C H A P T E R
1
2
T h e W o r l d s o f the
Fifteenth C e n t u r y
The Shapes o f Human Communities
Paleolithic Persistence: Australia and
North America
Agricultural Village Societies: The
Igbo and the Iroquois
Pastoral Peoples: Central Asia and
West Africa
Civilizations of the Fifteenth
Century: Comparing China and
Europe
?Columbus was a perpetrator o f genocide
.
. . , a slave trader, a thief,
a pirate, and most certainly n o t a hero. To celebrate Columbus is to
congratulate the process and history of the invasion.? This was the
view of Winona LaDuke, president of the Indigenous Women's Netw o r k , on the occasion in 1992 of t h e 500th anniversary o f Columbus?s arrival in the Americas. Much of t h e commentary surrounding
t h e event echoed t h e same themes, citing t h e history o f death, slavery, racism, and exploitation t h a t f o l l o w e d in t h e w a k e o f Columbus's
Ming Dynasty China
first voyage t o w h a t was f o r him an altogether New W o r l d . A century
European Comparisons: State
Building and Cultural Renewal
earlier, in 1892, t h e t o n e o f celebration had been very different. A
European Comparisons: Maritime
Voyaging
Civilizations of the Fifteenth
Century: The Islamic World
In the Islamic Heartland: The
Ottoman and Safavid Empires
On the Frontiers of Islam: The
Songhay and Mughal Empires
Civilizations of the Fifteenth
Century: The Americas
The Aztec Empire
The Inca Empire
Webs of Connection
A Preview of Coming Attractions:
Looking Ahead t o the Modern
Era, 1500-2015
Reflections: What If? Chance and
Contingency in World History
Zooming In: Zheng He, China's
Non-Chinese Admiral
Zooming In: 1453 in Constantinople
Working w i t h Evidence: Islam and
Renaissance Europe
presidential proclamation cited Columbus as a brave ?pioneer o f
progress and enlightenment? and instructed Americans t o ?express
h o n o r to the discoverer and their appreciation o f t h e great achievements of four completed centuries o f American life.? The century t h a t
f o l l o w e d witnessed the erosion of Western d o m i n a n c e in t h e w o r l d
and the discrediting of racism and imperialism and, w i t h it, t h e reputation o f Columbus.
his sharp reversal o f opinion about Columbus provides a
reminder that the past is as unpredictable as the future. Few
Americans in 1892 could have guessed that their daring hero could
emerge so tarnished only a century later. A n d few people living in
1492 could have imagined the enormous global processes set i n
motion by the voyage o f Columbus?s three small s h i p s ? t h e Atlantic slave trade, the decimation o f the native peoples o f the A m e r i cas, the massive growth o f w o r l d population, the Industrial R e v o -
lution, and the growing prominence o f Europeans on the w o r l d
stage. N o n e o f these developments were even remotely foreseeable
in 1492.
The Meeting of Two Worlds = This n ineteenth-century painting shows Columbus on his first voyage to the New World. He
is reassuring his anxious sailors by pointing to the first sight of land. In light of its long-range consequences, this voyage represents a major turning point in world history.
499
500
CHAPTER 12 / THE WORLDS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
£ Columbus was arguably the single
Thus, i n historical hindsight, that voyage © B u t i t was n o t the o n l y significant
most i m p o r t a n t event o f the fifteenth century.
m a r k e r o f that century. A C e n t r a l Asian T u r k i c w a r r i o r
n a m e d T i m u r l a u n c h e d the
sia e m e r g e d f r o m t w o cen-
s o n o f a d j a c e n t c i v i l i z a t i o n s . R uusss i a
j o r pastoral invasio
y
ao d i n g p r o j e c t across n o r t h e r n A c i n
:
turies o f M o n g o l rule to begin a huge empire~
.
+
last m a
.
.
.
ge
*
3
A n e w European i u i l i z a t i o n was taking shape i n the R e n a s s a n
In 1405, a n
enormous Chinese fleet, d w a r f i n g that o f C o l u m b u s ,s e t o u t across the o n e Indian
Ocean basin, o n l y to v o l u n t a r i l y w i t h d r a w t w e n t y - e i g h t years later. T h e Islamic
O t t o m a n E m p i r e p u t a final end t o C h r i s t i a n B y z a n t i u m w i t h t h e
Constantinople i n 1453, even as Spanish Christians c o m p l e t e d the
c o n q u e s t of
reconquest
of
the Iberian Peninsula f r o m the M u s l i m s i n 1492. A n d i n t h e A m e r i c a s , theA z t e c
and Inca empires gavea final and spectacular expression t o M e s o a m e r i c a n and
A n d e a n civilizations before they were b o t h s w a l l o w e d u p i n t h e b u r s t o f European
imperialism that f o l l o w e d the arrival o f C o l u m b u s .
Because the fifteenth century was a hinge o f major historical change on many
fronts, it provides an occasion f o r a bird?s-eye view o f the world
througha kind o f global tour. This excursion around the world
____
f
W h a t predictions about the future
might a global t r a v e l e r in the fif-
teenth century have reasonably
made?
-cibapbssinitaat
w i l l serve to briefly review the human saga thus far and to
~
§
{
:
.
establish a baseline from w h i c h the enormous transformations
of the centuries that followed m i g h t be measured. H o w , then,
might we describe the world, and the worlds, o f the fifteenth
century?
The Shapes o f H u m a n C o m m u n i t i e s
One way to describe the world o f the fifteenth century is to identify the various
types o f societies that it contained. Bands o f hunters and gatherers, villages o f agricultural peoples, newly emerging chiefdoms or small states, pastoral communities
established civilizations and e m p i r e s ? a l l o f these social or political formsw o u l d
have been apparent to a widely traveled visitor i n the fifteenth century. Representing alternative ways o f organizing human life, all o f them were l o n g established by
the fifteenth century, but the balance among these distinctive kinds o f societies in
1500 was quite different than it had been a thousand years earlier
P a l e o l i t h i c Persistence: A u s t r a l i a a n d N o r t h A m e r i c a
Despitem i l e n a o f agricultural advance, substantial areas o f the w o r l d still hosted
gathering and hunting societies, k n o w n to historians as Paleolithic ( O l d Stone Age)
P e n
t
a U of
A m
Australia, m u c h o f Siberia, t h e arctic coastlands, a n d parts o f Africa
}
?
:
bygone age?They t00 hat che weed ony These peoples were not simply relics of a
.
ad
changed
o v e r time, , t h o u ggh h m o r e slowly th
cultural counterparts, and they too interacted w i t h their neighbors
had
.
h o e?hey
a hihistory, although most history books largely ignore them after the age
ad a
.
of agri-
:
THE SHAPES OF H U M A N C O M M U N I T I E S
501
A M A P OF T I M E
1345-1521
A z t e c E m p i r e in M e s o a m e r i c a
" 1368-1644 Ming dynasty in China
rne
e
4 370-1405
Conquests o f T i m u r
15th c e n t u r y
Spread o f Islam in Southeast Asia
Civil w a r a m o n g Japanese w a r l o r d s
Rise o f H i n d u state o f Vijayanagara in southern India
E u r o p e a n Renaissance
F l o u r i s h i n g o f A f r i c a n states o f Ethiopia, K o n g o , Benin,
Zimbabwe
can t
1405-1 4 3 3
1415
1438-1533
1453
1464-1591
1492
n
e
ce
e n
Nee t e
B e g i n n i n g o f Portuguese e x p l o r a t i o n o f West African coast
I n c a E m p i r e a l o n g t h e Andes
O t t o m a n seizure o f C o n s t a n t i n o p l e
S o n g h a y E m p i r e in W e s t Africa
C h r i s t i a n r e c o n q u e s t o f Spain f r o m Muslims completed;
Columbus's first transatlantic voyage
pa
n
1497-1520s
e
Chinese m a r i t i m e voyages
n
e
m
t
a
Portuguese e n t r y into the IndianO c e a n w o r l d
1501
F o u n d i n g o f Safavid E m p i r e in Persia
1526
F o u n d i n g o f M u g h a l E m p i r e in India
culture arrived. Nonetheless, this most ancient way o f life still had a sizable and
variable presence i n the w o r l d o f the fifteenth century.
Consider, f o r example, Australia. That continent?s many separate groups, some
250 o f them, still practiced a gathering and hunting way o f life i n the fifteenth century, a pattern that continued well after Europeans arrived i n the late eighteenth
century. O v e r many thousands o f years, these people had assimilated various material items o r cultural practices from o u t s i odu ter i gr gse r canoes, fishhooks, com?
plex nettirig techniques, artistic styles, rituals, and mythological i d e a s ? b u t despite
the presence o f farmers i n nearby N e w Guinea, no agricultural practices penetrated
the Australian mainland. Was it because large areas o f Australia were unsuited for
the k i n d o f agriculture practiced in N e w Guinea? O r did the peoples o f Australia,
enjoying an environment o f sufficient resources, simply see no need to change their
w a y o f life?
.
.
Despite the absence o f agriculture, Australia?s peoples hadmastered and manipulated their environment, in part through the practice o f ?firestick farming,? a
pattern o f deliberately set fires, which they described as ?cleaning up the country.?
@
Comparison
In what ways did the gath-
ering and hunting people of
Australia differ from those
of the northwest coast of
North America?
