Period 4: 1450-1750 CE, Early Modern Era

Period 4: 1450-1750 CE, Early Modern Era

Further watching:

Major developments

Periodization

About the East India Companies

Spanish Armada

Guns, Germs, and Steel

Concepts to combine across cultures in this era (and time):

Religious ideas to legitimize rule:

• Divine Right
• Safavids and Shiism
• Manchu and Confucianism
• Human sacrafice

-Gunpowder

-Revolutionizes warfare and state-building

-requires more infrastructure and organization

-Shipbuilding

-Cannons

-Hull design--modified hulls for various purposes, combat, transport, speed, etc

New Thinking

-Challenges to previous orders,

-Scientific Method

-Religious understanding

Early Modern Era

--Gunpowder Empires in Asia

--Maritime Empires and Imperialism begin in Europe

The World Shrinks

--all continents are in world connected by trade

Great Exchange

--Goods, products, animals, crops, ideas, people

Great divides in religions:

• Shia/Sunni split ca. 650 CE
• Great Schism ca. 1000 CE
• Protestant/Catholic ca. 1500 CE

Forms of coerced labor

• Mit'a system
• Indentured servitude
• Slavery--Americas
• Slavery--Asia

Comparing European states:

• Trading post empires
• Absolutist monarchies versus constitutional monarchies

Ethnicities in Gunpowder Empires

Women's Rights in Empries, colonies

Solidifying power

• Mausolea
• Walls
• Palaces

Bureaucratic and military elites:

• Ottoman devshirme
• Chinese Examination system
• Samauri on retainer

4hr documentary on Shogunate Japan

America before Columbus

Europe

Asia

Columbian Exchange

Empires in Asia

Russia

Pre-Mongol Russia

Engineering and Empire: Russia

Social Changes and Class Structure

Ottoman Empire

Religion, Society, and Thought

What was the Columbian Exchange?

Arts

• Ivan III (the Great) solidified rule around Moscow and refused paying tribute to the Mongols.
• Boyars--Russian nobility class, conflict with monarch, titled Tzar (or Tsar, Czar, Csar) meaning Caesar
• Ivan IV (the Terrible)
• expanded Russia to the Urals and Ukraine.
• Relying on gunpowder, defeated the last khanate in Europe.
• Built the Kremlin (a triangular walled fortress) in Moscow and St. Basils Cathedral
• created the precursor to the Russian secret police
• Time of Troubles 1603-1613, anarchy in Russia until national assembly elected Michael Romanov as leader, beginning the Romanov dynasty that ended in 1917.
• Peter the Great ruled 1682-1725
• Solidified power over his half-sister, who was supported by boyars
• abolished position of Russian Orthodox patriarch, named himself head of church-- claiming lead by divine right
• built St. Petersburg on Baltic Sea, to connect Russia further to Europe
• also built Winter Palace in St. Petersburg
• other reforms
• Women could marry who they wished and no longer wear viel in public
• men had to shave beards to resemble European practices
• clothing, too, changed to resemble more European focus
• built schools, state-run enterprises and industrialization
• Costly reforms and wars, Peter had to raise taxes
• Reforms helped some, but not the majority of Russia, as peasants were reduced to serfs as a consolation to boyars
• Catherine the Great ruled 1762-1796
• German-born protestant, Enlightenment educated, took over power when husband Peter III died, converted to Russian Orthodox
• Expanded Russia into Poland, acquired the Crimea, and across the steppe, Siberia, and to the Pacific Ocean
• While she led some reforms, they met with resistance
• Several revolts, and after suppressed, gave more power to boyars over serfs
• After acquiring Poland, set Jews apart from society, leaving them vulnerable to pogroms--anti Jewish attacks
• Cossack revolts
• Cossacks were mix of escaped serfs and Mongol-descended steppe peoples
• Upon suppression of this revolt, more oppression on serfs

Religion and Practices in Africa and Asia

Japan

As merchants and governments became wealthier, many of the rich financed performing and visual arts, even for popular audiences. Also an expansion of literacy.

