Unit 4: Transoceanic Interconnections 1450-1750

🗺 Causes of European Exploration

🧪 Adoption and innovation of maritime technologies

• Came from Classical Greek, Islamic, and Asian worlds

  • Magnetic compass: came from China

  • Astrolabe: came from Ancient Greece and Arab world

    • Helped sailors know their latitude

  • Lateen sail: came from Arab merchants

    • Enabled them to take wind on both sides (not just from behind)

  • These techs helped give Europeans the ability to navigate the seas and ascend in the world stage

• Europeans also made their own innovations in shipbuilding

  • Ex: Portuguese Caravel - small, able to navigate shallow coast and rivers, fast, with cannons

    • Helped Portuguese take over the Indian Ocean trade

• Europeans also improved their knowledge of regional wind patterns in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans

👑 Growth of state power

• Absolutism - a political system in which a single ruler holds complete authority and control over the state, often justified by divine right

  • Not hierarchical unlike feudalism

  • lead to the centralization of power and influence in European monarchies during this period

• Causes of the growth of state power:

  • States had more wealth from trade routes to pay bureaucrats and have a large scale army/navy

• Consolidated power from the nobility/aristocracy (who lost power) and centralized power for the state

• Monarchs had a more significant role in economic decisions such as inter-regional trade

• Europeans (especially upper classes) demanded spices from India

  • However, the land based empires from Unit 3 like the Ottomans were still here and controlled a lot of the major trade routes and can jack up the price

  • This gave an incentive to European Monarchs to seek a different route such as a sea based route to Asia so they can trade on their own terms

🤑 Economic

• Mercantilism - a state driven economic system that characterized imperial European states during this period; caused major rivalries between European powers

  • Argued the World’s wealth was limited and was defined in gold and silver

  • This economic system sparked major rivalries between European states where they fought to get the most wealth for themselves

• States wanted a Favorable Balance of Trade - when states organize their economies around exports and avoid imports

  • Keeps gold and silver coming in

• This system gave Empires a strong incentive to expand through overseas colonies

• When colonies are developed, there is a closed market for exports with the imperial country, meaning colonies exist only to enrich their imperial empires

• Joint-stock company - A limited liability business, often chartered by the state and funded by private investors

  • Investors could only lose what they invested; liability was limited

  • States and merchants rely on each other

    • states rely on merchants to expand their influence

    • merchants rely on states to give them monopolies on certain regions of trade

    • Joint-stock companies made this relationship work well

  • States who used this kind of company (Britain, France, and the Dutch) increased in power while states who stuck with state-sponsored exploration such as Portugal and Spain started to decrease in power

  • Ex: Dutch East India Company (VOC)

    • Chartered by the Dutch state in 1602

    • established a monopoly on the Indian Ocean

    • expanded Dutch influence

    • made investors very rich

  • This Indian Ocean trade method made powerful rivalries between European states, causing them to attack each other’s trading ports and ships

⛵ Establishing Maritime Empires

🇵🇹 Portugal

• Prince Henry the Navigator - brought people together to find a way to sail down the Atlantic Coast of Africa towards the Indian Ocean

  • Established a Trading Post Empire along the coast of Africa and the Indian Ocean

  • NOT colonies!

  • Colonies are expensive, Portugal just set up bare bones trading posts

• Portugal never really established a monopoly in the Indian Ocean Trade due to fierce competition from other European states

🇪🇸 Spain

• Spain sent Christopher Columbus to find another route to the Indian Ocean

  • He found America instead, causing Spain to establish colonies and the Atlantic Trade Network

• Spain also set up a colony in the Philippines for the Indian Ocean Trade Network

  • Used Tribute Collecting and Coerced Labor to maintain control there (like they used in the Americas)

🇫🇷 France

• Sponsored westward expeditions to find another route to Asia

• Established colonies in Canada, giving access to the lucrative Fur Trade with natives

• Holdings were small and mainly focused on trade

🇬🇧 England

• Queen Elizabeth I defeated Spain’s attempts to invade England, weakening Spain

• She commissioned Sir Walter Raleigh to establish a colony in Roanoke Island called Virginia

