UNIT 4
Unit 4: Sea-Based Empires (1450–1750)
4.1: Tech Innovations
* European trade and exploration thrived through adopting several navigational (sailing) technologies:
* China = Compass, enabled global trade.
* Ancient Greece = Astrolabe, refined by Islamic scholars.
* Expanded Trade:
* Europe = Caravels, supported long-distance trade.
* Printing press printed maps + atlases to mass produce + spread Cartography.
* Tech influenced by Classical, Islamic, and Asian knowledge used by Euro nations to expand empires across sea (Maritime Empires).
* Extensive transoceanic trade networks connected Eurasia + Americas (E. + W.).
* European countries became dominant maritime empires.
Interactions + Cultural Impact
* Euro colonies established in America, Asia.
* European naval powers establish maritime empires to control trade routes.
* Global trade networks expanded.
* Navigation + exploration innovations diffused.
* Indigenous cultures impacted (often negatively).
* New crops introduced.
Scientific Revolution (1550–1750)
* Period in Europe sparking a shift from Medieval reliance on tradition/religion doctrine to new ways of understanding through reason, observation, and experimentation.
* Scientific Method = rise of Empiricism.
* Heliocentric = Sun-centered models + Copernicus + Galileo.
* Newton + Laws of universal gravitation.
* Empiricism = Knowledge comes from experience + observation.
4.2: Exploration, Cause & Effect
* European exploration was State Sponsored + Gov funded.
* Why? The Three G's: Glory, God, Gold.
* Expand authority + control of resources.
* Control trade routes (specifically Asia).
* Build strongest empire as Euro countries competed w/ each other (Wealth/Spread Religion).
European Maritime Exploration / Expansion
* Portugal expanded to Africa + India (1415–early 1500s).
* Superior ships + weapons = controlled coasts.
* Prince Henry the Navigator: 1st Euro Monarch to sponsor overseas exploration, improved sail tech.
* Bartholomew Diaz: Sailed southern tip of Africa (sea route via Asia).
* Vasco De Gama: 1st ocean trade route btwn Euro + Asia.
* Some of the coastal India part of Portugal's empires (Ports).
* Portugal began importing enslaved Africans via sea; replaces overland slave trade.
Portugal
* Focus: Control trade routes instead of land.
* Establishes port in Malacca. Stretched from W. India to Malacca.
* Small empire w/o resources to maintain large trading empires; many merchants trade independent (avoid gov).
* End of Portugal: Corruption + Rivalries.
* English pushed Portuguese out of S. Asia (early 1600s).
Spain
* Ferdinand Magellan: 1st successful circumnavigation (World is round).
* Spain is annexed + colonized Philippines until 1898 (U.S. next).
* Filipinos resisted and fought back.
* City of Manila became a Spanish Capital / Commercial center.
* Christianity because of occupations.
* Christopher Columbus: Expedition for new route → Asia.
* Spanish come into contact w/ Inca and Aztecs who had gold + silver (made conquest profitable).
* Europeans enslaved Native Americans + later Africans for wealth raising tobacco, crops, sugar, etc.
Silver
* Silver gets to China from Americas on Spanish galleons (ships).
* Manila galleons.
* Most areas of the world trade w/ silver now—1st global currency.
* Manila trading post: Europeans exchanged silver for luxury goods (silk).
* Early 17th Century: China uses silver as main currency.
* Silver trade flourished + dominated global economy.
North West Passage
* Route through/around N. America → E. Asia for trade of spices and luxury goods.
* Expeditions by France, England, and the Netherlands to explore N.W. passage.
* Made new claims along the way to the land.
France
* 1535 Cartier: Claims part of modern day Canada.
* Valuable goods/resources are in Americas.
* Become fur traders, no need for Asia anymore!!
* Quebec trading post + New France.
* Spread Christianity.
4.3: Columbian Exchange
* Eastern + Western hemispheres were now connected.
* Explorers / Conquered / Invaded / Traded w/ Native Americans.
* Natives had no immunity to Smallpox.
* 50% of indigenous people of the Americas died due to illness including Malaria, influenza, and measles.
* Conquistadores (Spanish soldiers) were immune + spread disease (centuries of exposure).
* Livestock introduced to Americas: Cows, Pigs, Grapes, Wheat.
* Horses allowed for Indigenous people to survive by allowing them to become efficient hunters of buffalo.