Empires

Osman I--Founded Ottoman Dynasty 1299 CE

Mehmed the Conqueror 1451-1581 CE

• 1453 CE Constantinople Falls
• Built first Ottoman imperial mosque, the Faith Mosque in renamed Istanbul
• Protected Hagia Sophia, converted it into a church and allowed Jews and Greek Orthodox faiths to retain faiths and buildings
• Modernized military and navy, cut off Bosporus Strait unless toll paid
• Expanded Ottoman Empire into Balkans

Suleiman the Magnificent 1520-1560 CE

• Sieged (though failed to capture) Vienna in 1529
• Conquered Middle East from Safavids

Major points and concepts:

• The Ottoman empire succeeded based on its infrastructure and administration. The allowed people of all levels to rise
• They were mostly tolerant of their non-Muslim subjects and welcomed their productivity within society.
• Devshirme
• Capturing young Christian boys in the Balkans, teaching and converting them to Islam and put them in places of influence within the empire
• Janissaries
• Military force recruit from Christian slaves that were converted and forbidden to marry. They were to be loyal to only the Sultan. They were one of the first units to be fully equipped with gunpowder weapons. They lived in barracks, had devoted logistical support, and their own medical staff.
• Europeans studied their practices for their own armies and eventually they would eclipse the Janissaries, rendering them obsolete

Tokugawa Shogunate 1603-1867 CE

• Two ruling authorities in Japan: Emperor and Shogun
• Throughout Japanese history, there were periods of one's power over the other
• Emperor-Shinto (religion involving Buddhism and nationalist/emperor-worshiping beliefs
• Shogun-military and poltical ruler, of the daimyo ruling class
• Imposed a strict class system--daimyo on top, warrior-caste samurai, then farmers, artisans, and traders
• Daimyo could be trained as samurai, and samurai could rule over areas
• Samurai were on retainer (paid to be around and serve as daimyo needed)
• mostly not used for military, instead as bureaucrats and administrators
• Samurai would revolt after the Meiji Restoration in 1867
• Very resistant to European influence
• Expelled Christianity by 1620 CE
• Only allowed European trade in Nagasaki (southern Japan)
• Only after Matthew Perry arrives in 1853 does the Japanese recognize need to modernize
• cause internal conflict as Western military and economic advisers arrive
• Eventually erupts a civil war between daimyo loyal to the modernizing emperor and the more conservative shogun

The Columbian Exchange was the trading of goods found exclusively in one hemisphere to the other, where Eurasian-African goods, diseases, and people went to the Americas and American goods went across the Atlantic.

Pathogens

• Smallpox, measles, influenza, and many other diseases came from Afro-Eurasia
• Fun fact: syphilis came from the Americas, its a STI, so... means of transmission... yea... It ended up infecting over a million people in Europe

Vermin

• Rats, mosquitoes

Mixing of peoples from African, European, and American cultures created many different groups of mixed people. **Race is a self-identifying term that is not scientific.

Most mixing of groups occurred in Spanish and Portuguese colonies, where the social classes were divided on bloodlines.

• Peninsulares--people born in Iberia (Spain/Portugal)
• Creoles--European descended but born in colonies
• Mestizos--Native American and European descent, and Mulattoes--African and European descent
• Native and African peoples

Republica de Indios--Spanish system allowing indigenous people to have their own rule within their lands

For paper, start at 24:13

Economics

Rise of Tokugawa

Reformation

Overview

Mercantilism

• The main tenets of Mercantilism revolve around state self-sufficiency
• Collecting as much specie--gold and silver and not trading it with other nations
• Produce everything within own colonies and country
• Monopolies to stabilize market