502
CH
APTER 12 / THE WORLDS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
These controlled burns served to clear the underbrush, thus a t i n g v l i d o n e n s ii e
and encouraging the g r o w t h o f certain plant and animal P e
° dredso f
i ,
Australians exchanged goods among themselves o v e t distances 4 u n ,
? es,
created elaborate mythologies and ritual practices, and develope h e , 8h e t trabasis o f
ditions o f sculpture and r o c k painting. T h e y accomplisheda l l o f this o n
cee
the
an e c o n o m y and t e c h n o l o g y r o o t e d i n the distantP a l e o l i t h i c past.
hed
in
th
A very different k i n d o f gathering and h u n t i n g society flourishe
. the f i f .
t e e n t h c e n t u r y along the northwest coast o f N o r t h A m e r i c a a m o n g ene Cl inookan,
T u l a l i p , Skagit, and other peoples. W i t h some 3 0 0 edible a n i m a l species and an
abundance o f salmon and other fish, this extraordinarily b o u n t e o u s o c e a n
p r o v i d e d the f o u n d a t i o n for w h a t scholars sometimes call ?complex? o r ?affluent?
g a t h e r i n g and h u n t i n g cultures. W h a t distinguished the n o r t h w e s t coast peoples
f r o m those o f Australia w e r e permanent village settlements w i t h large a n d sturdy
houses, considerable e c o n o m i c specialization, r a n k e d societies t h a t sometimes
i n c l u d e d slavery, chiefdoms dominated by p o w e r f u l clan leaders o r ?big men,? and
?ay:
extensive storage o f food.
A l t h o u g h these and other gathering and h u n t i n g peoples persisted still i n the
fifteenth century, both their numbers and the area they inhabited had contracted
greatly as the Agricultural Revolution unfolded across the planet. That relentless
advance o f the farming frontier continued in the centuries ahead as the Russian,
Chinese, and European empires encompassed the lands o f the remaining Paleolithic
peoples. By the early twenty-first century, what was once the only human way of
life had been reduced to minuscule pockets o f people whose cultures seemed
doomed toa f i n a l extinction.
Agricultural Village Societies: The Igbo and the Iroquois
Far more numerous than gatherers and hunters were those many peoples who,
though fully agricultural, had avoided incorporation into larger empires or civilizations and had not developed their o w n city- or state-based societies. L i v i n g usually
i n small village-based communities and organized i n terms o f kinship relations, such
people predominated during the fifteenth century i n m u c h o f N o r t h America; in
most o f the tropical lowlands o f South America and the Caribbean; in parts o f the
Amazon R i v e r basin, Southeast Asia, and Africa south o f the equator; and througho u t Pacific Oceania. Historians have largely relegated such societies to the
periph-
© perip
ery of warld history,
ye
viewing, them as marginal to the cities, states, and large-scale
civilizations that predominate in most accounts of the global past. Viewed from
m Change
What kinds of changes
.
were transformingt h e societies o f the West African
Igbo and the North Ameri.
can jroquois aS the fifteenth
century unfolded?
w i t h i n their own circles, though, these societies were at the center o f things each
w i t h its o w n history o f migration, cultural tran
s f o r m a t i o n , social c o n f l i c t , i n c o r p o -
ration o f new people, political rise and fall,
and interaction with strangers. In short,
they too changed as their histories took sh
ape.
en
Niger Raver in the heavily forested region o f West Africa lay the
of she Igbo (EE-boh) peoples, By the fifteenth century, their neighbors, the
ps
of
he
503
THE SHAPES OF H U M A N C O M M U N I T I E S
Yoruba and Bini, had begun to develop small states and urban centers. But the
Igbo, whose dense population and extensive trading networks might well have
given rise to states, declined to follow suit. The deliberate Igbo preference was to
reject the kingship and state-building efforts o f their neighbors. They boasted on
occasion that ?the Igbo have no kings.? Instead, they relied on other institutions to
maintain social cohesion beyond the level o f the village: title societies in which
wealthy men receiveda series o f prestigious ranks, women?s associations, hereditary ritual experts serving as mediators, and a balance o f power among kinship
groups. It was a ?stateless society,? famously described in Chinua Achebe?s
Things Fall Apart, the most widely read novel to emerge from twentiethcentury Africa.
But the Igbo peoples and their neighbors did not live in isolated, selfcontained societies. They traded actively among themselves and w i t h more
distant peoples, such as the large Aftican kingdom o f Songhay (sahn-GEYE)
far to the north. Cotton cloth, fish, copper and iron goods, decorative
objects, and more drew neighboring peoples into networks o f exchange.
C o m m o n artistic traditions reflected a measure o f cultural unity in a
politically fragmented region, and all o f these peoples seem to have
changed from a matrilineal to a patrilineal system o f tracing their descent.
Little o f this registered i n the larger civilizations o f the Afro-Eurasian
world, b u t to the peoples o f the West African forest during the fifteenth
A
4 a 4 N. \
;
century, these processes were central to their history and their dailylives. Soon, however, all o f them w o u l d be caught up in the transatlantic
slave trade and w o u l d be changed substantially in the process.
Across the Atlantic i n what is n o w central N e w Y o r k State, other agricultural village societies were also in the process o f substantial change during the several centuries preceding their incorporation into European trading
networks and empires. The Iroquois-speaking peoples o f that region had only
recently become fully agricultural, adopting maize- and bean-farming techniques
that had originated centuries earlier in Mesoamerica. As this productive agriculture
took hold by 1300 o r so, the population grew, the size o f settlements increased, and
distinct peoples emerged. Frequent warfare also erupted among them. Some schol-
Igbo A r t
Widely known for their masks,
used in a variety of ritual and
ceremonial occasions, the Igbo
were also among the first to
ars have speculated that as agriculture, largely seen as women?s w o r k , became the
produce bronze castings using
the ?lost wax? method. This
primary economic activity, ?warfare replaced successful food getting as the avenue
to male prestige.?
exquisite bronze pendant in the
form of a human head derives
Whatever caused it, this increased level o f conflict among Iroquois peoples triggered a remarkable political innovation around the fifteenth century: a loose alliance
or confederation among five Iroquois-speaking p e o p l e s ? t h e M o h a w k , Oneida,
Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca. Based on an agreement k n o w n as the Great Law
o f Peace (see M a p 12.5, page 523), the Five Nations, as they called themselves,
agreed to settle their differences peacefully through a confederation council o f clan
leaders, some fifty o f them altogether, w h o had the authority to adjudicatedisputes
and set reparation payments. Operating by consensus, the Iroquois League o f Five
from the Igbo Ukwu archeological site in eastern Nigeria and
dates t o the ninth century c.e.
(The British Museum, London, UK/
Werner Forman/Art Resource, NY)
504
CHAPTE
R 12 / THE WORLDS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
Nations effectively suppressed the blood feuds and tribal conflicts that had only
r e c e n t l y been so widespread. I t also coordinated their peoples? r e l a t i o n s h i p W i t h
outsiders, i n c l u d i n g the Europeans, w h o arrived i n g r o w i n g numbers i n the centuries after 1500.
es o f limited government, social
gave expression to valu
The Iroquois League
equality,a n d nersonalfreedom, concepts that some European colonists foundhighly
attractive. One British colonial administrator declared i n 1749 that the Iroquois
had ?such absolute Notions o f Liberty that they allow noK i n d of Superiority of
one over another, and banish all Servitude from their Territories.?* Such equality
extended to gender relationships, for among the Iroquois, descent was matrilineal
(reckoned through the woman?s line), married couples lived w i t h the wife?s family,
and w o m e n controlled agriculture and property. While men were hunters, warriors, and the primary political officeholders, women selected and could depose
those leaders.
Wherever they lived in 1500, over the next several centuries independent agricultural peoples such as the Iroquois and Igbo were increasingly encompassed in
expanding economic networks and conquest empires based i n Western Europe,
Russia, China, o r India. In this respect, they replicated the experience o f many other
village-based farming communities that had much earlier found themselves forcibly
included in the powerful embrace o f Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Roman, Indian,
Chinese, and other civilizations.
Pastoral Peoples: Central Asia and West Africa
Pastoral peoples had long impinged more directly and dramatically on civilizations
than did hunting and gathering or agricultural village societies. T h e M o n g o l incursion, along w i t h the enormous empire to which it gave rise, was one in a l o n g series
o f challenges from the steppes, but it was not quite the last. As the M o n g o l Empire
disintegrated, a brief attempt to restore it occurred i n the late fourteenth and early
fifteenth centuries under the leadership o f a T u r k i c warrior named T i m u r , bom
i n what is n o w Uzbekistan and k n o w n in the West as Tamerlane (see Map 12.1,
m@
Significance
What role did Central Asian
and West African pastoralists play in their respective
regions?
page 506).
W i t h a ferocity that matched or exceeded that o f his model, Chinggis Khan,
Timur?s army o f pastoralists brought immense devastation yet again to Russia,
Persia, and India. T i m u r himself died in 1405, while preparing for an invasion of
China. Conflicts among his successors prevented any lasting empire, although his
descendants retained control o f the area between Persia and Afghanistan for the rest
o f the fifteenth century. That state hosted a sophisticated elite culture, combining
T u r k i c and Persian elements, particularly at its splendid capital o f Samarkand, as its
rulers patronized artists, poets, traders, and craftsmen. Timur?s conquest proved to
be the last great military success o f pastoral peoples f r o m Central Asia. In the cent u r i e st h a tf o l l o w e d , their homelands were swallowed up i n the expanding Russian
and Chinese empires, as the balance o f power between steppe pastoralists o f inne!
Eurasia and the civilizations o f outer Eurasia turned decisively i n favor o f the latter.
