaries

  2. Learned gunpowder weapons

  3. Implemented more efficient tax systems

• Asian and Southeast Asian spices —> motivation for maritime exploration

• Land based empires controlling land routes —> European empires looking for alternate trade routes

• Portugal Trading Post Empire

  1. Motivations:

     • Adopted and Innovated Technology

     • Economics (goods)

     • Religion

  2. Self sufficient trading posts established around coasts of Africa and Asia to facilitate trade

  3. Portugese attempted to take complete control of Indian Ocean Trade

• Spanish Empire

  1. Discovered the Americas with Christopher Columbus\

  2. Conquered and colonized Americas —> Trans Atlantic Trade

Alternative European State Sponsored Countries

• Causes for exploration

  1. Political rivalry

  2. Envy

  3. Desire for wealth

  4. Need for alternative routes to Asia

• France

  1. Gained access to lucrative fur trade in Canada

• England

  1. Established colony in Virginia

• Dutch Republic

  1. Established Trading posts around Africa

  2. Dethrone Portugese in Indian Ocean

European States began to establish themselves in Africa, Asia, and the Americas

4.3 The Columbian Exchange

Columbian Exchange: The transfer of new diseases, foods, plants, animals between two hemispheres

Spanish contact with Americas —> Columbian Exchange

Effects of the Columbian Exchange

• Indigenous Americans wiped out by Afro-Eurasian diseases (“The Great Dying”)

  1. Malaria

  2. Measles

  3. Smallpox

  4. Dying of Indigenous —> Easier for Europeans to take over continent

• Plants and Food

  1. Adoption of new foods —> Diversified diets, longer lifespan

  2. East to West

     • Wheat, Grapes, Olives, Bananas, Sugar

  3. West to East

     • Potatoes, Maize

     • Diversified diets —> Population growth in Europe

  4. Some New World Foods grown as cash crops

     • Plantations in America that were manned by slaves established

     • Sugar cane colonies in Caribbean by African slaves

• Europeans brought pigs, sheep, cattle

  1. No natural predators —> high population growth

  2. New animals —> environmental consequences —> strain on indigenous farmers

     • Sheep eating lots of grass —> erosion

4.4 Sea based Empires Established

European Empires began to take complete control over trade routes

• Motives

  1. Gold

  2. God

  3. Glory

• Portugese established trading post empire

  1. Took control with guns on Caravels and Carracks

  2. Opted to control Indian Ocean with force rather than peace

• Spanish established in Philippines and parts of Americas

  1. Established colonies rather than trading posts

• Dutch advance into Indian Ocean Trade

  1. Portugese controlled Indian Ocean ——> Dutch controlled (change)

  2. Used same methods as Portugese for dominance

• British

  1. Established trading posts along Mughal Empire

Continuity in Trade (——>)

• Middle Eastern, South Asian, East Asia, SE Asian merchants continued to use trade routes

• Gujaratis in Mughal Empire continued to make use of Indian Ocean Trade despite European dominance

Asian Resistance to European Expansion

• Tokugawa, Japan

  1. United under Shogun

  2. Many Japanese converting to Christianity —> Fear of cultural fracturing —> Expulsion of Christian Missionaries

• Ming China

  1. Desire for most Indian Ocean trade to be processed through China —> Zheng He voyages

  2. Portugese expelled from China —> China being isolated from sea based trade

African States Expanded

• Asante Empire

  1. Provided gold, ivory, slaves for Portuguese —> extreme wealth —> Expansion of power and military

  2. Military might from trade used to repel British from colonizing the region

• Kingdom of the Kongo

  1. Provided gold, copper, slaves for Portuguese —> enrichment

  2. King converted to Christianity —> Improved relations

European Expansion in the Americas

• Colonial economies relied on agriculture —> Use of existing labor systems and new labor systems

• Existing Labor systems (continuity)

  1. Spanish used old Incan Mit’a system

     • Subjects of empire required to provide labor for state each year

     • Used to mine silver from mines

• New Labor Systems (change)

  1. Chattel Slavery

     • Laborers “owned”