Safavids

The British Empire

Deformities caused by syphilis

Mughal Empire

Europe

• Shakespeare-plays
• Cervantes--Don Quixote

China

• Journey to the West

Japan

• Wood block paintings

India and SW Asia

• Miniature paintings

Americas

• Post-Columbian codices

• German Monk, Martin Luther, saw many of the corrupt practices of the Catholic Church as having no basis in Biblical scripture.
• He wrote 95 Thesis against the church practices
• Was excommunicated for his protest
• Was to renounce them after arrest and trial, instead, he does not recant, goes into house arrest after supported by some German princes
• Translates Bible into German
• Notable work: Freedom of a Christian Man

The French

American Foods

• TOMATOES!!!!!!
• staple food crops--potatoes, maize, manioc (sweet potatoes)
• cash crops--tobacco, sugar (from Eurasia)

From Afro-Eurasia

• Animals--horses, cows, pigs, sheep
• from African slaves--okra, rice

• Shi'a empire based around ancient Persia
• Severe rift with Sunni Ottoman Empire
• For almost 100 years, starting in 1514, the two empires fought over Mesopotamia and the Caucasus region
• Increasing Ottoman gains
• Ottoman-Safavid War 1623-1639 CE
• 1590 CE treaty ends when Safavid ruler Shah Abbas I takes advantage of Ottoman wars versus Hapsburgs (Austria and Spain) in 1603 CE.
• 1621 CE Seeing Ottoman weakness and several rebellions in Mesopotamia, reorganized Safavid army invades with initial success.
• Once concluding peace in Europe, Ottomans focus on Mesopotamia in 1629 CE
• Reconquer all lost land and began peace talks after taking Baghdad in 1638 CE

• Concepts and Main ideas:
• Preservation of Persia culture, considered first modern Persian/Iranian dynasties
• During and following Mongol rule, Shiism was allowed to be practiced and spread
• The Safavids used Shiism to unite empire, making it the official state religion and forcibly converted Sunnis within the empire
• Shah was head of both the state and the religion

Portuguese

China

humor

Descended from Mongol roots and Turkic and Persian influence, it would rule India from 1526-1857 CE

• Good administrative practices--notably allowing localities to keep their practices but at the same time be efficiently taxed allowed for a relatively stable governance.
• Zamindars were part of the ruling class in the Mughal empire, though more than that
• They had their own landholdings, but also served judicial and administrative roles within their territories
• Under Akbar and his son, Mughal empire was quite religiously harmonious, allowing faiths to practice with no interference.
• Under Shah Jahan, reached greatest extent
• to show power, Mughal emperors constructed mausolea, above-ground tombs
• Most famous: Taj Mahal
• Slowly declined due to internal revolts, increasing religious intolerance, and then British conquest
• Indian production of cotton made it a valuable trade destination for European merchants

-Colonial empire, reduced mostly by competition and wars with British and Dutch.

-Trading empire in Canada and Louisiana, parts of India

-Absolute Monarchy--Louis XIV, the "Sun King" r. 1643-1715CE

• builds Versailles, huge palatial estate outside of Paris
• focuses on expanding French borders
• hurt France financially by engaging in a series of wars
• would affect debt all the way to the French Revolution (1789 CE)
• Rules very close to a dictator
• "L'etat, c'est moi" tr. "The state, I am the state"
• Laws and justice system were tied to him

English colonies did not have as much mixing of peoples due to the relatively early arrival of women in the first colonies, in Jamestown, it was 10years after founding

Silver Trade!!!