C I V I L I Z A T I O N S OF THE FIFTEENTH C E N T U R Y : C O M P A R I N G C H I N A A N D E U R O P E
I n Africa, pastoral peoples stayed independent o f established empires several
centuries longer than those o f Inner Asia, f o r n o t until the late nineteenth century
were they incorporated into European colonial states. The experience o f the Fulbe,
West Africa?s largest pastoral society, provides an example o f an African herding
people w i t h a highly significant role in the fifteenth century and beyond. From
their homeland i n the western fringe o f the Sahara along the upper Senegal River,
the Fulbe had migrated gradually eastward i n the centuries after 1000 c.g. (seeM a p
12.3, page 514). U n l i k e the pastoral peoples o f Inner Asia, they generally lived
i n small communities among agricultural peoples and paid various grazing fees and
taxes f o r the privilege o f pasturing their cattle. Relations w i t h their farming hosts
often w e r e tense because the Fulbe resented their subordination to agricultural
peoples, whose w a y o f life they despised. That sense o f cultural superiority became
even more p r o n o u n c e d as the Fulbe, i n the course o f their eastward m o v e m e n t ,
slowly adopted Islam. Some o f t h e m i n fact d r o p p e d o u t o f a pastoral life and settled
i n towns, w h e r e t h e y became highly respected religious leaders. In the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries, the Fulbe were at the center o f a wave o f religiously
based uprisings, o r jihads, w h i c h greatly expanded the practice o f Islam and gave
rise to a series o f n e w states, ruled b y the Fulbe themselves.
Civilizations o f the Fifteenth Century:
C o m p a r i n g C h i n a and Europe
B e y o n d the foraging, farming, and pastoral societies o f the fifteenth-century w o r l d
were its civilizations, those city-centered and state-based societies that w e r e far
larger and m o r e densely populated, more p o w e r f u l and innovative, and m u c h m o r e
unequal in terms o f class and gender than other forms o f human c o m m u n i t y . Since
the First C i v i l i z a t i o n s had emerged between 3500 and 1000 B.c.z., b o t h t h e geographic space they encompassed and the n u m b e r o f people they embraced had
g r o w n substantially. B y the fifteenth century, a considerable majority o f the world?s
population lived w i t h i n one o r another o f these civilizations, although most o f these
_people no d o u b t identified m o r e w i t h local communities than w i t ha larger civilization. W h a t m i g h t an imaginary global traveler notice about the world?s major c i v i lizations in the fifteenth century?
M i n g Dynasty China
Such a traveler m i g h t well begin his o r her j o u r n e y i n China, heir to a l o n g tradition
o f effective governance, Confucian and Daoist philosophy, a major Buddhist presence, sophisticated artistic achievements, and a highly productive economy. T h a t
civilization, h o w e v e r , had been greatly disrupted b y a c e n t u r y o f M o n g o l rule, and
its p o p u l a t i o n had been sharply reduced b y the plague.
During
t h e Min
(1368-1644), however, C h i n a recovered (see M a p 12.1). T h e early decades o f that
dynasty witnessed a n e f f o r t toeliminate a l lS igns ¢o f foreign rule, discouraging the
u s oef Mongol names and dress, while promoting Confucian leat ninga n d orthodox
? ?
?
?
?
505
506
C H A P T E R 1 2 , THE W O R L D S OF THE FIFTEENTH C E N T U R Y
Gh ?"
PACIFIC
TAIWAN O C E A N
A r a b i a n
S e a
MALDIVE: |
ISLAN|
u
.
I N D I A N
O C E A N
[ [ _ ] M i n g dynasty C h i n a
Timur?s e m p i r e about 1405
H B
Delhi Sultanate
Vijayanagara
?
M a p 12.1
Routes of M i n g dynasty voyages
Asia in the Fifteenth Century
The f i f t e e n t h century in Asia witnessed t h e massive M i n g dynasty voyages i n t o t h e Indian Ocean,
the last major eruption of pastoral power in Timur?s empire, and the flourishing of the maritime city
of Malacca.
gender roles, based o n earlier models f r o m the Han, Tang, and Song dynasties.
E m p e r o r Yongle ( Y A H N G - l e h ) (r. 1402-1422) sponsored an enormous Encyclopedia o f some 11,000 volumes. W i t h contributions f r o m more than 2,000 scholars,
this w o r k sought to summarize or compile all previous w r i t i n g o n history, geography, philosophy, ethics, government, and more. Y o n g l e also relocated the capital
to Beijing, ordered the building o f a magnificent imperial residence k n o w n as the
Forbidden C i t y , and constructed the Temple o f Heaven, where subsequent rulers
performed Confucian-based rituals to ensure the w e l l - b e i n g o f Chinese society.
T w o empresses wrote instructions for female behavior, emphasizing traditional
expectations after the disruptions o f the previous cent
China was l o o k i n g to its past.
ury. C u l t u r a l l y speaking,
;
a
pescription
id you define the
~ How wou
major achievements of
China?
Politically, the
dynasty r e e s t a b l i s h e d t h e c i v i l s e r v i c e e x a m i n a t i o n system
Mi
that
n had
e been
g l e c u nt d e reMongol
d
i z e d government. Po
tule and went on to create a highly central:
n n e of - r o w e r was concentrated in the hands o f the emperor himself,
(castrated men) personally loyal to the emperor exercised
w
1
Oe
chs
50 7
CIVILIZATIONS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY: COMPARING CHINA A N D EUROPE
great authority, m u c h to the dismay o f the official bureaucrats. The state acted vigorously to repair the damage o f the M o n g o l years by restoring millions o f acres to
cultivation; rebuilding canals, reservoirs, and irrigation works; and planting, according to some estimates, a billion trees in an effort to reforest China. Asa result, the
economy rebounded, both international and domestic trade flourished, and the
population grew. D u r i n g the fifteenth century, China had recovered and was perhaps the best governed and most prosperous o f the world?s major civilizations.
China also undertook the largest and most impressive maritime expeditions
the w o r l d had ever seen. Since the eleventh century, Chinese sailors and traders
had been a major presence in the South China Sea and i n Southeast Asian port cities, w i t h m u c h o f this activity in private hands. B u t now, after decades o f preparation, an enormous fleet, commissioned by Emperor Yongle himself, was launched
in 1405, f o l l o w e d over the next t w e n t y - e i g h t
years by six more such expeditions. O n board
more than 300 ships o f the first voyage was a
crew o f some 27,000, including 180 physicians, hundreds o f government officials, 5
astrologers, 7 h i g h - r a n k i n g o r grand eunuchs,
carpenters, tailors, accountants, merchants,
translators, cooks, and thousands o f soldiers
and sailors. Visiting many ports in Southeast
Asia, Indonesia, India, Arabia, and EastA f r i c a ,
these fleets, captained by the M u s l i m eunuch
Z h e n g H e ( U H N G - h u h ) , sought to enroll
distant peoples and states in the Chinese t r i b ute system (see M a p 12.1). Dozens o f rulers
accompanied the fleets back to China, where
they presented tribute, performed the required
rituals o f submission, and received i n return
abundant gifts, titles, and trading o p p o r t u nities. Chinese officials were amused b y some
o f the exotic products to be found a b r o a d ?
ne
oe
*
?
m
i
Dey
x]
.
ostriches, zebras, and giraffes, f o r example.
Officially described as ?bringing order to the
world,? Z h e n g He?s expeditions served to
establish Chinese p o w e r and prestige in the
Indian Ocean and to exert Chinese control
over foreign trade in the region. T h e Chinese,
however, did n o t seek to conquer new terri-
Temple of Heaven
tories, establish Chinese settlements, o r spread
early fifteenth century. in Chinese thinking,
|
t h e i r c u l t u r e , t h ough t h ey d i d intervene i n
a
n u m b e r o f local disputes. (See Z o o m i n g In:
Z h e n g H e , page 508.)
set ina forest of more than 650 acres, the
Temple of Heaven was constructed in the
inn
it was the primary place where Heaven
and Earth met. From his residence in the Forbidden City, the Chinese emperor led a
imploredthe g t s f o r e g e e a i n e e e o t S sacred site, where he offered sacrifices,
performed the rituals that maintained the
cosmic balance. (Imaginechina for AP Images)
mane.
508
life.
his
the
of
trajectory
this
have
Zheng
surely
in
a in
He for
the
aof
decisively
altered
China's turning
point
major
not
had
history
end
the
of
Mongol
coincided
with
His
resistwas
father
own
killed
rule.
tradition
continued
century.
would
devout father
to
had
and
his now
Both
the who
what
Asia Central
family
in
his
pilgrimage
Mecca.
made
Mongol
China
rulers
local
also
had
The
high family
serving
prominence
officials
as
achieved
Muslims
were
grandfather
is
in
Uzbekistan.
were
roots
China,
southwestem
Yunnan region
person
named
unusual
frontier
1371
Born Zheng
He.*
the
in
of in
in
aearly A of
the
the
in
century
most
was
fifteenth
helm
massive
China?s
expeditions
Maritime
it
Zheng
birth,
He's
as
happened,
The
as
he his
also
than Zheng
his
he
But
lost
their along
and
was
Ming
that
the
the
He
with
He Zheng
ing
in
a a lost
from the
of
of
in
becoming
castration,
eunuch.
underwent
organs
sex
male
freedom;
more
Chrispractice
China
history
long
well
as
had
supporters.
