Asia in Transition
Bonds of Commerce: The Asian Sea Trading
Network, c.1500
Asian sea trading network broken out into 3 zones:
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Arab zone anchored on the glass, carpet, and tapestry
making Islamic heartlands
India with cotton textiles dominated the central
portions of the system
China- paper, porcelain, silk – formed the
eastern pole
Raw materials- highest prices paid for spices from
Indonesia (Ceylon)
2 characteristics that made
European domination possible:
No central command of the system
Military force was usually absent from
commercial exchanges within it
Trading Empire: The Portuguese Response to
the Encounter at Calicut
Portuguese had little to trade with the Asians, so they had
to resort to take by force what they couldn’t get by trade
Europeans had superior weaponry and ships to do this
1502 da Gama returned to Asian waters and forced ports
on the African and Indian coasts (Egyptian-Indian attack
was defeated) and turned them into tribute ports to a
Portuguese regime
1507 Europeans strove to capture towns and build
fortresses at a number of strategic ports: Ormuz, Goa,
Malacca
Ships and naval stations became key components of the
empire
Portuguese monopoly and licensing system was intended
to give Portugal sizable control of the network
Portuguese Vulnerability and the Rise of the
Dutch and English Trading Empires
By the end of the 16th century they were losing their foothold
Dutch war fleet superior and in early 17th century captured critical
Portuguese port at Malacca and built new port in 1620 at Batavia (on
Java)
Dutch strategy was to control key spices, like cinnamon and pepper,
and not the whole network as the Portuguese had tried to do
English tried to get this but didn’t and were forced to concentrate on
India
Dutch trading empire similar to Portuguese (fortified towns and
factories, monopoly of products). They also uprooted competition
Ultimately, they found it more successful to peacefully integrate into
the system, so they adopted more peaceful trading patterns
British would copy this model in India
Going Ashore: European Tribute
Systems in Asia
European ships and guns superior and allowed them to
dominate the seas but once inland they couldn’t defeat the
native forces and often reduced to kowtowing or humbling
themselves in front of more powerful leaders
Spanish failure at Mindanao demonstrates the limits of
European power
Tribute systems they did set up were similar to the Spanish
systems in New world- European overlords let indigenous
people live in their own settlements and they didn’t
interfere as long as their leaders met the tribute quota
Spreading the Faith: The Missionary
Enterprise in South and Southeast Asia
Missionary zeal of Roman Catholicism of the Spanish and Portuguese
(not the Protestant Dutch and English)
Missionaries surprised at Hinduism, Islam’s strength
From 1540s missionaries in India successful – Francis Xavierministered to the poor and untouchables and was able to win converts
Robert di Nobili tried to convert the upper-caste Hindus but was
unsuccessful
Christianity relatively successful in the Philippines (but the Philippines
didn’t have the Muslim and Buddhist exposure). Many converted
because they had no choice- not because they understood Christianity
Much of pre-conquest life in Asia was maintained
Ming China: A Global Mission
Refused
Zhu Yuanzhangfounder of Ming
dynasty- 1368 declares
himself Hongwu
(emperor). He had
very humble
beginnings
His goal was to rid
China of any traces of
Mongol influence
Another Scholar-Gentry Revival
Zhu suspicious of scholar-gentry but knew
he needed their cooperation, so he reinstated
the examination system and scholars were
appointed to high government posts
During Ming era examination system
routinized and made more complex
Root Out Abuses in Court
Politics
Got rid of position of chief minister and
transferred those powers to himself in order to put
a check on scholar-gentry’s power
Public beatings for corruption and misdeeds
Emperor’s wives must come from humble family
origins
Got rid of Mencius’s writings
A Return to Scholar-Gentry
Social Dominance
Introduced measures to improve the lot of
common people
Growing power of rural landlord families
Continued subordination of youths to elders and
women to men- women and youth forced
underground
Plight of women still grim- spent lives trying to be
part of the court
Population, Commerce, and the
Arts
First decades- buoyant economic growth, population
boom, contacts with other civilizations (maize, sweet
potatoes, peanuts from Spanish and Portuguese in New
World)
Renewal of commercial growth. China had goods everyone
wanted and they ended up with a lot of silver. Macao and
Canton- only ports officially allowed to trade- merchants,
of course, reaped largest benefits
Fine art
Literature- full development of the Chinese novel The
Water Margin, Monkey and The Golden Lotus
An Age of Expansion: The
Zhenghe Expeditions
Under Yonglo (3rd Ming emperor) series of
expeditions 1405-1423 admiral Zhenghe led
seven major expeditions
Chinese Retreat and the Arrival
of the Europeans
1390 first imperial edict limiting Chinese overseas
commerce
Ming war fleet declined
Christian missionaries meanwhile infiltrated
Chinese coastal areas
Need to impress Chinese with scientific
knowledge- educated Jesuit scholars like Matteo
Ricci and Adam Schall were sent to spend time in
Beijing
Ming Decline and the Chinese
Predicament
By late 1500s Ming retreat from overseas
expeditions
Incompetent rulers in last two centuries
Desperate peasant population, which was taken
advantage of
Foreign threats by nomadic peoples from beyond
the Great Wall
Japanese pirate attacks in 16th century
1644 dynasty toppled by rebels within it
Reunification and the First
Challenge
By 16th century daimyo stalemate and recurring civil war so
entrenched that it too three military leaders to restore unity
Nobunaga- 1st leader- first daimyo to use extensive use of firearms that
the Japanese had begun to acquire from the Portuguese in 1540s
When Nobunaga died, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, his ablest general, took
over
By 1590 he was the military master of Japan but had grander visions of
taking over other parts of Asia and invaded Korea twice in 1592 and
1597 but to no avail
Tokugawa Ieyasu came to power and began the Tokugawa Shogunate1603
Capital at Edo
Why does a caged bird not sing?
“I’ll make it sing.”- Oda Nobunaga
“I’ll kill it if it doesn’t sing.”- Toyotomi
Hideyoshi
“I’ll wait until it sings.”- Tokugawa Ieyasu
Dealing with the European
Challenge
From 1543 onward had to deal with
Europeans
Missionary success (partly because
Nobunaga saw Buddhist orders as threat to
his own power, so he protected them)
Initial curiousity about firearms
By early 1580s many converts but new
religion threatened social order
Japan’s self-imposed Isolation
Late 1580s restriction on foreign activities
Christians kicked out, people told to convert, faith was
banned in 1614
1616 foreign traders confined to handful of cities and in
1630s all Japanese ships forbidden to sail overseas
Deshima- island in Nagasaki Bay where trade was still
allowed
By mid-17th century isolation complete
School of National Learning – laid emphasis on Japan’s
unique historical experience