• Paper money confidence eroded as Ming rulers devalued the currency by printing more
• Paper money confidence gone, specie-metal coin--became the standard for trade in China, which set the world standard
• Spain's mine in Polosi, and other deposits in Mexico, churned out about 80% of the world's silver, with 30-40% making its way to China
• This collapsed the price of silver, devaluing the coins in China, and led to the Ming collapse

• Colonial empire began almost a century after the Spanish and Portuguese
• Colonies were productive settlements of English subjects, not just raw material extraction
• Successful wars against Spain, France and the Dutch secured naval dominance
• English Civil War--Charles I of England defied Parliament leading to a rebellion. Charles was eventually defeated and executed in 1649 CE. Monarchy restored in 1660 CE under Charles II. Established that the king ruled by consent of Parliament--NOT an absolute monarchy
• Glorious Revolution--Dutch monarchs William and Mary invited to rule to replace monarch, they sign English Bill of Rights
• East India Company
• Monopoly on all eastern trade
• Eventually started taking over parts of India
• 1763 CE--become de facto rulers of India

Other Notable Parts of Reformation

English Reformation

Ming Dynasty 1368-1644 CE

• Ruled by Han Chinese
• Fortified and improve the Great Wall
• restored Chinese institutions that the Mongol Yuan dynasty did not utilize
• Reinstated Chinese Examination system
• Funded Zheng He expedition, upon return, ships were never used again
• Increase in silver in world trade brought a collapse of the economy as silver's value plummeted

Manchu Qing Dynasty 1644-1917 CE

• Manchus were in Northern China, often considered outsiders
• Used tactics that included conquered peoples into their army, which they adapted to better fight Ming
• Conquering Beijing by defeating a peasant rebellion, the Qing established themselves as legitimate heirs to the Mandate of Heaven
• Required Manchu dress when as a government official, but could keep Han dress otherwise
• Used Confucian values as a way to demonstrate their solidarity with the Han Chinese customs
• Many of the Confucian customs were performed publicly by the emperor
• The Manchu relatively benign rule of the Chinese caused a loyalty to the Manchu emperor even when offered a Han alternative during revolts
• Increased demand for silk brought more and more Europeans to China for trade

Qing Imperial portraits were a major art form

• Under leadership of Prince Henry the Navigator (who never actually did any sailing), Portugal built a navigational school. (Dies 1450s CE)
• Other maritime technologies also aided the Portuguese (ship design)
• Money came from trading posts in Africa made the Portuguese more adventurous
• Vasco de Gama reaches India (Calicutt) in 1497.
• Portugeuse set up trading posts in India, Malacca, and in China
• Macau in China and Goa in India were major trading hubs
• Brazil
• Slaves arrived from Africa in 1520s.
• Anywhere from 5-10million slaves went to Africa
• Last Latin American country to outlaw slavery--1888 -> Why a fact for now?
• Main products--sugar, coffee, metals

Henry VIII wants to divorce wife Catherine of Aragon after not bearing a son, Catholic church refuses, after divorcing anyway, breaks from Catholic church and makes Anglican Church

Henry is excommunicated, and becomes head of English Church, this splits the country but after new laws regarding Henry's supremecy, Catholicism declines in favor of Anglicanism.

A few future conflicts over English Catholics and Anglicans, most notably Bloody Mary and the Gunpowder Treason

• Edict of Nantes
• Secured rights for French Protestants, Huguenots, signed 1598, revoked by Louis XIV 1685
• Counter reformation
• Response to Luther-initiated Reformation
• Restructured church organization
• Seminaries for training of priests
• Roman Inquisition
• Copernicus
• Galileo
• German princes allowed to choose Lutheranism or Catholicism after Thirty Years' War (1648CE)
• Jesuits
• Society of Jesus
• Founded by Ignatius of Loyola
• "The clothing too should have three characteristics: first, it should be proper; second, conformed to the usage of the country of residence; and third, not contradictory to the poverty we profess..." (Const. 577)
• Each priest chooses areas of study in addition to religious vows