     • Race based

     • Slavery is hereditary

  2. Indentured Servitude

     • Laborer worked for a period of time

  3. Encomienda System

     • Used by Spanish to coerce Indigenous into labor

     • Indigenous forced to work for food and safety

     • Similar to Feudal system

     • Focused on controlling Indigenous

  4. Hacienda System

     • Indigenous laborers forced to work on Spanish owned land

     • Focused on exporting food

Development of Slavery

• Continuity

  1. African Slave Trade

     • Cultural Assimilation

     • Domestic Work

  2. Slaves sometimes held power (Islam)

• Change

  1. Agricultural work

     • More male slaves purchased —> demographic change in Africa

  2. Trans-Atlantic trade larger than Indian Ocean and Mediterranean

  3. Racial prejudice (chattel slavery)

4.5 Economics of Empire Building

Economics Strategies to Consolidate and Maintain Power

• Mercantilism

  1. State-driven economic system emphasizing buildup of wealth through favorable trade

     • Want to make as much money and have as much resources as possible

     • Want more exports than imports

  2. Promoted competition between European empires

  3. Utilized through colonies

     • Colonies bought exports from homeland

     • Colonies gave resources to export

• Joint-Stock Companies

  1. Business chartered by the state, funded by group of investors

     • Company expanded influence of state while state granted monopolies to company

  2. State funded businesses ——> Private funded (change)

     • State funded businesses (Portugal, Spain) lost power

     • Private funded businesses gained influence (British, French, Dutch)

  3. Dutch East India Company

     • Granted monopoly on trade in Indian Ocean

     • Investors became extremely rich

     • Dutch government able to expand influence around Indian Ocean

  4. Rise of other Joint-Stock companies from Britain, France —> Competition between states

Trade Networks: Change and Continuity

• Change

  1. Atlantic System: movement of goods, wealth, laborers between hemispheres

  2. Importance of Sugar

     • Became more popular in Europe due to lower prices after plantation farming

  3. Silver was King

     • Used to purchase Asian goods and stimulate economy and trade

  4. Coerced labor

  5. Peasant farmers began to commercially farm rather than subsistence farming

• Continuity

  1. Afro-Eurasian Markets Thrived

  2. Asian land routes

  3. Peasant and artisan labor

Atlantic Slave Trade —> Social Effects in Africa and Americas

• Gender imbalance

• Changed family structures

• Cultural Synthesis

  1. Creole languages in Americas

Changing Belief Systems

• Catholic Christianity came to power in South America (Change)

  1. Ideas spread rapidly through Portuguese and Spanish printing press

  2. European language and culture spread or even imposed onto Indigenous

  3. Reception towards European beliefs varied

     • Some outwardly adopted Christianity but privately practice their own religion

• Indigenous religions sometimes syncretized with Christianity

• African slaves brought Islam and other religions

4.6 Challenges to State Power

Local Resistance

• Fronde (France)

  1. Growing power of monarchy —> increased taxes, weakening of nobility —> nobility leading rebellions with peasants

  2. Resistance crushed, monarchy remained in power

• Queen Ana Nzinga’s Resistance (Africa)

  1. Concerns over Portuguese advancements in Africa —> alliance with Dutch and Congo to fight back —> Portuguese fought off

• Pueblo Revolt

  1. Being forced to work, decimated population —> violent revolt against Christian missionaries, Spanish leaders

  2. Ultimately unsuccessful, Spanish came back and conquered

• European state expansion —> Colonies suffering —> Resistance (whether successful or not)

Resistance from Enslaved

• Maroon Societies

  1. Caribbean and Brazilian African slaves escaped from plantations

  2. Oppressors unable to take back control —> Treaty recognizing freedom (success)

4.7 Changing Social Hierarchies

Responses to Ethnic Diversity

• Jewish expelled from Spain and Portugal

• Jewish tolerated in Ottoman Empire

  1. Acceptance —> Jewish rising to power, contributing to economy

  2. Required to pay Jizya (tax non-muslims have to pay)

  3. Only permitted to live in certain areas

• Only Ethnic Manchus given higher positions while Han were limited

• Mughals expressed high religious and ethnic tolerance

  1. Construction of churches for christians, temples for hindus, mosques for Muslims

Economic opportunities from increasing global trade —> Rise of New Elites

• Casta System (Americas)

  1. Social hierarchy in Americas based on race

  2. Native peoples part of wide variety of cultural groups ——> Social homogenization (change)

Struggles of Existing Elites

• Russian Boyars

  1. Power taken by ruler Peter the Great