Chapter 12

The World in the Fifteenth Century

Paleolithic in North America and Australia

• Australia– No agriculture but manipulated environment with

“firestick farming”– Sophisticated culture and trade activity

• North America– “affluent” hunting and gathering in NW America– Permanent village settlement, economic

specialization, social systems, storage of food

Agricultural Village Societies

• Agricultural societies that didn’t get absorbed into civilizations

• Igbo– Deliberately avoided state-building– Traded actively, leading to common artistic

traditions and cultural unity (even if politically fragmented)• Change to patrilineal system

• Iroquois– Agricultural village societies in today’s NYS– Frequent warfare due to rise in agriculture?– Led to loose alliance among five Iroquois-speaking

peoples (Five Nations)• Great Law of Peace• Suppressed blood feuds and tribal conflicts• Valued limited government, social equality, personal

freedom• Descent matrilineal, women controlled agriculture and

property, selected leaders

Pastoral Peoples of Central Asia and West Africa

• Central Asia– Tamerlane (Timur) – a Turkic warrior who modeled

expansion efforts after Chinggis Khan– Descendents controlled area between Persia and

Afghanistan• Sophisticated Turkic-Persian culture• Rulers patronized artists, poets, traders and craftsmen

• Central Asian nomads dissipate under expanding Russian and Chinese empires after 15th century

• West Africa– Lasted longer: into the 19th century– Fulbe: West Africa’s largest pastoral society• Subordinate relationship to agricultural societies• Slowly adopt Islam as move eastward• Jihad expanded Islam and created new states

15th Century China

• Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)– Recovered from Mongol rule and plague– Confucian education and civil service reinstated– Emperor Yongle• Sponsored Encyclopedia• Beijing and the Forbidden City• China looks to its past• Zheng He’s expeditions

15th Century Europe• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vufba_ZcoR0&list=PLBDA2E52FB1EF80C9&index=22

• Returned to state-building, but states remained fragmented– Russian state on rise after Mongols– Hundred Years’ War

• Renaissance (1350-1550)– Reclaimed classical Greco-Roman tradition – Artists incl. Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael– Machiavelli’s The Prince

• European Maritime Voyages– Christopher Columbus (1492)– Vasco da Gama (1497)

Columbus and Zheng He

Comparing Maritime VoyagesEurope China

Size • Columbus 3 ships, 90 sailors• Da Gama 4 ships, 170 sailors

• Zheng He 100s of ships, crew in the thousands

Motivations • Trade/wealth: gold, spices, silk• Christianity• Eventual empire building

• Economic trade• Political: creating tributary states• Transmit Chinese “superior”

culture

Results • No unified power to end voyages, rivalry intensifies expedition

• Circumvent Muslim middleman to trade

• Support shallow, esp. after Yongle dies and voyages end

• Ethnocentric attitude felt no need to force submission

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NjEGncridoQ

Ottoman Empire(1300s to 1923)

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UN-II_jBzzo&index=19&list=PLBDA2E52FB1EF80C9

• 1453 capture of Constantinople (renamed Istanbul)– Hagia Sophia converted to mosque

• Government: Centralized absolute monarchy, Islamic scholars, vizier

• Large merchant class but commerce closely regulated by government

• Harem and role of women (queen mother)

Safavid Empire(1501-1722)

• Turkic Muslim state founded on Sufi order• Persian Empire past, modern-state of Iran• Forced Shia as the official religion of the state• Much conflict with its neighboring Sunni states• Strong army, no navy• Marginal trade and inland capital• Women: rigidly patriarchal, women secluded

Songhay Empire(1464-1591)

• Took over Mali empire, trans-Saharan trade through Gao

• Emperors were Muslims who supported mosques and universities (Timbuktu) but traditional beliefs remained

• Defeated by Moroccans in 1591

Mughal Empire(1523-1700s)

• Turkic group (leader Babur) conquest centralizes much of India

• Minority Muslim population ruling over majority Hindu • Notable leaders

– Akbar: patron of the arts, cooperated with Hindu rulers and population, encouraged intermarriage, abolished jizya, Hindus in gov.

– Shah Jahan: less tolerant, architecture blended Persian and Hindu with Islamic (Taj Mahal)

– Aurangzeb: neglect and corrupt bureaucracy, extended control of India, PERSECUTED HINDUS

• Decline: war drained treasury, peasant uprisings, prince revolts, European traders

The Aztec(1400-1521)

• Mexica est. themselves in Lake Texcoco (Mesoamerica)

• Militant warriors ruled by severe despots

• Loosely structured and unstable conquest state; decentralized city-states paid tribute

• Polytheistic with human sacrifice• Patriarchal with “gender

parallelism”

The Inca(1400-1540)

• South American Andes Mountains

• Somewhat centralized politically with a polytheistic worship of sun

• Social: Patriarchal but with “gender parallelism”, ancestors revered

• Achievements: NO written language but used quipu, great system of roads