• Sufi practices of Islam contributed to further spreading into Eurasia and Africa, as believers adapted Islam to local customs
• Political rivalry between Ottomans and Safavids intensified Sunni/Shi'a split
• Sikhism developed in South Asia in the context of interactions between Hinduism and Islam
• "Deep within the self is the Light of God; It radiates throughout the expanse of His creation. Through the Guru's Teachings, the darkness of spiritual ignorance is dispelled. The heart-lotus blossoms forth, and eternal peace is obtained, as one's light merges into the Light." Guru Amar Das
• Monotheistic
• The goal of human life is to break the cycle of birth's and deaths and merge with God. This can be accomplished by following the teachings of the Guru, meditation on the Holy Name and performance of acts of service and charity.
• Rejection of all forms of blind rituals such as fasting, religious vegetarianism, pilgrimages, superstions, yoga, as well as any form of idol worship.
• Sikhism rejects all distinctions of caste, creed, race or sex.
• While Buddhism declined in South Asia and island Southeast Asia, different sects spread into Northeast Asia and mainland Southeast Asia

French Enlightenment

Guy Fawkes' signature before and after torture

Montesquieu-Power should be shared and checked

Voltaire-"I do not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"

Rousseau-Humans essentially free, people consent to be ruled by government, but can change that government if not consented

Death of Thomas Cromwell, architect of the Church of England split with Catholicism, who fell out of favor with the king after arranging the disastrous marriage to Anne of Cleves. Was convicted of heresy and treason.

Videos of the pope's interaction with Henry VIII, influence of Lutheranism and eventual break. All from Showtime's The Tudors

Social Classes

Major Conflicts

Dutch---The United Provinces (later Netherlands)

Scientific Revolution

-Thirty Years War

• Began as a war of religious uprisings in Germany (Holy Roman Empire*) with states getting involved to protect Protestants or Catholics
• When France saw Austria gaining too much influential power, they declared war on Austria!! A Catholic nation declaring war on a Catholic nation over a war that began over religion. Also, Denmark declares war on Sweden to curb Swedish power, two Lutheran nations at war.
• Turns into first major balance of power war in modern Europe
• 1/3 of all Germans die to disease, war, famine, and armies
• Ends with Treaty of Westphalia
• Spain acknowledges Netherlands as independent
• French gain Alsace province (more later)
• Calvinism recognized
• Right to practice religion even if not the main religion of principality
• Switzerland recognized as independent

Spain

New class: Gentry generally a 'gentleman' as a rank, that is, a person that owned land and an estate. They became more wealthy as land was needed to furnish products and produce food for more people. Some also became gentry after getting wealthy from international commerce

Nobility in Europe: most saw a reduction in power as kings asserted supreme control. German nobles and princes had much more independence in ruling their principalities. French, English, and Spanish nobility had to attend more to the whims of their monarchs for status and favor

Profits in world trade allowed many to pay for arts and artisans, leading to an investment into the arts: Shakespeare, Cervantes, Rembrandt, Bach, Vivaldi, Handel

Gained independence from Spanish late 16th century

Dutch Golden Age--prosperity from trade

--largest merchant fleet in the world

--Holland became the richest, most developed place in the world at the time

--wealth allowed for increased funding in arts

Dutch East India Company

-Trading post empire

-Joint stock venture

-Individuals bought shares

-Beat out Portuguese in Indian Ocean

-Fierce competition, hostile actions between merchants of other countries

Few colonies of settlement--New Netherland (New York), New Batavia (Java Island, Jakarta), South Africa

• Colonized Canary Islands in 1440s, taste of imperialism
• United Spain in 1492 with expulsion of Muslims and marriage of the two largest families, Castille and Aragorn
• After some early wars with Portuguese over colonies and losing, Spain looked elsewhere to find colonies or routes to India
• Columbus
• brings back lots of stuff!
• establishes early colonies
• Conquistadors **See Americas
• Treaty of Tordesillas (1506 CE) Divided Portuguese and Spanish 'hemispheres' of colonization
• 1588 Spanish Armada moves to attack and invade England, nasty storms destroy the fleet
• Spain never fully recovers

Potosi Mine--current and history

Benefits

Piracy

• Pirates preyed on vulnerable treasure ships, mainly Spanish
• Golden Age 1660-1720, no more than 4000 pirates at any one time (most non-merchant ships of the time housed 200-300 men)
• Pirate ports of Port Royal, Jamaica; Tortuga, Haiti; and Nassau, Bahamas

