Early Modern Era (1450 – 1750)

Overview

Periodization• Begins with the fall of the Byzantine Empire.• Rise of the Ottoman Empire.• Western Expansion - Europe to African coast

and then to the Americas.• Increasing independence of Russia.• Period ends in 1750 - roughly coincides with

the balance of power shifting to the West – beginning of the industrial revolution.

Continuity 1. Spread of world religions continues,

Christianity has a major surge, but no longer the dominant trend as it had been in the post-classical era.

• Christianity an element in European motivation to expand, but NOT a primary element.

2. Emergence of the world network continues, but is transformed by the inclusion of the Americas.

Change1. Rise of new Western power, but also

the rise of Russia – (by the 18th C. Russian power is important in

Europe, East Asia and America).

2. Colombian Exchange – crucial biological exchanges with the Americas.

• Diseases (accidental).• Food exchanges (corn, beans, potato) –

more to Africa and Asia than Europe – takes a couple of centuries.

Change• Animal exchange (horses).

• People exchange (immigration, but more

importantly the slave trade). • Effects of the Columbian Exchange:

– Greater diversity of foods prompted global population growth.

– advantage of Europe and Asia. – Slavery affected birthrate in Africa so

population stagnated.– Disease caused population decline in the

Americas.

Change3. Spread of “gun powder” empires.

– The overseas commercial empires – French, Dutch, British, Spanish. Outside of the Americas Europeans rarely penetrated the land.

– established ports and took over islands – advantage in technology was naval.

4. The land-based empires in Asia – Ottoman (Egypt, Syria, Anatolia, Iraq, Crimea,

Hungary), Safavid (Persia), Mughal (Afghanistan, Kashmir, Bengal), Russia.

Change• It will be several centuries before these

empires decline.

– They did not decline all at the same time.

– Mughal Empire in decline in 18th century.

– Ottoman not doing well, but not in decline.

– Russia not in decline at all.

Change

5. No global cultural pattern in Early Modern Era – Western Europe does not impose its cultural influence globally.

6. Not a period of global patterns in gender.– Increase in polygamy in Africa, because

of lack of men.

Change7. New World Economy replaces old

World Network.– Global – for the first time.– Amount of goods being traded is expanded and

type of goods changed.– Drivers of world economy are European not

Asian (although Asia is still doing it).– By the 16th century Europe is operating trade

routes that don’t pass through Europe at all.– Intensification of patterns of inequality in trade

that have economic and social implications today.

World Economic Systems Theory

• Immanuel Wallerstein, The Modern World System: Capitalist Agriculture and the Origins of the European World Economy in the Sixteenth Century (New York: Academic Press, 1974)

World Economic Systems Theory

• The modern world system, essentially capitalist in nature, followed the crisis of the feudal system and understanding this system helps explain the rise of Western Europe to world supremacy between 1450 and 1670.

World Economic Systems Theory

o In early modern period 4 relationships developed:

o Dominant (core)o Exploited (periphery) & the declining

core (semi-periphery)o Non-participant (external)

World Economic Systems Theory• Core: Export processed goods and import

cheap raw materials – run trade in own ships and commercial

companies – draw most profit (they are rich) – originally

Spain and Portugal, but evolves to be France, Britain and Holland

– strong states – strong military – high tax revenue

– rely on wage labor (allows for emphasis on manufacturing).

World Economic Systems Theory• Peripheral (mirror of core): Import

expensive goods – export cheap resources – built of activity by foreign merchants – weak states (no taxes) – core states keep them

weak so they can interfere in local politics – coerced labor – loose money (individuals can

make money though) – by 18th century includes Latin America,

Caribbean, Southern colonies of America (Virginia) – Poland – West Africa was a peripheral region as it traded slaves (raw materials) for manufactured goods – Asia by 19th century

World Economic Systems Theory• External: traded, but internal system not

shaped by external trade – Russia – have own goods – a strong state to prevent interference.

o Early modern era is beginning to generate winners and losers. Position in trade affects politics and social systems.

 o The positions carved out in early modern era stick – v.

difficult to get out of the periphery (no capital etc.). It is hard to fall out of the core (although Spain and Portugal did!).

Critique of the Theory

o No social or cultural element to this theory – purely economic so prone to over generalizations.

o Theory predicts more uniform results than in history (does not allow for nuance).o Britain and France have strong

economies, but British state is weaker than France’s.

Critique of the Theoryo Theory does not help explain

change.o Russia is not as uninvolved in world

trade in the 18th century as it was in the 17th century. It moves toward the periphery.

o Wallerstein can recognize this but he can’t explain it.

Which societies are the real winners in the new world

economy?o China and India – they get the largest

amount of silver. Europe is only a transmitter.o Asians can make a profit without being core.o China and India are very powerful in this period.

Learn to profit from trade with Europe (key aspect of Early Modern Period).

o Russia, as it westernizes, wants to remain external. Does not want a large merchant class (sees it as a disruption to society) – Russia has always struggled for a different kind of economy.

Questions

• In your own words explain the historical reasoning behind the change from the Post-Classical era to the Early Modern Era.

• Historian’s see the early modern era as the foundation of economic relations today. How might Wallerstein’s theory help us explain today’s world?