A WORLD OF

EMPIRES1450-1750 CE

Six Things to Remember• Americas included in world trade for the

first time• Improvements in shipping and gunpowder

technology continued• Populations in transition• New social structures based on race and

gender• Traditional beliefs threatened in Europe

but reinforced in China• Empires both land-based and cross

oceanic

The Bookends

• 1450—Beginning of European Atlantic empires

• 1450—Beginning of global trade• 1492—End of Islam in Western Europe• 1433—End of Chinese treasure ship

expeditions• 1750—Beginning of industrialization• 1750—Western Hemisphere

colonization peaks

Americas—1300-1800

•Rise of Incas•Continued rise of Aztecs•Conquest – arrival of Spanish

in Western Hemisphere•Population impacts: disease,

racial intermingling, war•Columbian Exchange•Colonial societies

Inca Empire—1438-1525

• Highly centralized government• Diverse ethnic groups• Extensive irrigation• State religion/ancestor cult• Rope suspension bridges• Metallurgy – copper and bronze• No use of wheel• Roads for tax, labor, and courier

system

Aztec Empire—1325-1520

• Tenochtitlan “Foundation of Heaven”

• By 1519, metropolis of 150,000•5 square miles

• Island location• Tribute empire based on agriculture• State control of market –

redistributes all goods

Changes in Trade, Technology and Global Interactions

•Exploration•God, Glory, and Gold?•Commodities•Cartography•Empire Building

Age of Exploration

•European explorationWhy then?Why?Who and where?

•End of Ming Treasure / Tribute Voyages

Zheng He

Commodities

Commodities

• African slave trade

Notice the primary destinations

Commodities

• Coffee beans used first in Yemen and then later in Europe and Americas

• European used chocolate technology from Aztecs in 17th Century

Cartographic Changes

Empire Building

•How do empires rise and expand?

•What factors at this time will help empires maintain themselves and expand their borders?

•Consider the impact and nature of interaction with others…

Africa• Characteristics:

•Stateless societies-organized around kinship, often larger than states

•Large centralized states•Increased unity came from linguistic base–Bantu, Christianity and Islam, as well as indigenous beliefs

•Trade–markets, international commerce, taxed trade of unprocessed goods

African Empires

• Oyo

• Benin

• Kongo

• Asante

Songhay—1340-1591

• Initially farmers, herders, and fishers

• Foreign merchant community in Gao (gold)

• Powerful cavalry forces, expansive empire (1492)

• Fusion of Islamic and indigenous traditions

Ming China—1368-1644

• Mongols are gone—similar to Russia•Became more traditional not like Russia

• Naval expeditions then isolationist•$ wasn’t worth it•Nomads were bigger threat

• Collected tribute• Cash crops, like cotton

Qing China—1644-1911• Pastoral nomads, Manchus, from north

•Manchus had highest positions•Kept civil-service exams for promotion

• Traded with Europeans at off mainland islands and closely supervised at Canton

• Missionaries expelled• Patriarchal• Expanded tribute colonies—Taiwan,

Mongolia, Tibet, Vietnam, Burma & Nepal

Tokugawa Japan—1600-1853

• Cultural borrowing from China• Emergence of warrior class and

increasing civil wars• Encounter with Portuguese-1543• “Isolation” from West; rise of

Tokugawas• Tokugawa elite followed

development in West

Rise of Gunpowder Empires

Political developments loom larger this period

Sea-based: Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, English

Land-based: Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal

These are major empires/political units/social system

Ottoman—1281-1914

• 1350’s – Initial Ottoman invasion of Europe

• 1453 – Ottoman capture of Constantinople

• 1683 – Ottoman siege of Vienna

                               

    

Safavid Persia—1334-1722

•Founded by militant Sufis•Broke away from Ottoman

Empire, creating schism among Muslims

•Adopted Shi’a Islam •Theocracy

Mughal India—1556-1739

•Empire based on military strength•Akbar the Great–-combined beliefs

into new religion to unite Hindu and Muslim subjects: Din-I-Ilahi

• Indian textile trade–value to Europeans

•Patron of the arts— Shah Jahan

Empires: Russia• Mongol occupation stalled

Russian unification and development

• Increasing absolutist rule and territorial expansion by 16th Century – Ivan the Terrible