Muslim
young
Mongols
prisoner
hundreds
taken
Mongols
1382.
dynasty
ousted
forces
new
Eleven-year-old
Yunnan
world
a
khad
hundred
years,?
ever
ex
allowed
and
this
and
enormous
China?s
Non-Chinese
they
authoritie:
Chinese
1433,
After
ended.
were
seen
officials
Many
long
the
had
high-ranking
enterprise.
because
was
believed,
China,
self-suficie
the
they
resources
African
giraffe.
a?
emperor
\ordered
nown
been
who
Yongle,
death
into
had
had
involved
the
theitself
historian
recent
wrote
extinction
t of
interest
Chinese
court
excited
none
more Among
the
an He?s
than
Zheng
the
in
expeditions,
of
Zheng
He,
acquisitions
of
Admiral
deliberately
abruptly
voyages
surprising
was
these
feature
most
and
how
The
NY
of
Philadelphia
Resource,
(1977-42-1)/The
Museum
Art/Art
photo:
Giraffe
Dynasty
Tribe
China,
1414,
Ming
with
and
the
his
the
of
confidence
eventually
master,
(1368-1644),
Attendant,
won
John
on
and
of
ink
T.
(1403-1424),
the
almost
eunuch
himself
in proved
an
skirmishes
various
military
against
Mongols
leader
Dotrance,
Yongle
1977
Period
silk/Gift
color
He
Chinese
northern
around
soon
region
Zheng
Beijing.
effective
seven-foot-tall
deteriorate
port.
than
less
fleet
pensive
?In
to
in
wealth.
and
prestige,
of
greatest
voyages,
navy
?the
these
the
then
the
in
establishing
himself
s
expeditions
stopped
simply
such
nt
kingdom,?
?middle
of of
civil
shaped
was
the
of trading
their
for
possibility
power,
achieving
castration,
After
pure
chance
his
Chinese
voluntarily
men
became
eunuchs,
manhood
China?s
Strangely
service.
the
at
officials,
especially
central
substantial
numbers
enough,
Zheng
as
He?s
life
who
the
of
Di,
Zhu
to
the he
emperor,
reigning
was
assigned
son
fourth
imperial
court,
utter
their
where
theemperor
of
gained
the upon
loyalty
the
and
to
hostility
scholar~bureaucrats
lion
eunuchs
served
Chinese
the(1368-1644),
civilizations.
tian
Islamic
and
1mil. of
dynasty
years
someDuring
Ming
276
the
the
number
powerful
became
Asmall
members
emperor
and
elite,
the
of
enduring
themdependence
chief
Part
as
the
he the
a of
of
of?>
peditions
waste
patron
reason
a
elephants,
ostriches,
giraffe.
lions,
zebras,
and
empire
maritime
Indian
Ocean
basin.
the
in
they
But and
also
world
have
1433
and
the
role
his
2,000
Once
of
in
led
largely
effort
no
with
those
or going.
to
mold
an
not
punish
or
who
Chihe
the
for
to Zheng
trade,
on
force
used
knew
While
in
a of
of
in he piracy
a
He
ally
he and
his
he of
for
history.
something
revealed
man
his religion
he
age
hardly
Thus
that
not
Islamic
since
lived
in
the
at
he
his
adopted
ioft setting
is
a
in
voyage
During
Ceylon,
mon
China.
third
gifts
a
trilingual
recording
praise
erected
tablet
lavish
and
surprising
eleven.
posture
eclectic
more
coward
com-
the
capture
primarily
with
to
fascinating,
court
retuming
imperial
found
China
Zheng
also
He?s
The
relivoyages
changing
disclose
exotica
interior
eye
keen Ceylon.
had
also
He
kind
the
that
against
soldiers
miler
hostile
the
the
personally
overtures.
nese
Chinese
suppress
resisted
colonies
establish
peaceful,
occasions
several
control
journeys
were
was
where
in
Columbus,
ususailed
waters
well-traveled
fHe
ar
Zheng
himself
found
more
soon
with
But
?huge
of a
assignment
commander
China's
ambitious
Chinese
defined
himself.
Clearly,
explorer
was
than
blue
to
the
lower-ranking
assigned
eunuchs.
one
the
he
rather
robe,
could
Now
don
red
prestigious
vants.
voyages
Zheng
1405
between
seven
The
that
led
He
With
his
in as
of as
the
that
to
Zhu
civil
and
Di
the
in
Palace
Director
served
Zheng
SerGrand
as
first
He
Yongle
emperor,
emperor
master
1402.
power
brought
war
In
deliberately
large-scale
Philippines,
Taiwan, prevailed,
voices
Chinese
private
merchants
Chinese
craftsproject
eunuchs,
court
these
whom
despised.
officials
from
they
from
their
real
back
turned
what
surely
was
within
Asia,
support
without
their
state men
settle
Japan,
trade
andvoyages
as
as north,
Even
the
the little
the
the
to
quite
reach
on
itsgovernment.
they
but
so
did
the
The
to
and
the
andthese
the
the
?itsa of in of of
Chinese continued
Southeast
officialdom
constantly
barbarians
where
Finally,
threatened,
viewed
requiring
outside
eyes,
danger
world.
came
China
the
in
present.
shape
lite?
tion
his
AND
509
THE
OF
COMPARING
CIVILIZATIONS
EUROPE
CENTURY:
CHINA
FIFTEENTH
hfe.
his
an
of
In
meaning
insenption
own
essenoal
describe
Questions;
Zheng
might
How
life?
He's
of
arc
the
you
What
castraZheng
points?
tuming
major
were
He's
How
its
did
symbol
poution
global
growing
China's
peaceful
ways,
such potent
as century,
however,
resurrected voyages.
remarkable
past
Zheng
first
been rwenty-
a He
has the
those
carly
rely
and
their
in pure
and
could
of
In of
led
ihad
n unusual
Zheng
the
after
But
the
from
record,
largety
counrry
his
and
1¢
a3
about
forgot
even
from
we
the
thn,
sea,
most
who
man
a
cal
the
s He
tChinese
hande his
of
and
its
the
ts
intentions.
appropriated,
proves
distorted,
tomenmes
useful
withdrew
death,
vamshed
hisron-
upon
safety.?
them formgn
became
peaceful
pcuples
pursue
occupations
recklessly
routes
sea
Because
extermunated.
barbanan
countries,
kings
ressted
who
transformation
prior
just
Zheng
last
his
to
He
voyage.
erected
summa-
the
at
his
foreign
arnved
?When
rized
we
achievernents:
He
his
the
to
of
journeys
succes
credited
Zheng
the
said
relic
And
ain
be
to
of
the
a
Buddha.
tooth
famous
and
Allah.
form
local
to
the
the
to
to
aHindu
of
Buddha,
510
CH
A P T E R 12 / THE W O R L D S OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
European Comparisons:
State Building and Cultural Renewal
A t the other end o f the Eurasian continent, similar processes o f demographic recov.
ery, p o l i t i c a l consolidation, cultural flowering, and overseas expansion were under
way. Western Europe, having escaped M o n g o l conquest b u t devastated by the
plague, began to r e g r o w its p o p u l a t i o n during the second h a l f o f thef i f t e e n t h cent u r y . As i n C h i n a , the infrastructure o f civilization p r o v e d a durable f o u n d a t i o n for
@ Comparison
W h a t political and cultural
differences stand o u t in
t h e histories of fifteenth-
d e m o g r a p h i c and e c o n o m i c revival.
Politically too Europe j o i n e d C h i n a in c o n t i n u i n g earlier patterns o f state building. In C h i n a , h o w e v e r , this meant a unitary and centralized g o v e r n m e n t that
encompassed almost the w h o l e o f its civilization, w h i l e i n E u r o p e a d e c i d e d l y frag-
Europe? W h a t similarities
m e n t e d system o f m a n y separate, independent, and h i g h l y c o m p e t i t i v e states made
f o r a sharply d i v i d e d Western civilization (see M a p 12.2). M a n y o f these s t a t e?s
are apparent?
Spain, Portugal, France, England, the city-states o f Italy ( M i l a n , V e n i c e , and Flor-
c e n t u r y China and Western
ence), various G e r m a np r i n c i p a l i t i e s ?learned
to tax t h e i r citizens m o r e efficiently,
t o create m o r e effective administrative structures, and to raise s t a n d i n g armies. A
small Russian state centered o n the city o f M o s c o w also e m e r g e d i n the fifteenth
c e n t u r y as M o n g o l rule faded away. M u c h o f this state b u i l d i n g was d r i v e n b y the
needs o f war, a frequent occurrence i n such a fragmented and c o m p e t i t i v e political
e n v i r o n m e n t . England and France, for example, f o u g h t i n t e r m i t t e n t l y f o r more
t h a n a c e n t u r y i n the H u n d r e d Years? W a r ( 1 3 3 7 - 1 4 5 3 ) o v e r r i v a l claims to territ o r y in France. N o t h i n g remotely similar disturbed the i n t e r n a l l i f e o f M i n g dynasty
China.
A renewed cultural blossoming, known in European history as the Renaissance,
likewise paralleled the revival o f all things Confucian in M i n g dynasty China. In
Europe, however, that blossoming celebrated and reclaimed a classical GrecoRoman tradition that earlier had been lost or obscured. Beginning in the vibrant
commercial cities o f Italy between roughly 1350 and 1500, the Renaissance
reflected the belief o f the wealthy male elite that they were living in a wholly new
era, far removed from the confined religious world o f feudal Europe. Educated citizens o f these cities sought inspiration in the art and literature o f ancient Greece and
Romie; they were ?returning to the sources,? as they put it. Their purpose was not
so much to reconcile these works with the ideas o f Christianity, as the twelfth- and
thirteenth-century university scholars had done, but to use them as a cultural standard to imitate and then to surpass. The elite patronized great Renaissance artists
such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael, whose paintings and sculptures were far more naturalistic, particularly in portraying the human body, than
those o f their medieval counterparts. Some o f these artists looked to the Islamic
world for standards o f excellence, sophistication, and abundance. (See Working
w i t h Evidence: Islam and Renaissance Europe, page 536.)