* Europeans had access to Maize (corn), potatoes, tomatoes, beans, peppers, cacao.
* Potatoes were significant in Europe → led to 16th + 17th population booms.
* Cash Crops = Forced Labor:
* Slave trade introduced enslaved Africans → Americas.
* Africans brought okra and rice.
* Tobacco and cacao.
* Millions of Africans were kidnapped → Sold into slavery.
* Africans had a population decrease.
4.4: Empire Expansion
* Before Europeans in 15th Century:
* Aztec Empire: Mexico (10-15 million people).
* Inca: South America (10-15 million people).
* Spread of Euro diseases caused their populations to plummet.
* Both empires collapse quickly when attacked by Spanish forces.
* Cortés forces overthrow Aztecs by 1521 + established New Mexico.
* Spaniards melted down Aztec treasures + sent gold back home.
* Destroyed Tenochtitlan + built their own capital Mexico City over their ruins.
* Hernando Cortez: Conquered Mexico/Aztec; spread Spanish/Euro culture.
* Moctezuma: Aztec emperor during Spanish conquest.
4.5: Commercial Revolution
* The switch to Gold/Silver economy.
* Key Results:
* Development of Euro overseas colonies.
* Opening of new ocean trade routes.
* Population growth.
* Inflation.
* Led to Price Revolution (inflation): general increase of price on all goods in parts of the world.
* Start of the idea that things have a Systematic Value.
4.7: Changing Social Hierarchies (1450–1750)
* Big Ideas:
* Treatment of ethnic + religious minorities.
* Formation/Power shifts of elite classes (Ex: Nobility vs. Elite Monarchs).
* Qing Dynasty (Manchu Rule in China):
* Ethnic Hierarchy: Manchu (minority) wanted culture to be dominant but ruled Han Chinese (majority) w/ tolerance.
* Manchus occupied top gov positions.
* Maintained administrative values of Confucianism (Civil Service Exam).
* Queue Decree: Han men forced to wear hair in braided queue (Refusal = Rebellion = Executed).
Americas: Casta System (1500–1820s)
* New racial hierarchy based on ancestry + race in Spanish colonies.
* Top: Peninsulares (Born in Spain).
* Criollos: Europeans born in Americas.
* Castas: Mixed race.
* Mestizos: Euro + Indigenous.
* Mulattos: Euro + African.
* Zambos: Indigenous + African.
* Social mobility very limited.
4.6: Internal/External Challenges to State Power
* Key Word: RESISTANCE.
* Africa: Resistance in Ndongo.
* Key figure: Ana Nzinga.
* Cause: Slave labor and money hungry.
* Outcome: Nzinga + people fled west, allied w/ Dutch.
* Americas: Metacom's War.
* Cause: Drive British out of New England.
* Outcome: Destruction of 12 towns.
* Americas: Pueblo Revolt.
* Key figures: Popé.
* Cause: Forced labor, religion, drought.
* Outcome: Drove Spanish out for 12 years; forced religious tolerance.
* France: The Fronde.
* Challenge to French Monarchy (Louis XIV).
* Outcome: Failed; Louis XIV centralized authority further.
* Russia: Pugachev Rebellion.
* Cause: Worsening of Serfdom.
* Outcome: Captured and executed.
* Enslavement Resistances:
* Maroon Wars: Conflict in Jamaica/Caribbean.
* Gloucester County Rebellion (1663): Africans and indentured servants worked together.
* Glorious Revolution (1688): "Bloodless" overthrow of King James II; established English Bill of Rights.
Business and Trade Systems
* Joint Stock Company: Group of people share risks + rewards (Ex: British East India Co, Dutch East India Co).
* Limited Liability: Protected assets of investors outside investment.
* The Dutch:
* "Middlemen" traders; ships were lighter + faster.
* Huge profits from Spice Islands.
* Established banking systems + stock exchange.
* Atlantic Slave Trade (Triangular Trade):
* Europe → Africa: Manufactured goods (firearms).
* Africa → Americas: Enslaved Africans (Middle Passage).
* Americas → Europe: Raw materials (Tobacco, sugar, rum).
* Administration: Spain appointed Viceroys (reps) and Audiencias (royal courts).
Here is the transcribed text from your additional notes on Transoceanic Travel and the New Global Economy, organized to match your previous sections.
Transoceanic Travel
* Result = The Columbian Exchange
* Def: A biological exchange of crops, animals, people, and diseases between the Eastern + Western hemisphere.