• The British also established colonies in Jamestown

• The British also wanted to expand their influence in the Indian Ocean by setting up trading posts

  • Later turned into full colonial rule over India as the British Naval Force became very powerful

🇳🇱 The Dutch

• Recently gained independence from Spain

• Sent ships to Challenge Spanish and Portuguese control over the Indian ocean

  • The Dutch VOC (Dutch East India Company) came out on top

• Had a monopoly on the spice trade

• Also set up a few colonies in the Americas such as New Amsterdam

🌽 The Columbian Exchange

• Columbian Exchange - The transfer of new diseases, food, plants, and animals between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres

  • Refers to environmental phenomena, don’t get confused with Triangular Trade

• Disease

  • Europeans spread diseases such as smallpox, measles, and malaria to the Native Americans, devastating their populations

    • “The Great Dying“

• Food and plants

  • Europeans brought grapes, olives, wheat, bananas, sugar, and rice while they brought back potatoes and maize

  • Having a diet with a larger variety helps to increase population, especially seen in the Eastern Hemisphere

  • Cash Cropping - method of agriculture focused on growing a crop mainly for export

    • Ex: Sugar cane in the Caribbean grown with the help of enslaved African workers

      • Then exported to European and Middle East markets

• Animals

  • Europeans introduced pigs, sheep, cattle, and horses to the Americas

  • Horses helped Natives with hunting and farming

✊ Resistance to Imperial Expansion

• Asians states along the Indian Ocean resisted intrusion of Western Powers

  • Ex: Tokugawa Japan

    • When Portuguese, Spanish, and Dutch met Japan the shogun was originally open to it until they started converting Japanese people to Christianity

    • The Shogun (Tokugawa) feared Christianity would cause Japan to become less centralized (like it was in the past)

    • The Shogun then condemned the Christian Missionaries, isolating Japan from European influence and only maintained trade with the Dutch

      • National Seclusion Policy

• European powers had resistance at the local level too

  • Ex: Fronde in France (1648)

    • Absolutism consolidated all power to the monarch

    • Edicts that increased taxation to fund exploration

    • Nobles who were losing power along with peasants rebelled but ended up crushed

  • Ex: Russian Cossacks

    • Cossacks were able to resist the Tsar’s absolutism and state centralization

    • Maintained their local autonomy in choosing their own leaders

• Enslaved people resisted as well

  • Ex: Maroon societies

    • In European colonies in America, enslaved Africans would work on plantations but there were also runaway forming Maroon Societies

    • Colonial troops want to destroy these societies

    • In Jamaica, Queen Nanny led a Maroon society rebellion and fought back

      • Colonial troops couldn’t win so they signed a treaty recognizing the independence of this community of imperial resistance

🔃 Change and Continuity

🐫 Networks of Exchange

Indian Ocean Trade Network

• European states entered this network and gained power (change)

  • European entrance helped to increase profits for both themselves and those who already were using this network

• Middle Eastern, South Asian, East Asian states continue to use this trade network (continuity)

• Established merchants like the Gujaratis continued to make use of this network (continuity)

  • Increased the power of the Mughal Empire

  • Because of them, the Portuguese never got complete dominance over this network

Silk Roads

• Land based routes such as the Silk Roads were still controlled by Asian land-based powers such as the Ming, Qing, and Ottomans (continuity)

• Demand for food and consumer goods increased because of increasing trade, continuing peasant and artisan labor

Atlantic System

• Opened as a result of European exploration (change)

• Made Europeans insanely rich and powerful

• Sugarcane was grown a lot to export to Europe

• Silver was mined in the Americas and shipped back to Europe

  • Used to purchase Chinese goods

  • Those goods were then traded in the Atlantic system which made all those who participated even richer

• Used coerced labor (slaves) as the bulk of the labor force in the Americas

• The changes that occurred were maintained by the global flow of silver and trade monopolies granted by states to joint-stock companies

🔨 Labor Systems

• In the Americas, economies established by Europeans were mainly based on farming and mining

• They made use of existing labor systems along with introducing new ones

• Ex: Mit’a system (continuity)

  • Developed by the Inca Empire and required subjects to labor on state projects for a certain number of days per year

