Using your big picture notes, answer the
following questions.
• 1. (B.P.? # 1) To what extent did Europeans
transform earlier patterns of commerce and in
what ways did the assimilate into those older
patterns?
• 2. (B.P. ? #4) Asians African and Native
Americans experienced early modern European
expansion in quite different ways. Based on Chpts
13 and 14 describe those differences. In what
respects were they active agents in the historical
process rather than simply victims of European
actions?
Question # 1
• Europeans for 1st time operated on global scale,
creating new trade networks across the Atlantic
and Pacific oceans.
• included fur supplying regions in wider trade
networks
• Assimilated old patterns by becoming involved
in the pre-existing Indian Ocean trade.
Question # 2
• In Americas- Europe conquered completely. (politically
and economically) due to the devastation of the Native
populations (disease) and that Native technology could not
rival Europeans.
• In Africa – became part of a pre-existing slave trade. No
effort to conquer large territories in Africa. Could be
because West Africa offered to many tropical diseases.
• Asia – Europeans sought “trading post empires”.
Europeans controlled small islands or ports, but were
unable to conquer large land territories. Shows the larger
territories were to powerful for Europeans to control.
Globalization of Christianity
1500 Christianity was mostly in Europe – there were
small communities in Egypt, Ethiopia, and Central
Asia.
Schism – divisions btwn Roman Catholic and Eastern
Orthodox.
Both felt they had to be defensive against Islam.
Loss of Holy land by 1300
Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453
Ottoman siege of Vienna 1529
Western Christendom Fragmented:
Protestant Reformation
Printing press allows for more people to have
access to the bible.
1517 – Martin Luther posts 95 Theses on the door
of the Catholic Church. - protests the selling of
indulgences, ?'s role of the clerical hierarchy (
including the pope. )
Protestant Reformation
Led to Schism in Catholic Church
Fed on political, economic, and social tensions, not just
religious differences.
Some monarchs used Luther to justify independence from
the papacy
Gave a new religious legitimacy to the middle class.
Commoners attracted to new religious ideas as a tool to
protest against social order.
Role of women
• Many women were attracted to Protestantism, but
the Reformation didn't give them a greater role in
church or society.
• Protestants ended veneration (respect, reverence)
of Mary and other female saints.
• Protestants closed convents- which gave women an
alternative to marriage.
• Some increase in educations of women because of
wanting to read the bible.
Political divisions to the Reformation
• 1562-1598 French Wars – Catholics vs ( Protestant
minority) Huguenots. Ended with Henry VI issuing the
Edict of Nantes ( religious tolerance of France)
• 30 years war – 1618-1648 Initially, the war was fought
largely as a religious conflict between Protestants and
Catholics in the Holy Roman Empire, although disputes over
the internal politics and balance of power within the Empire
played a significant part.
Fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points
involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most
destructive conflicts in European history.
- OVERALL: encouraged skepticism toward authority and
tradition, fostered religious individualism, led to skepticism
about all religions in some cases
Council of Trent
Catholic church was forced to make reforms
- Corrected abuses and corruption of the clergy.
- New emphasis on education and supervision of
priests.
- New attention given to individual spirituality
Christianity expansion-Americas
Benefited from European expansion.
-Spanish and Portuguese saw overseas expansion of
Christianity as a continuation of the crusades.
- Population collapse, conquest, and resettlement made
natives receptive to conquering religion.
- Europeans tried to destroy previous native beliefs instead of
accommodating them.
- Met with resistance by natives. So, blending of the two
religions was common. Local gods remained influential.
- Christian saints took on functions of pre-colonial gods.
- Leader of church staff was a prestigious native.
Christianity- China
- Reached China in the powerful Ming and Qing
dynasties.
- Missionaries sent because they needed government
permission to operate.
- Jesuits- Society of Jesus targeted Chinese Elite.
- Jesuits shared western tech- astronomy,
mathematics, science and visual arts with Chinese
scholars and officials. Those were also most of the
people who converted.
- On the whole, Christianity was unappealing to
Chinese pop due to it’s all or nothing idea that
rejected a lot of Chinese cultural traditions.
African Religions
-Native African religions and practices came to the
Americas with slaves.
-divination, dream interpretation, visions and spirit
possession.
- Europeans tried to suppress these elements calling
them sorcery.
- Vodou- later Voodoo involves a blending of African
religions with others.
Islamic World
Continued spread of Islam due to trade- not conquest.
-Islands of SE Asia were difficult to convert due to
diversity of native beliefs
-syncretism of Islamization was offensive to orthodox
Muslims led to movements of religious renewal.
- Jihads in West Africa led to attack corrupt Islamic
practices and growing tensions between localized and
“pure” Islam.
- Wahhabism- untra-conservative sect of Sunni Islam.
Felt that Islam had moral decline and political
weakness condemned what was perceived as idolatry,
the popular cult of saints, and shrine and tomb
visitation
Less changed beliefs
Confucianism and Hindu cultures didn’t spread so
change was not as dramatic or evident.
- Ming and Qing China still operated under
Confucianism, however the addition of Buddhism
and Doaist ideas blended with it, led to NEOConfucianism.
- Change in culture and introduction of literature
allowed for a new way of thinking= commoners and
less educated to be more respected and have
religious opportunities.
India
Movements brought Hindu and Muslims together.
- Bhakti devotional Hinduism, effort to achieve union
with (monotheistic) divine through song, prayers,
dance, poetry, and rituals.
- Appealed to women, set aside caste distinctions.
Sikhism- combined Hindu and Muslim as one. Threw
out classes and promoted equality of men and
women.
- Evolved as a militant community in response to
hostility.
Scientific Revolution
Intellectual and cultural transformation.
- Use scientific rev.ppt unit 10.
Why Europe
800-1400 Islamic World was the most scientifically
advanced. Before that China had the most advanced tech.
-Why Europe?- evolution of legal system guaranteed
independence for a variety of institutions.
- Idea of corporation – collective group
- Autonomy of universities allowing freedom to study what
you choose
- Due to the massive trade with so many other cultures, this
exchange of information led to a new way of thinking.
- Skeptism from protestant reformation led to seeking
answers for how things worked instead of taking previous
ideas.
Enlightenment

Scientific approach applied to human affairs

Adam Smith – formulated economic laws
Immanuel Kant – defined Enlightenment as
“daring to know”

Enlightenment thinkers believed that
knowledge would transform human society.

Caused hostility toward political authority –
- denied the divine right and aristocratic
priviledge
Enlightenment cont.
- Some attacked religion – Voltaire (freedom of
Religion)
- many were deists ( a remote deity that created the
world doesn't intervene)
- pantheists ( equated God and nature)
- some regarded religion as fraud
So What?
- Scientific revolution helps spark the Industrial
Revolution.
- Enlightenment ideas spread to the Americas,
France, Haiti and Latin America and spark political
revolutions.
- After the Revolutions, Enlightenment ideas help
shape their new governments.