MODULE 1The Worlds of the Fifteenth Century

The Shapes of Human Communities• Paleolithic Persistence

– gathering and hunting societies (Paleolithic peoples) still exist: Australia, Siberia, Arctic, Africa, Americas

– Change over time, interaction with neighbors– Assimilation of outside technologies. Name some. – Examples: Australian aborigines, NW Coast of North America

• Agricultural Village Societies– Predominates in N. America, Africa south of equator, Amazon river basin, SE Asia– Characteristics—gender and class– Example: Southern Nigeria: different patterns of Yoruba, Benin, Igbo peoples

• Herding Peoples’– Tamerlane and Turkic warriors– Steppe nomads absorbed by Chinese, Russian empires– Independence of African pastoralists until 19th century

Civilizations of the Fifteenth Century: Comparing China and Europe

• Ming Dynasty China– Disruption by Mongols (1300s-1644), recovery under Ming– Elimination of all signs of foreign rule, promotion of Confucian learning– Highly centralized government, eunuch administrators– Extensive infrastructure improvements: what are they?’– Large scale maritime exploration and trade ventures in early 1400s

• European Comparisons: State Building and Cultural Renewal

– European collapse after Plague of 1340s-60s, increase in population after 1450– Many competing states, warfare– Renaissance: cultural revival, 1350-1500, trend toward naturalism & humanism

• European Comparisons: Maritime Voyaging– Technology improves: Chinese rudder introduced in 12th century, square sails

replaced by triangular lateen sails, improving performance– Navigational instruments– Knowledge of wind, currents; Marinheiros (blue-water sailors) adept in Atlantic

• Maritime Voyaging– Portuguese voyages of discovery begin 1415– Discovery and exploitation of Canary, Azores, Madeira islands in 15 th century

• Transformation into plantation economies• Extermination of indigenous peoples

– Voyages of Columbus and Vasco Da Gama in 1490s– Europeans seek wealth, converts, allies in Crusade against Islam– Europeans use violence to create empires, while Chinese rely on trade– End of Chinese voyages in 1433, escalation of European ones– Rivalry between European states encouraged competitive exploration, empire

building– Critical shortage in Europe of items it “needs”: spices, Chinese exports, gold,

silver, exotic foods—the problem of European food production

The Islamic World• In the Islamic Heartland: The Ottoman and Safavid

Empires– Ottomans last from 14th to 20th century, comprising Anatolia, Eastern Europe,

Middle East, North Africa, Black sea coast– Ottoman aggression against Christian lands, and legacy– Safavid Empire emerged in Persia from Sufi religious order– Safavids impose Shia Islam as official religion– Sunni Ottomans and Shia Safavids fought wars in 16th-17th centuries

• On the Frontiers of Islam: The Songhay and Mughal Empires

– Songhay rises in West Africa after 1450, limited to urban elites– Sonni Ali (r. 1465-92) powerful leader combining Islamic belief, African traditional

spirituality– Mughal empire in India created by Turkic warriors, control most of India by 1600s,

fluctuating relations with Hindus

The Americas• The Aztec Empire

– Mexica people create society in central Mexico, establish capital at Tenochtitlan by 1325

– Form triple alliance with other city state, conquer neighboring states– Control much of Mesoamerica by the end of 15th century– Continue Mesoamerican cultural elements, which had begun under Olmecs, 1000

BCE—ballgames, human sacrifice, warriorship, mythology, ritual, trade– Loosely structure, unstable state of 5-6 million

• The Inca Empire– Quechua speakers established the Inca Empire along the length of the Andes

Mtns.– Incas were more bureaucratic, centralized than Aztecs– Divine ruler, state owns all land and resourcces– 80 provinces, with governors, hierarchical units of people. Resettlement program– Incas and Aztecs practice gender parallelism, women and men operate in separate

but equal spheres, religious cults, political hierarchies for both men and women

Webs of Connection

• Large-scale political systems brought together culturally different people.

• Religion both united and divided far-flung peoples– common religious culture of Christendom, but divided into Roman Catholicism and

Eastern Orthodoxy

• Buddhism linked people in China, Korea, Tibet, Japan, and parts of Southeast Asia

• Islam was particularly good at bringing together its people– the annual hajj– yet conflict within the umma persisted

A Preview of Coming Attractions: Looking Ahead to the Modern Era (1500–2000)

• No fifteenth-century connections were truly global.– those came only with European expansion in the sixteenth century

• 1500–2000: inextricable linking of the worlds of Afro-Eurasia, the Americas, and Pacific Oceania