A l t h o u g h religious themes remained p r o m i n e n t , Renaissance artists n o w included
p o r t r a i t s and busts o f w e l l - k n o w n c o n t e m p o r a r y figures, scenes f r o m ancient
CIVILIZATIONS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY: COMPARING CHINA AND EUROPE
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
Corsic
s e i n e
_. 2 ° ? NORTH AFRIGA-~
abet
i g
M e d i t e r r a n e a n
Sea
L 7 °
M a p 12.2
Europe in 1500
By the end o f the fifteenth century, Christian Europe had assumed its early modern political shape
@5 a s y s t e
of competing states threatened by an expanding Muslim Ottoman Empire.
mythology, and depictions o f Islamic splendor. In the work o f scholars, k n o w n as
humanists, reflections on secular topics such as grammar, history, politics, poetry,
thetoric, and ethics complemented more religious matters. For example, Niccold
Machiavelli?s (1469-1527) famous work The Prince was a prescription for political
success based on the way politics actually operated in a highly competitive Italy o f
rival city-states rather than on idealistic and religiously based principles. T o the
question o f whether a prince should be feared or loved, Machiavelli replied:
O n e ought to be both feared and loved, b u t as it is difficult for the t w o to go
together, it is m u c h safer to be feared than loved.
.
.
.
For it may be said o f men
in general that they are ungrateful, voluble, dissemblers, anxious to avoid danger,
511
512
C H A P T E R 12 / THE W O R L D S OF THE FIFTEENT
H CENTURY
The W a l d s e e m i i l l e r M a p of 1507
which was created by the German
Just fifteen years after Columbus landed in the Western Hemisphere, this map,
f the planet's global dimensions and
cartographer Martin Waldseemiiller, reflected a dawning European awareness 0
the location of the world?s major landmasses.
(bpk, Berlin/Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Stiftung PreussischerKulturbesitz/Photo:
Ruth Schacht/Art Resource, NY)
and covetous o f gain.
.
. . Fear is maintained by dread o f punishment w h i c h never
fails. . . . In the actions o f men, and especially o f princes, f r o m w h i c h there is
no appeal, the end justifies the means.®
While the great majority o f Renaissance writers and artists were men, among
the remarkable exceptions to that rule was Christine de Pizan (1363-1430), the
daughter o f a Venetian official, who lived mostly i n Paris. H e r writings pushed
against the misogyny of so many European thinkers o f the time. In her City of
Ladies, she mobilized numerous women from history, Christian and pagan alike, to
demonstrate that women too could be active members o f society and deserved an
education equal to that of men. Aiding in the construction o f this allegorical city is
Lady Reason, who offers to assist Christine in dispelling her poor opinion o f her
own sex. ?No matter which way I looked at it,? she wrote, ?I could find no evidence from my own experience to bear out such a negative view o f female nature
and habits. Even so . . . 1 could scarcely find a moral work by
didn?tdevote some chapter or paragraph to attacking the femal
any
hich
or W
auth
y _
H e a v i l y influenced by classical models, Renaissance fi
€ Sex.
?sance
ested i n capturing the unique qualiti
figures were m o r e i n t e r .
UnIqUe
describing
qt ities o f particular individuals and
th
-_
world as it was than in portraying or explori
in describing te
ploring eternal religious truths. In its focus
in
CIVILIZATIONS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY: COMPARING CHINA AND EUROPE
513
on the affairs o f this world, Renaissance culture reflected the urban bustle and commercial preoccupations o f Italian cities. Its secular elements challenged the otherworldliness o f Christian culture, and its individualism signaled the dawning o f a
more capitalist economy o f private entrepreneurs. A new Europe was in the making,
one more different from its own recent past than M i n g dynasty China was from its
pre-Mongol glory.
European Comparisons: MaritimeVoyaging
A global traveler during the fifteenth century might be surprised to find that Europeans, like the Chinese, were also launching outward-bound maritime expeditions.
Initiated in 1415 by the small country o f Portugal, those voyages sailed ever farther
down the west coast o f Africa, supported by the state and blessed by the pope (see
Map 12.3). As the century ended, two expeditions marked major breakthroughs,
although few suspected it at the time. In 1492, Christopher Columbus, funded by
Spain, Portugal?s neighbor and rival, made his way west across the Atlantic hoping
to arrive in the East and, in one o f history?s most consequential mistakes, ran into
the Americas. Five years later, in 1497, Vasco da Gama launched a voyage that took
him around the tip o f South Africa, along the East African coast, and, w i t h the help
o f a Muslim pilot, across the Indian Ocean to Calicut in southern India.
The differences between the Chinese and European oceangoing ventures were
striking, most notably perhaps i n terms o f size. Columbus captained three ships and
a crew o f about 90, while da Gama had four ships, manned by perhaps 170 sailors.
These were minuscule fleets compared to Zheng He?s hundreds o f ships and a crew
in the many thousands. ?All the ships o f Columbus and da Gama combined,?
according to a recent account, ?could have been stored ona single deck o f a single
vessel in the fleet that set sail under Zheng He.?8
Motivation as well as size differentiated the two ventures. Europeans were seeking the wealth o f Africa and Asia? gold, spices, silk, and more. They also were i n
search o f Christian converts and o f possible Christian allies w i t h w h o m to continue
their long crusading struggle against threatening Muslim powers. China, by contrast,
faced no equivalent power, needed no military allies i n the Indian Ocean basin, and
required little that these regions produced. N o r did China possess an impulse to
convert foreigners to its culture or religion, as the Europeans surely did. Furthermore, the confident and overwhelmingly powerful Chinese fleet sought neither
conquests nor colonies, while the Europeans soon tried to monopolize by force the
commerce o f the Indian Ocean and violently carved out huge empires in the
Americas.
T h e most s t r i k i n g difference i n these t w o cases lay i n the sharp contrast b e t w e e n
China?s decisive e n d i n g o f its voyages and the c o n t i n u i n g , indeed escalating, E u r o pean effort, w h i c h soon b r o u g h t the world?s oceans and g r o w i n g numbers o f the
world?s people u n d e r its c o n t r o l . T h i s is w h y Z h e n g He?s voyages w e r e so l o n g
neglected i n China?s historical m e m o r y . T h e y led n o w h e r e , whereas the i n i t i a l
@ Comparison
In what ways did European
maritime voyaging in the
fifteenth century differ
from that of China?
What accounts for these
differences?
514
CHAP
TER 12 / THE WORLDS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
.
Sem!
M e d i t e r r a n e a n Sea
5 . Mogadishu
at
Ake
v i rr y
,
o n$82)
) )
at
Mombasa
i?
alindi
(1498)
Lake
BANTU-SPEAKING
(1498)
?glanganyika?.
ZIMBABY
MWENE-MUITAPA
KALAHARI
DESERT
< =
Portuguese voyages o f exploration
< = = Chinese m a r i t i m e voyages to EastA f r i c a
< =
M o v e m e n t o f Fulbe people
Map 12.3
=
Africa in the Fifteenth Century
By the fifteenth
:
century, / Africa was a virtual museum
iti
of political
and cul
iversi
*
ing large empires, such as Songhay; smaller kingdoms, such as Kongo; s t y states cmon othe Yoruba,
1
Hausa,a n d Swan peoples; village-based societies w i t h o u t States ata l l as among the i bo; and
pastoral peoples, such as the Fulbe. Both European and Chinesemaritime expeditions touched on
Africa during that century,: even as Islam conti n
continent.
ued to find acceptance in the northern half of the
European expeditions, so much smaller and less promisi
were but the first step?
on a journey to world power. But why did the Euro ine
peans continue a process that
the Chinese had deliberately abandoned?
In the first place, Europe h
.
werinhee ad no unified political authority w i t h the power °
an
order
end to its
utreach. Its system o f competing states, so unlike
?
C I V I L I Z A T I O N S OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY: THE I S L A M I C W O R L D
China?s single unified empire, ensured that once begun, rivalry alone would drive
the Europeans to the ends o f the earth. Beyond this, much o f Europe?s elite had an
interest in Overseas expansion. Its budding merchant communities saw opportunity
for profit; its competing monarchs eyed the revenue from taxing overseas trade o r
from seizing overseas resources; the Church foresaw the possibility o f widespread
conversion; impoverished nobles might imagine fame and fortune abroad. InC h i n a ,
by contrast, support for Zheng He?s voyages was very shallow in official circles, and
when the emperor Yongle passed from the scene, those opposed to the voyages
prevailed within the politics o f the court.
Finally, the Chinese were very much aware o f their own antiquity, believed
strongly in the absolute superiority o f their culture, and felt with good reason that,
should they desire something from abroad, others would bring it to them. Europeans too believed themselves unique, particularly in religious terms as the possessors
o f Christianity, the ?one true religion.? In material terms, though, they were seeking out the greater riches o f the East, and they were highly conscious that Muslim
power blocked easy access to these treasures and posed a military and religious threat
to Europe itself. All o f this propelled continuing European expansion in the centuries that followed.
The Chinese withdrawal from the Indian Ocean actually facilitated the European entry. It cleared the way for the Portuguese to penetrate the region, where
they faced only the eventual naval power o f the Ottomans..Had Vasco da Gama
encountered Zheng He?s massive fleet as his four small ships sailed into Asian waters
in 1498, world history may well have taken quite a different turn. As it was, h o w ever, China?s abandonment o f oceanic voyaging and Europe?s embrace o f the seas
marked different responses to a common problem that both civilizations s h a r e?d
growing populations and land shortage. In the centuries that followed, China?s ricebased agriculture was able to expand production internally by more intensive use o f
the land, while the country?s territorial expansion was inland toward Central Asia.