Scientific Revolution

*Holy Roman Empire was a loosely-aligned group of Germany principalities, while they had to pay taxes to the HR Emperor, the principalities could negotiate with foreign powers

Also, the Peace of Augsburg in 1555 allowed principalities to recognize either Lutheranism or Catholicism as their religion

Francis Bacon-empiricism, insisted on collection of data that can be backed by a hypothesis

Royal Academies of Science established in France and England

Isaac Newton, using Galileo and Kepler's ideas writes Principia--lays out laws of gravitation, motion, and invents Calculus

• Changes science as known at the time, using theoretical proofs backed by initial observations, not everything has to be backed by empirical observation

From a better understanding of natural laws comes a view that there is a natural order to governments and society--this will go on to challenge governments

Coerced Labor

American foods were incorporated into world cuisine and many adoptions took hold

• Tomatoes in Italy
• Potatoes in Ireland, Germany, Eastern Europe
• Hot peppers in China
• Yams in Africa

Afro-Eurasian diets improved and nutrition went up as a result of crop diversity

• Increase in population

Slave Trade--Middle Passage

• Middle point in exchange of goods--raw materials to Europe, products to Africa, slaves to Americas
• Africans profited from slavery as chiefs used European products to control their subjects
• they brought slaves of other tribes from the interior to trading ports
• African slaves to the Americas were used mainly as field workers on plantations (chattel slavery)
• No marriage or offspring recognized
• Mixed with other tribal groups, no solidarity with other slaves, isolated
• branded, were shipped and traded naked
• African slaves in the Indian Ocean region were mainly used at ports, were allowed to marry and eventually purchase freedom

Other forms of coerced labor

• Indentured servitude--paying for a voyage across Atlantic in years of service, usually 7
• Encomienda and hacienda systems-- make indigenous people Spanish citizens through religion and language
• Encomienda is similar to feudalism, Spanish were lords, peasants, servants, and enslaved were the serfs
• Haciendas were large land manors
• Adoption of the Mit'a system

Environmental cost

• deforestation and soil depletion

Other Developments/Places

Africa

Americas

Songhay Empire

• Mexica (Aztec) used human sacrifice to legitimize rule

• Vodun developed in Caribbean from interactions between Africans and Christianity
• The god Bondye is considered unreachable and thus prayers should be aimed at lesser entities called loa. Loa have been associated to certain Roman Catholic saints, like Damballa to St. Patrick
• Songs and prayer are a part of worship

• From Spanish colonization came a mixing of cultures leading to creole elites--Spanish descendents born in the Americas

• Askia the Great 1493-1528 CE
• Did not have a clear right to rule in a traditional sense--no lineage, nobility, etc
• A devout Muslim, intensified Songhay's ties to Islam
• Created Islamic schools, mosques, and welcomed Islamic scholars and artisans into his court
• Declared Jihad on neighboring enemies as another way to use Islam to solidify power

Djenne today

salt caravan

World Developments and Other Notes

Little Ice Age--14th-19th Century, decline in agriculture and changing practices caused contraction of settlements in Northern Hemisphere

European family sizes decreased as approaching industrialization (should I bring up Demographic Transition, APHG students?)

Women were increasingly important in Southeast Asian trade with Europeans

• Women would be aquainted with family business and know what was needed
• Women often held the wealth of the family and made spending decisions as men were out traveling (trading)
• Temporary marriages--as European men were in country or at a trading post, would take a wife and produce offspring, knowing it only lasted as long as the man's term
• The wife would receive economic benefit from this relationship, getting foreign goods and presents from trading
• When husband's term ended, she was in an economically advantaged position for her and her children to remarry

This time period saw frequent peasant uprisings and food riots--this challenged the ruler's authority if they could not appease the citizenry