Early Modern World History

1450-1750AP World History

Important Themes

• Impact of Interaction – The Development of a Global Economy

• State-building

• Systems of forced labor

• Cultural and Intellectual Changes

Impact of Interaction – Global Economy

• European Exploration– Trade shift … Asian-centered economy in global

economy– Motivation = new resources, new trade routes, spread

of Christianity– Asian spices– New technology

• Sternpost rudder, lateen sail, magnetic compass, astrolabe

– Portugal led the way … sugar plantations off the coast of Africa first …

Impact of Interaction – Global Economy

• European Explorers– Bartolomeu Dias (1488)– Christopher Columbus (1492)– Vasco da Gama (1497)– Ferdinand Magellan (1519-1522)

Impact of Interaction – Global Economy

• Trading Post Empires– European goal to control trade, not conquer

(Portugal first)– Built fortified cities from West Africa to East

Asia– English & Dutch … joint-stock companies

Impact of Interaction – Global Economy

• Colombian Exchange– Biggest change of this period was the incorporation

of the Americas in the global trade network.– Global diffusion of plants, food, crops, animals,

humans, and diseases.– Smallpox > 90-95% killed– Global diffusion of food and animals = increase in

nutritional value of diets and population worldwide

Impact of Interaction – Global Economy

• Role and impact of silver– Most abundant precious metal in the Americas– Stimulated global trade network– China’s products were in high demand and silver from

the Americas changed China’s economy

• Role and impact of sugar– Complex production of land, labor, buildings, animals,

capital, and technical skills– Required heavy labor and specialized skills ≠ use of

Indian labor > African labor – Harsh working conditions for the African slaves leading

to significant disease and death > Atlantic Slave Trade

State-Building

• Ottoman Empire (~ 1300’s to 1923)– Turkish group … replaced Mongols’ power in the

Middle East … “Gunpowder Empire”– Janissaries … 1453 > ended Byzantine Empire …

Istanbul– Suleyman the Magnificent … centralized absolute

monarchy … rebuilt Istanbul– Vizier– Political succession problems– Sultan’s harem very influential– Trade “middle-man”– Reached its peak in the mid-17th century … outpaced

by the Europeans in naval technology first

State-Building

• Mughal Empire (1523-mid 1700’s)• Babur’s (founder) empire temporarily replaced

the long history of decentralization in India• Akbar

– Abolished jizya; great patron of arts; Din-i-alahi

• Taj Mahal (Shah Jahan)• Aurangzeb … ended toleration … persecutred

Hindu’s

State-Building

• Songhay (1464-1591)• West African state succeeded Mali … Muslim

state• Sunni Ali• Trans-Saharan trade & Gao (salt, textiles, and

metal in exchange for gold and slaves)• Timbuktu’s Islamic university• Their fall coincided with the arrival of the

Europeans in the late 16th century but did not fall because of the Europeans

State-Building

• Kongo (~1300’s-1600’s)• Centralized state … west coast of Central Africa• Portuguese arrival in 1482 … commercial

relations at first … many Kongolese converted to Christianity

• Equal relationship in the beginning … eventually Portuguese turn on King Afonso I and began systematic slave raids … undermined king

• Kongo eventually lost war with Portugal in 1665

State-Building

• Spanish & Portuguese in the New World• Spanish Conquistadors --- three G’s• New Spain (Mexico) & New Castille (Peru) –

viceroy• Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)• Multicultural & ethnically mixed population:

– Peninsulares – creoles – mestizos – mulattoes – (Natives, Africans, zambos) made up the bottom

• Encomienda system• Repartimiento system• Plantation system• Missionaries• Roman Catholicism

State-Building

• Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)• “Manchu”• Outlawed intermarriage b/n Manchu & Chinese –

Chinese were not allowed to learn Manchurian languages – Chinese men had to wear their hair in a queue as a sign of submission

• Bureaucracy based on Confucian traditions – civil service examination

• Active role in the global trade network• Favored stability over technological innovation

State-Building

• Russian Empire (1480-1917)– Emerged on its own after Mongol collapse– Ivan III – strong centralized government with an

absolute monarch (czar) – head of the Russian Orthodox Church – Ivan the Terrible??

– Romanov family emerged and ruled until 1917– Peter the Great – westernization – St. Petersburg– Catherine the Great – continued westernization –

embraced some Enlightenment ideas – placed more restrictions on serfs and Russia expanded to Alaska

State-Building

• Tokugawa Shogunate (1600-1867)– Tokugawa Ieyasu – ended civil wars with use of

western guns – then bans guns» Increased control over daimyos by making them

stay in the capital of Edo (Tokyo) every other year– Contact with outside world closely controlled

» No Japanese could travel abroad» Only Dutch were allowed to trade (Nagasaki)

– Despite restrictions Japanese economy prospered b/c agricultural output & population increased

– By 1580 > 150,000 Japanese Christians – government ordered them tortured and executed those that remained

– “Pax Tokugawa” followed

Systems of Forced Labor

• Atlantic Slave Trade– Forced migration of ~ 15 million .. Outcome of the

Age of Exploration and Colombian Exchange– African slave trade already existed prior to WE– Europeans tapped into well-developed slave trade– African role in slave trade?– Plantations .. Trans-Atlantic trade – Triangle Trade … “Middle Passage”– Cash crops (sugar, tobacco, cotton, coffee)– African syncretism in the New World?

Systems of Forced Labor

• Encomienda System– Gave Spanish settlers the right to demand

labor in the mines and fields of native peoples– Worked hard and several punished– Cortez & Pizarro introduced this system– Haciendas– Repartimiento system replaced encomienda

system (required them to work but they had to be compensated)

– New Castille (Peru) tapped into mita labor system (labor tax) used by Inca but workers were paid low wages

Systems of Forced Labor

• Russian Serfdom– After Mongol rule many peasants owed large

debts and were forced onto large estates– Government encouraged this process as a way

“to regulate the peasants” .. Boyars were their masters

– Serfs could be bought and sold, gambled away, and punished by their noble masters (boyars)

– Serfs were illiterate and poor; paid high taxes; owned extensive labor service to their landlords (agricultural, mining, or manufacturing)

– Future looked bleak

Cultural and Intellectual Changes

• Renaissance (began in the 15th century)

– Crusade impact?

– Greco-Roman works re-introduced … “rebirth”• new view of man as a creative and rational being• Rediscovery of ancient Greco-Roman knowledge• Unparalleled accomplishments in literature, music, and

art• Celebration of the human individual (humanism)

– Medici family impact?

– Leonardo da Vinci … “Renaissance Man”

– Eventually moved to northern Europe

– Gutenberg’s printing press

Cultural and Intellectual Changes

• Reformation (early 16th century)– Renaissance created an atmosphere that encouraged

debate and criticism of the existing order– Catholic Church = great power– Martin Luther (1517) & “Ninety-Five Theses”

• Divisions of the papacy, in which more than one Pope claimed authority

• Some religious traditions and rituals were not derived from the Scriptures

• Corrupt practices such as the sale of indulgences• Church finances and income• Lack of piety in the priesthood

– Excommunication of Luther– Protestants spread from central Europe to Holland,

Switzerland, and Scandinavia.

Cultural and Intellectual Changes

• Reformation (cont.)– Major outcomes of the Protestant movement:

• Redrawing of the religious map of Europe > Protestants dominated the north, Catholics the south

• A decline in the power of the Roman Catholic Church • Further power strugglesv between the citizenry and

monarchs– England (Civil War, Protestants took Parliament, king

executed)

• Series of religious wars pitted Catholics vs. Protestants for the next 200 years (Thirty Years’ War 1618-1648)