By contrast, Europe?s agriculture, based on wheat and livestock, expanded primarily by acquiring new lands i n overseas possessions, which were gained as a consequence o f a commitment to oceanic expansion.
Civilizations o f the Fifteenth Century:
T h e Islamic W o r l d
Beyond the domains o f Chinese and European civilization, our fifteenth-century
global traveler would surely have been impressed w i t h the transformations o f the
Islamic world. Stretching across much o f Afro-Eurasia, the enormous realm o f
Islam experienced a set o f remarkable changes during the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, as well as the continuation o f earlier patterns. The most notable
change lay in the political realm, for an Islamic civilization that had been severely
fragmented since at least 900 now crystallized into four major states or empires (see
Map 12.4). A t the same time, a long-term process o f conversion to Islam continued
515
516
CHAPTER 12 / THE WORLDS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENT
URY
t h w i t h i n a n d b e y o n d these
?oti
he
transformation o f A f r o - E u r a s i a n societies b o
cultural
t h e cultural t r a n s t o r m
n e w states.
.
In the Islamic Heartland:
The Ottoman and Safavid Emptres
?-
states was the Ottoman
T h e most impressive and e n d i n g Ot
from e a v o u r t e e n t h to the early twen-
W h a t differences can you
Empire, w h i c h lasted i n one form o r anothe!
N s o n y T u r k i c w a r r i o r groups that
identify among the four
major empires in the tslamic
world of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries?
tieth century. I t was the creation o f one 0 i thy. i n the sever.al centuries follow.
had migrated into Anatolia, slowly and sporaaic ceoman vrarks had already carved
@ Comparison
i n g 1000 c.£. B y the mid-fifteenth century, these e e n i n s u l a and had pushed deep
o u t a state that encompassed m u c h o f theA n a t o
h e process 2 substantial C h r i s
into southeastern Europe (the Balkans); S o e t h e O t t o m a n E m p i r e extended its
Africa,
tian population, D u n n g the sixteenth o N
the lands s u r r o u n d i n g the
c o n t r o l to much o f the M i d d l e East, coastal N o r t h
ca,
j
rope.
BlackSea, a n v e spire w s
vateo f n o e n o u s significance i n thew o r l d o f the
fifteenth century and beyond. In its huge territory, l o n g duration, i n c o r p o
m a n y diverse peoples, and economic and cultural sophistication, it v e
on
i
o e
great empires o f w o r l d history. In the fifteenth century, o n l y M i n g y e s t
and the Incas matched it i n terms o f wealth, p o w e r , and splendor. T h e empire
represented the emergence o f the Turks as the d o m i n a n t people o f the Islamic
w o r l d , ruling n o w over many Arabs, who had initiated this n e wf a i t h morethan
800 years before. In adding ?caliph? (successor to the Prophet) t o t h e i r other titles,
O t t o m a n sultans claimed the legacy o f the earlier Abbasid E m p i r e . T h e y sought to
b r i n g a renewed unity to the Islamic world, while also serving as p r o t e c t o r o f the
faith, the ?strong sword o f Islam.?
The Ottoman Empire also represented a new phase in the long encounter between
Christendom and the world of Islam. In the Crusades, Europeans had taken the
aggressive initiative in that encounter, but the rise of the Ottoman Empire reversed
their roles. The seizure of Constantinople in 1453 marked the final demise o f Chnistian Byzantium and allowed Ottoman rulers to see themselves as successors to the
Roman Empire. (See Zooming In: 1453 in Constantinople, page 518.) Italso opened
the way to further expansion in heartland Europe, and in 1529a rapidly expanding
Ottoman Empire laid siege to Vienna in the heart of Central Europe. The political
and military expansion o f Islam, at the expense o f Christendom, seemed clearly undef
way. Many Europeans spoke fearfully of the ?terror o f the Turk.?
In the neighboring Persian lands to the east of the Ottoman Empire, another
Islamic state was also taking shape in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centur i e s ? t h e Safavid (SAH-fah-vihd) Empire. Its leadership was also Turkic, but in
this case it had emerged from a Sufi religious order founded several centuries eatliet
by Safi al-Din (1252-1334). The long-term significance o f the Safavid Empire,
which was established in the decade following 1500, was its decision to forcibly
C I V I L I Z A T I O N S OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY: THE I S L A M I C W O R L D
0
5 0 0 ? - 1,000 m i l e s
0
500 1,000 kilometers
M a p 12.4
Empires of the Islamic World
The most prominent political features of the vast Islamic world in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were f o u r large states: the Songhay, Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires.
impose a Shia version o f Islam as the official religion o f the state. Over time, this
form o f Islam gained popular support and came to define the unique identity o f
Persian (Iranian) culture.
This Shia empire also introduceda sharp divide into the political and religious
life o f heartland Islam, for almost all o f Persia?s neighbors practiced a Sunni form o f
the faith. For a century (1534-1639), periodic military conflict erupted between
the Ottoman and Safavid empires, reflecting both territorial rivalry and sharp religious differences. In 1514, the Ottoman sultan wrote to the Safavid ruler in the
most bitter o f terms:
You have denied the sanctity of divine l a w ... you have deserted the path of
salvation and the sacred commandments... you have opened to Muslims the
gates o f tyranny and oppression . . . you have raised the standard of irreligion
517
518
the
of
ascendency
Ottoman
to
all
Roman,
chings
had
heir
more
shrunk
the
than
little
to
city
1453,
that steady
the
By
of
Ottomans.
advance
empire,
once-great
Empire
been
had
certain
inevitathe retreating
for Byzantine
about acquired
bility
the
air
Empire.
event
this
for
the
and
Empire
Byzantine
nople,
marked
event
that
the
end an
final
the
of
Roman/
it, aof In
before
two
centuries
almost
great
city
II
of
of the
retrospect,
Mehined
control
seized
Christian
Constanti-
29,
O May
of
:
forces
1453,
the
Ottoman
Muslim
sultan
hoped
more,
assistance
very
end,
until
had
the sieges.
he
for
great
sides
on
third,
two
on
many
and
wall
had
and by
a
water
repeatedly
withstood
attacks
Further-
protected
aware
odds
faced.
city,
great
his
Yet
great
vast
amid
effort
human
with
and
uncertainty
the
he
of
So
in
ithet
in
about
was
1453.
outcome.
Constantinople
last
well
XI,
the
emperor,
Byzantine
Constantine
was
only
itself,
50,000
active
8,000
only
with
and
some
inhabitants
On
othe
f
Frontiers
Islam:
and
Empires
Mughal
Songhay
The
has
to
|the
hostility
continued
Sunni/Shia
divide
This
in
1453.
Constantinople
firstthe
century.
twenty:
the
and
aand
pronounced
[Therefore]
...
senhave
doctors
heresy.
our
alana
Image
photo:
Works
bild/The
ullstein
©
Turks
walls
the
.of
Ottoman
storm
to
to
himself
one
going
back
the
who
Muhammad
a
of
Doing
city.
also
could
him
the
so
rid
conquered
very
not
as
regarded
promising.
Furthermore,
some
II, aof
Ottoman
1451,
new
came
sultan
throne
to
the
only
old the
prophesies
promised
mined
honor young
Islamic
detersultan
gain
to
the
the
in onBut
among
court
officials
about
attack
the
had
an
Constantinople.
seemed
Mehmed
nineteen
Empire,
years
widely
and
reservations
of
In
no
promising
union
with
the
assurance
success.
ensured
that
Constantinople
effort
with
mous
expended
was
Ottoman
enorside,
the
On
ofof
andthe
the
in
half
the
blasphemer.?
tence century
fifteenth
perjurer
you,
against
death
Empire
Songhay
nas,
second
rose
eae e e e e n e
The
such
no
make
But
help
at it,
to
though
to
of probfleet
of
afrom a least
not
in
powers
Western
lems
the
between
OrthoEastern
Catholicism
Roman tility
doxy
and
as
hosgs
well
the
long-standing
persisted.
internal
arrived,Roman
Church
obtain
difference,
rumors
Venice
Western
even
Christians,
from
quantities
sufficient
:its
would
meet
alone.
end
c e e
project.
offer
finally
but
the
he
seriously,
declaring,
refused,
evening,
emperor
Byzantine
ordered
about
relics
icons
entered
the
Holy
and Sophia,
sins
his
the procession
then
and
for
seeking
church
ancient
the
Hagia
for- city
giveness
receiving
Communion.
of began
early
then,
And
final
day,
the
forces
walls
as
the
Constantinople
breached
Ottoman
of of a
Christian
next
assaule
have
?We
will.?
free
our
with
die
to
all
a an
of
After
of
decided
own
declared
May
day
on
had
28.
descended
Mehmed
prayer
and
rest
next
assaule
final
before
That
day.
the
the
if
apparently
Constantine
surrendered.
considered
they
furious
weeks
silence
bombardiment,
onunous
to
the
his
spare
emperor
people
offered
times
three
and
expensive
simply
pay
very
not
could
afford
this
to
for
law,
for
As
by
fifty-seven
Islamic
Mehmed
days.
required
number
could
which
one
huge
hurl
control
cannon
constructed
named
builder
Orban,
had
the
on
a
sequently
devastating
surroundeffect
walls
late
to
toy and
bIn
began
on
an
so
And
for
and huge
fleet,
a
city.
aThe the
Constantinople
water.
access
ter
a who
of
a
cannons,
first
who
the
to
his
emperor,
Byzantine
offered
services
materials,
constructed
gathered
fortress
men
the
a
of
Hungarian
Mehmed
1452,
services
massecured
preparations
assault
once-great
assembled
Ottomans
Leo
as
city
the
of
Africanus
remarked
Timbuktu:
known
on
and
style
and
early
the
tohad
the
Ali to
aofinvisaaand
atohisalso
benjoyed
in
u r for
its
of
(r.
by
A ible
ain ofof of
aa
in
routes
much
derived
revelargest
impressive
recent
most
series
operated
states
crucial
trade
that
and
thei
and
that
at
that
but the
the
commerce
century.
sixteenth
Songhay
Nonetheless,
enemies.
become
center
Islamic
reputation
magician
possessed
thought
charm
render
soldiers
fasted
proper
Ramadan
Islamic1465-1492),
religious
behavior
fifteenth-century
Sonniaccounts
monarch
largely
limited
urban
culeural
This
elites.