    • Used for the good of everybody

  • Spanish used this as well for silver mining operations to force indigenous people to work there

    • Used to enrich the Spanish

• New Labor Systems (change):

  • Chattel slavery - slavery where the purchaser has full control of the enslaved person

    • Race based and hereditary

      • Slavery was identified by skin color in America

      • Provided justification for brutality of slavery there as they were seen as less than human

    • Main economic engine of imperial empires in America was tedious mining and agriculture, so Europeans bought Male slaves 2:1

    • Size of Trans-Atlantic slave trade was greater than Indian Ocean and Mediterranean counterparts

    • In contrast, the African slave trade has been going on for a very long time before this, and wasn’t based on race and the slaves usually assimilated into the culture

  • Indentured servitude

    • Laborer would sign contract that bound them to work for a period of time (~7 years)

    • Found in British colonies where low class British signed indentures to finance their journey across the sea

  • Encomienda system

    • Used by Spanish to divide indigenous Americas among Spanish settlers

    • Native Americans forced to provide labor for Spanish in exchange for food and protection (kinda like feudalism)

    • Had nothing to do with land ownership and everything to do with controlling the indigenous population

  • Hacienda

    • Indigenous laborers forced to work in large fields called Haciendas

    • Centered on land ownership to control the indigenous population

🌱 Effects of Maritime Expansion

Expansion of African States

• The expansion of Maritime Trading Networks also benefited some African states who participated in them

• This connected them with the global economic linkages of the networks even if the networks were more European centered

• Ex: Asante Empire in West Africa

  • Provided Europeans gold, ivory, and slaves

  • Made the Asante very rich, allowing them to expand their military and empire

• Ex: Kingdom of the Kongo in Southern Africa

  • Made diplomatic ties with Portugal

  • Provided gold, copper, and slaves

  • King of the Congo converted to Christianity in order to facilitate trade with European powers

  • Expanded the Kingdom of the Congo’s wealth and power

Social effects of African slave trade

• Gender imbalance (Especially in West Africa states)

  • Men were sold more than Women as European powers wanted men as the work in plantations and mines was very tedious

• Change in family structure

  • Rise of polygyny - Men marrying more than 1 woman

• Cultural synthesis

  • Growing emergence of creole languages (mixed languages) in the Caribbean and Brazil

    • Synthesized European and African languages and sometimes indigenous

🛐 Effects: Changing Belief systems

• Contact between new and old worlds changed belief systems on occasion

• Ex: Christianity

  • One of the main motivations of Spain and Portugal was to spread Christianity

  • Both states sent missionaries (mostly Jesuits) to their colonies to convert indigenous populations to Christianity

  • Provided justification for the conquest of Americas

  • In some cases, indigenous populations outwardly adopted Christianity but privately continued to practice their own beliefs

    • The Effect: religious syncretism that resulted in blending Christian beliefs and practices with indigenous beliefs and practices

      • African religions participated in this syncretism too for example Vodun which blended African Animist beliefs with Christian practices and doctrines in the Americas

Effects: Changing Social hierarchies

• Ethnic and Religious Diversity

  • Spain and Portugal expelled Jewish people from their lands just like they did to the Muslims so Christianity could be dominant

  • Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II opened his lands to the expelled Jews

  • The Ottomans were quite tolerant of Jewish people and some of them rose to positions on the Ottoman court

• Rise of new political elites

  • Casta system - a new social hierarchy imposed by the Spanish on their American colonies which organized colonial society into ranks based on race and ancestry (how much Spanish blood someone had)

    • Before this system, natives had a wide variety of linguistic and cultural groups

    • After this system, this cultural complexity was erased and their society was ordered by a minority of Spanish elite

  • Transition from the Ming to Qing Dynasty

    • Qing dynasty reserved high positions on the bureaucracy to ethnically Manchu people

• Struggles of Existing Elites

  • Elites had started to lose power to absolutist monarchs

  • Ex: Russian boyars - the aristocratic land owning class in Russia

    • Always had significant power in administration of the empire

    • Russian czar Peter the Great took power from boyars, abolishing their position and required those on the bureaucracy to serve the state directly

📒 Topics (Treat like FRQs)