• Role of Russian Orthodox Church

• Peter the Great accelerated westernization process

Portugal

•Search for maritime route to Asia

•Naval school•Advanced naval

technology: caravels, astrolabe and compass

Portugal

•Established fortresses along the Gold Coast – sugar plantations and African slave labor

•Indian Ocean trade and Da Gama: Malindi, Sofala and Kilwa, Calicut and Goa, and later Macao

•Atlantic trade with conquest of Brazil – sugar plantation

Brazil: Plantation colony

•Portuguese due to Treaty of Tordesillas 1494

•African slave labor used to support plantation complex (sugar)

•Largest producer of sugar in world first half of 17th C.

Spain• Inquisition• Reconquista ended with

fall of Granada (1492)• Columbus’ voyage• Cortez in Mexico and Pizarro in Peru• Took over existing tributary empires:

labor, silver, gold, and foodstuffs• Demographic impact: disease, death,

and mestizos

England

• Limited/constitutional monarchy• Tudors• Stuarts• Civil War• Commonwealth• Glorious Revolution

Bill of Rights• Enlightenment ideas• Colonies in Americas

France• Absolute Monarchy

King Louis XIV“ I am the State”Versailles

• Mercantilism• Territorial expansion in

Europe and colonies in Saint Domingue (Haiti) and New France (Quebec)

Dutch• Dutch East India Company

•1660—employed 12,000 people with 257 ships

•Sought monopolies and large profits• North America (fur trade-Hudson

River, New Amsterdam)• Caribbean islands for plantations• Capetown, South Africa – way station• Southeast Asia – spice trade

(nutmeg, cloves and pepper)

Changing Beliefs

•Reformation•Neo-Confucianism•Missionaries:

Christianity, Islam, Buddhism

Cultural and Intellectual Development

•Renaissance•Scientific Revolution•Enlightenment

Comparisons

Be able to compare the following:•Imperial systems: European

monarchy vs. a land-based Asian empire

•Coercive labor systems•Empire building in Asia, Africa

and Europe•Russia’s interaction with the

West compared to others

Conclusions

•What are the major themes that seem apparent?

•What global processes are in action?

Trade

• Trade extended through all parts of the world

• Europe finally gains access to Asian trade routes and attempts to control them through choke points- fail

• Europe uses American raw materials- especially silver-to trade with Asia

• Columbian Exchange

Technology

• Spread of shipping technology to Europe as a result of the Crusades and experiments by Prince Henry the Navigator

• Improvements in gunpowder technology- muskets and cannons

Demography

• Disease killed millions of native Americans• Africans were forcibly transported to New

World for work in plantation agriculture• Populations grew as new calorie-rich foods

were brought from New World• Populations migrated to harsher climates

as food crops became available• Populations migrated from the Old World

to the New World

Social and Gender Structures

• Americas- Castas system• Muslim areas (Ottomans, Mughals)

Women in the harems wielded considerable power behind the scenes

• China- power struggle between the Eunuchs and the Scholar Gentry

Cultural and Intellectual Expressions

• Europe- Renaissance and Reformation reduces the power of the Catholic Church and challenges old beliefs

• China ends contact with the outside world as neo-Confucianism dominates

Structure and Function of State

• Empire remains predominant political structure •Coercive tribute system

• European states, such as Spain and Portugal but also France, England and the Dutch, perfect overseas empires by claiming territory in Western Hemisphere

• Qing, Russia, Mughals, Ottomans, and Safavids are powerful land-based empires

Trade- Can’t live without it!

• Global trade is THE thing this time period!• Core-periphery theory:

•Core states are manufacturing states•Periphery states provide raw materials•Semi-periphery supply both

• Three core zones: •China• India•West

Changes and Continuities

• Change: The Americas are added to world trade network

• Change: Europe becomes a Maritime area• Continuity: Trade is really important• Continuity: Religions continue to adapt to

new times, but very important• Continuity: Diffusion of ideas and

diseases as people come into contact with each other

A WORLD OF

EMPIRES1450-1750 CE