Songhay
divide
largely
withintaxing
from
nue
growing
Islam
was
Songhay
faith
was
learning
North
African
traveler
their
major
as
gave
who
during
alms
commerce.
intersection
crans-Saharan
It
.the
i
ifteenth
was
possible?
THE
THE
OF
519
CIVILIZATIONS
WORLD
ISLAMIC
CENTURY:
FIFTEENTH
had
that
the
occurred.
destruction
retake
city
the
for
to
Teappear
Chnstendom.
a
what
different
might
been
have
circumstances
outcome
massacred
any
longer
no
was
there
and
had
resstance,
the in
of
the and
A
a
between
Christendom.
world
that
and
Islam
change
relanonship
occurred
mosque.
Ottoman
became
had
Empire,
Sophia
Haga
Hagia
wept
altar
tian
at
Chnisat men,
the
che
he
monks,
When killing,
taking
town
of city.
Sophia,
reportedly
seeing
momentous
to
What
Under
Questions:
contributed
factors
victory?
Mehmed?s
of
capital
city,
a
the
Constanunople
Mushm
now
was
praying
entered
himself
Mehmed
captive
pness.""?
children,
women,
raping,
disrobing,
pillaging,
stealing,
to
marble
into
cured
that
buried
and
from
him angels
plundering
one
so,
Even
limited
aftermath
day.
the
he
a
in
nearby
eventually
would
which
cave
of
plundering
Mehmed
reluctant,
was
spoils,
days
the
but
Constanune
took
and
their
like
The
the
2 his city.
A
suggested
soldier.
legend
fighting
later regalia
discarded
Constantine
royal
city,
died
and
common
Chnstians
defended
bravely
C H A P T E R 12 / T H E W O R L D S OF THE F I F T E E N T H C E N T U R Y
Ottoman Janissaries
the Janissaries became the elite infantry force of the Ottoman Empire. ComOriginating in the fourteenth century,
d marching music, they were the first standing army in the region since the days
an
plete with uniforms, cash salaries,
of the Roman Empire. When gunpowder technology became available, Janissary force s soon were armed with muskets, grenades, and handheld cannons. This Turkish miniature painting dates from the sixteenth century. (Turkish
miniature, Topkapi Palace Library, Istanbul, Turkey/Album/Art Resource, NY)
Here are great numbers o f [Muslim] religious teachers, judges, scholars, and
o t h e r learned persons w h o are b o u n t i f u l l y maintained at the king?s expense.
H e r e too are brought various manuscripts o r w r i t t e n books f r o m Barbary
( N o r t h Africa] w h i c h are sold for more money than any o t h e r merchandise.. .
.
Here are very rich merchants and to here j o u r n e y c o n t i n u a l l y large n u m b e r s
o f negroes w h o purchase here cloth f r o m Barbary and Europe..
.
. It is a w o n -
d e r to see the quality o f merchandise that is daily b r o u g h t here and h o w costly
and sumptuous everything is."!
See W o r k i n g with Evidence, Source 7.3, page 318, for more from Leo Africanus
about West Africa in the early sixteenth century. Sonni Ali?s successor made the
pilgrimage to Mecca and asked to be given the title ?Caliph o f the Land o f the
Blacks.? Songhay then represented a substantial Islamic state on the African frontier
o f a still-expanding Muslim world. (See the photo on page 305 for manuscripts
long preserved in Timbuktu.)
CIVILIZATIONS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY: THE ISLAMIC W O R L D
The M u g h a l ( M O O - g u h l ) Empire in India bore similarities to Songhay, f o r
both governed largely n o n - M u s l i m populations. M u c h as the O t t o m a n E m p i r e
initiated a new phase i n the interaction o f Islam and Christendom, so too did the
Mughal Empire continue an ongoing encounter between Islamic and H i n d u c i v i lizations. Established i n the early sixteenth century, the Mughal Empire was the
creation o f yet another Islamized T u r k i c group, w h i c h invaded India in 1526. O v e r
the next century, the Mughals (a Persian term f o r Mongols) established unified
control over most o f the Indian peninsula, giving it a rare period o f political u n i t y
and laying the foundation f o r subsequent British colonial rule. D u r i n g its first 150
years, the M u g h a l Empire, a land o f great wealth and imperial splendor, undertook
a remarkable effort to blend many H i n d u groups and a variety o f Muslims into an
effective partnership. The inclusive policies o f the early Mughal emperors showed
that M u s l i m rulers could accommodate their overwhelmingly H i n d u subjects i n
somewhat the same fashion as Ottoman authorities provided religious autonomy
for their Christian minority. In southernmost India, however, the distinctly H i n d u
kingdom o f Vijayanagara flourished in the fifteenth century, even as it borrowed
architectural styles from the M u s l i m states o f northern India and sometimes employed
M u s l i m mercenaries in its military forces.
Together these four M u s l i m e m p i r e s ? O t t o m a n , Safavid, Songhay, and
M u g h a l ? b r o u g h t to the Islamic w o r l d a greater measure o f political coherence,
military power, economic prosperity, and cultural brilliance than it had k n o w n since
the early centuries o f Islam. This new energy, sometimes called a ?second flowering o f Islam,? impelled the continuing spread o f the faith to yet new regions. The
most prominent o f these was oceanic Southeast Asia, w h i c h for centuries had been
intimately bound up in the w o r l d o f Indian Ocean commerce, while b o r r o w i n g
elements o f both H i n d u and Buddhist traditions. B y the fifteenth century, that
trading network was largely i n M u s l i m hands, and the demand for Southeast Asian
spices was m o u n t i n g as the Eurasian w o r l d recovered from the devastation o f M o n gol conquest and the plague. G r o w i n g numbers o f Muslim traders, many o f them
from India, settled in Java and Sumatra, bringing their faith w i t h them. Eager to
attract those traders to their port cities, a number o f Hindu or Buddhist rulers along
the Malay Peninsula and in Indonesia converted to Islam, while transforming themselves into Muslim sultans and imposing Islamic law. Thus, unlike in the M i d d l e
East and India, where Islam was established in the wake o f Arab o r T u r k i c con-
quest, in Southeast Asia, as in West Africa, it was introduced by traveling merchants
and solidified through the activities o f Sufi holy men.
The rise o f Malacca, strategically located on the waterway between Sumatra and
Malaya, was a sign o f the times (see Map 12.1, page 506). D u r i n g the fifteenth
century, it was transformed from a small fishing village to a major Muslim port city.
A Portuguese visitor i n 1512 observed that Malacca had ?no equal in the world. .
Commerce between different nations for a thousand leagues on every hand must
come to Malacca.?'? That city also became a springboard for the spread o f Islam
.
.
521
522
c H A P T E R 1 2 / T H E W O R L D S OF THE FIFTEENTH C E N T U R Y
throughout the region. In the eclectic style o f SoutheastA s i nr e g i o n s history,the
Islam o f Malacca demonstrated much blending w i t h e r
an
?
" Buddhisy
OF ?Tough
traditions, while the city itself, like many port towns, h a a he 1 4 8 0 .
s commenteg
behavior.? An Arab Muslim pilot in the
critically: ?They have no culture at a l l . . . . Y o u do not knoy,
whether they are Muslim or not. 13 Nonetheless, Malacca, like
In what ways did the civilizationso f
n e E u r o p e , a n d t h e islamic w o r l d in
t h e f i f t e e n t h c e n t u r y s e e m t o be m o v i n g in t h e same direction, a n d in w h a t
respects were t h e y diverging f r o m o n e
another?
q
4
,
:
4
>
Timbuktu on the West African frontier of an expanding
Islamic world, became a center for Islamic learning, and sty.
dents f r o m e l sewhere in Southeast Asia were studying there in
ore central regions
o f Is}
8}
am
the fifteenth century. As the m
were consolidating politically, the frontier o f the faith contin.
ued to move steadily outward.
C i v i l i z a t i o n s o f the Fifteenth C e n t u r y :
T h e Americas
Across the Atlantic, centers o f civilization had long flourished i n Mesoamerica and
i n the Andes. The fifteenth century witnessed new, larger, and m o r e politically
unified expressions o f those civilizations, embodied in the Aztec and Inca empires.
B o t h were the w o r k o f previously marginal peoples w h o had forcibly taken over
and absorbed older cultures, giving them new energy, and b o t h were decimated in
the sixteenth century at the hands o f Spanish conquistadores and their diseases. To
conclude this global tour o f world civilizations, we w i l l send o u r intrepid traveler
to the Western Hemisphere for a brief look at these American civilizations (see
M a p 12.5).
T h e Aztec Empire
? Comparison
W h a t distinguished the
Aztec and Inca empires
from each other?