* The Columbian Exchange had a widespread of effects on both hemispheres.
* The Columbian Exchange also caused development of transoceanic trading network called the Atlantic System.
* The Atlantic System was made up of regions of West Europe, West Africa, and the Americas and involved in the movement of goods + people among those regions.
* The Columbian Exchange forever changed who grew foods where and how they grew them.
* Also unleashed deadly diseases on populations that had no immunity to them.
* Led to massive migrations, many forced, and new Social Structures.
* As people migrated (forced or not) within the Atlantic System, Cultural Changes occurred.
* Ex: Religion spread + often created syncretic beliefs and practices.
Economic Change
* European transoceanic voyages resulted in the integration of the western world within the global trading network.
* Integration = profound effects on global economy.
* Maritime trading empires emerged, led by Portuguese and followed by the Dutch + English.
* Result: Europeans established trading ports + cities along the coasts of Africa + Indian Ocean.
* Brought Europeans in contact w/ each other.
* Brought conflicts w/ existing merchant networks.
* One consequence of this contact/conflict was that Europeans came to dominate global trade at the expense of the Arabs, Indian, and Chinese merchants.
* Europeans, then, made considerable profits from transporting the goods from one region → another.
* In contrast to the trading empires of the Indian Ocean, Spain created an empire in the Americas.
* Soon, Portugal, England, France, and Netherlands established colonies there.
* The discovery of large deposits of Silver in Spain's colonies helped further integrate Europeans into the global economy.
* Asian markets / merchants, especially in China, desired silver.
* Shipments of Silver to Asia from the Americas became a regular feature of the global trade network + helped finance the increasing volume of trade between Asia → Europe.
* Experts estimate that the amount of silver in the global economy tripled in 16th Century.
* Europeans rulers came to see the benefits of encouraging the expansion of trade, as the wealth could be amassed w/ considerable.
* To ensure they participated in wealth accumulation from trade, many Euro monarchs developed Mercantilist economic policies that would provide the ruler w/ a steady stream of income.
* While expanded internationally trade continued to be an important goal of European monarchs, mercantilism eventually gave away to Capitalism as the predominant economic system in the global new economy.
* Investors formed Joint Stock Companies (Charter Companies) so they could share the risks/rewards of global trading opportunities.
Effects of the New Global Economy
* The new global flow of goods/profits produced some significant benefits.
* The flow of wealth into Europe helped to expand the middle class + provided the capital that would lead into the Industrial Revolution.
* However, the huge amounts of gold + silver flowing into Spain + China from the Americas also produced negative economic effects.
* In particular, the increase in the quantity of money in circulation caused inflation.
* Result: regional markets in Europe, Africa, and Asia continued to prosper.
* Funding for the arts continued to increase at merchants + gov used their rising profits/revenue to sponsor artists + others.
* Some rulers used their sponsorship of the arts to produce art and architecture that helped to legitimize their rule.
* Other art symbolized the growing importance of global trade.
Demand for Labor Intensities
* The new global economy also brought about significant disruptions.
* The Columbian Exchange + The Atlantic System caused a demographic shift in Africa as the Atlantic Slave trade intensified.
* Slaves captured and sold millions of African men.
* These African men ended up in American plantations, producing cash crops that included sugar, cotton, and tobacco.
* Result: African communities experienced a gender imbalance.
* African population declined due to Atlantic Slave Trade.
* Eventually, the population increased as people grew new crops, such as manioc.
* Traditional forced labor systems, such as serfdom, continued in areas of Afro-Eurasia.
* However, the Columbian Exchange + Atlantic Slave Trade System created additional Coerced labor systems in the Americas besides Chattel Slavery.
* Many European settlers first arrived in the Americas as Indentured Servants, contracted to work for a period of time before they were free to pursue other jobs/occupations.
* The Encomienda + Hacienda system, also the adoption of the Inca Mit'a System, are examples of other coerced labor systems in the Spanish American colonies.
* As Europeans, Africans, and Native Americans coexisted in the New American colonies, the social structure of America changed.
* New Social Structure systems appeared that based off race/ethnic belief.
* This division led to a rigid/hierarchical society, w/ white Europeans or Americans of European descent possessing the majority of wealth and political power.
* New subculture appeared that consisted of ppl who were of mixed Euro + Afro heritage.
* Societal conflicts eventually led to revolutions.