The empire known to history as the Aztec state was largely the work o f the Mexica
(meh-SHEEH-kah) people, a semi-nomadic group from northern Mexico who
had migrated southward and by 1325 had established themselves on a small island
in Lake Texcoco. Over the next century, the Mexica developed their military
capacity, served as mercenaries for more powerful people, negotiated elite marriag®
alliances with them, and built up their own capital city o f Tenochtitlin. In 1428,
Triple Alliance between the Mexica and two other nearby city-states launched 2
highly aggressive program of military conquest, which in less than 100 years brought
more o f Mesoamerica withina single political framework than ever before. Aztec
authorities, eager to shed their rather undistinguished past, now claimed descent
from earlier Mesoamerican peoples such as the Toltecs and Teotihuac4an
W i t h a core population recently estimated at 5 to 6 m i l l i o n people ?he antec
E m p i r e was a loosely structured and unstable conquest state that ivitmessed frequent rebellions by its subject peoples. Conquered peoples and citi
e require
to provide labor for Aztec projects and to regularly deliver to t h e i r Aneee rule
C I V I L I Z A T I O N S OF THE FIFTEENTH C E N T U R Y : THE A M E R I C A S
a ,
West c o a s t f o r a g i n g , h u n g
?S
a n d f i s h i n g peoples
?sa
AE
_JROQUQIE
,
SAFEDRRATION
S
Mississippiay
Mound Build
4
B
*
Mexico
O C E A N
N
ME t g
CMTE a m y , ? ; e
A
re
.
Tenochittigg® A Z T E G give
~
>
Me
hi
S A M P I R E
MESOAMERICAN Wig
CIVILIZATION
. -
2
?
4
"aE
Caribbean Sea
ry
.a
.
P A C I F I C
O C E A N
Hunting/gathering peoples
WEBB Village farming peoples
M E Chiefdoms
GEMM
State-based civilizations
M a p 12.5
&
i e
~
?eal
hunters
The Americas in the Fifteenth Century
The Americas before Columbus represented a world almost completely separate from Afro-Eurasia.
It featured similar kinds o f societies, though w i t h a different balance among them, but it largely
lacked the pastoral economies that were so important in the Eastern Hemisphere.
523
524
CHAPTER 12 / THE WORLDS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
Aztec Women
Within the home, Aztec women cooked, cleaned, spun and
wove cloth, raised their children, and undertook ritual activities.
Outside the home, they served as officials in palaces, priestesses
in temples, traders in markets, teachers in schools, and members
of craft workers? ofganizations. This domestic image comes from
the sixteenth-century Florentine Codex, which was compiled by
the Spanish but illustrated by Aztec artists. (Facsimile from Book IV
of Florentine Codex, General History of Things in New Spain, 16th century, Mexico/Museo del Templo Mayor, Mexico City, Mexico/De Agostino
Picture Library/Bridgeman Images)
impressive quantities o f textiles and c l o t h i n g , m i l i t a r y supplies, j e w e l r y a n d other
luxuries, various foodstuffs, animal products, b u i l d i n g materials, r u b b e r balls, paper,
a n d more. T h e process was overseen by local i m p e r i a l t r i b u t e c o l l e c t o r s , w h o sent
t h e r e q u i r e d goods on to T e n o c h t i t l a n , a m e t r o p o l i s o f 1 5 0 , 0 0 0 t o 2 0 0 , 0 0 0 people,
w h e r e they w e r e m e t i c u l o u s l y recorded.
That city featured numerous canals, dikes, causeways, and bridges. A central
walled area o f palaces and temples included a pyramid almost 200 feet high. Surrounding the city were ?floating gardens,? artificial islands created f r o m swamplands that supported a highly productive agriculture. Vast marketplaces reflected
the commercialization o f the economy. A young Spanish soldier w h o beheld the
city in 1519 described his reaction:
Gazing o n such w o n d e r f u l sights, w e did not k n o w what to say, o r whether
what appeared before us was real, f o r on one side, o n the land there w e r e great
cities, and i n the lake ever so many more, and the lake was c r o w d e d w i t h
canoes, and in the causeway were many bridges at intervals, a n d i n f r o n t o f us
stood the great city o f Mexico.'4
B e y o n d t r i b u t e f r o m c o n q u e r e d peoples, o r d i n a r y trade, b o t h local a n d longdistance, permeated Aztec domains. T h e extent o f e m p i r e and r a p i d p o p u l a t i o n
g r o w t h stimulated the d e v e l o p m e n t o f markets and the p r o d u c t i o n o f craft goods,
p a r t i c u l a r l y i n the f i f t e e n t h century.V i r t u a l l y every settlement, f r o m t h e capitalc i t y
t o the smallest village, had a marketplace that h u m i n e d w i t h a c t i v i t y d u r i n gw e e k l y
CIVILIZATIONS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY: THE A M E R I C A S
m a r k e t days. T h e largest was that o f T l a t e l o l c o , near the capital city, w h i c h stunned
the Spanish w i t h its huge size, its g o o d order, and the i m m e n s e range o f goods
available. H e r n a n Cortés, the Spanish conquistador w h o defeated the Aztecs, w r o t e
that ?every k i n d o f merchandise such as can be m e t w i t h in every land is f o r sale
there, w h e t h e r o f f o o d and victuals, o r ornaments o f g o l d and silver, o r lead, brass,
copper, tin, precious stones, bones, shells, snails and feathers.?'? Professional m e r chants, k n o w n as pochteca, w e r e legally commoners, b u t their wealth, o f t e n exceedi n g that o f the n o b i l i t y , a l l o w e d t h e m to rise i n society and b e c o m e ?magnates o f
the land.?
A m o n g the ?goods? that the pochteca obtained were slaves, m a n y o f w h o m
@ Description
w e r e destined f o r sacrifice i n the b l o o d y rituals so central to Aztec religious life.
How did Aztec religious
L o n g a part o f M e s o a m e r i c a n and m a n y other w o r l d cultures, h u m a n sacrifice
thinking support the
empire?
assumed an unusually p r o m i n e n t role i n Aztec p u b l i c life and t h o u g h t d u r i n g the
fifteenth century. Tlacaelel ( 1 3 9 8 - 1 4 8 0 ) , w h o was f o r more than h a l f a c e n t u r y a
p r o m i n e n t official o f the Aztec E m p i r e , is often credited w i t h crystallizing the i d e o l o g y o f state that gave h u m a n sacrifice such great importance.
In that cyclical understanding o f the world, the sun, central to all life and identified w i t h the Aztec patron deity Huitzilopochtli (wee-tsee-loh-pockt-lee), tended
to lose its energy in a constant battle against encroaching darkness. Thus the Aztec
world hovered always on the edge o f catastrophe. T o replenish its energy and thus
postpone the descent into endless darkness, the sun required the life-giving force
found in human blood. Because the gods had shed their blood ages ago increating
humankind, it was wholly proper for people to offer their own blood to nourish
the gods in the present. The high calling o f the Aztec state was to supply this blood,
largely through its wars o f expansion and from prisoners o f war, who were destined
for sacrifice. The victims were ?those who have died for the god.? The growth o f
the Aztec Empire therefore became the means for maintaining cosmic order and
avoiding utter catastrophe. This ideology also shaped the techniques o f Aztec warfare, which put a premium on capturing prisoners rather than on killing the enemy.
As the empire grew, priests and rulers became mutually dependent, and ?human
sacrifices were carried out in the service o f politics.?' Massive sacrificial rituals,
together with a display o f great wealth, served to impress enemies, allies, and subjects alike w i t h the immense power o f the Aztecs and their gods.
A l o n g s i d e these sacrificial rituals was
a
philosophical and poetic t r a d i t i o n o f
great beauty, m u c h o f w h i c h mused o n the fragility and b r e v i t y o f h u m a n life. Such
an o u t l o o k characterized the w o r k o f Nezahualcoyotl ( 1 4 0 2 - 1 4 7 2 ) ,
k i n g o f the city-state o f T e x c o c o , w h i c h was part o f the Aztec E m p i r e :
T r u l y do we live o n Earth?
N o t forever o n earth; onlya l i t t l e while here.
A l t h o u g h it be jade, it will be broken.
Although it be gold, it is crushed.
A l t h o u g h it be a quetzal feather, it is torn asunder.
N o t forever o n earth; onlya little while here.?
a
poet and
525
526
C H A P T E R 12 / THE WORLDS OF THE FIFTEENT
H CENTURY
The Inca Empire
mpire in Mesoamerica, a relatively smay
known to us as the Incas, was buil ding
community ofQuechua-speaking people,
the Western Hemisphere?s largest imperial state along the entire spine o f the Ande,
W h i l e the M e x i c a w e r e c o n s t r u c t i n g an ¢
;
.
Mountains. M u c h as the Aztecs drew o n the traditions o f t h e Toltecs and q ?on.
huacan, the Incas incorporated the lands and cultures o f earlier A n d e a n civiliza.
tions: the Chavin, M o c h e , Wari, and Tiwanaku. T h e Inca E m p i r e , however, wa
m u c h larger than the Aztec state; it stretched some 2,500 miles a l o n g the Andes ang
c o n t a i n e d perhaps 10 m i l l i o n su bjects. A l t h o u g h t h e A z t e c E m p i r e c o n t r o l l e do n l y
part o f the Mesoamerican cultural region, the Inca state encompassed practically the
ort life in the fifteenth a n d early sixteenth
w h o l e o f Andean civilization during its sh
centuries. In the speed o f its creation and the extent o f its territory, the Inca Empire
bears some similarity to that of theMongols.
-riches stories in which quite
Both the Aztec and Inca empires represent rags-to
ed by military conquest the
modest and remotely located people very quickly creat
but the empires themselves
largest states ever witnessed in their respective regions,
were quite different. In the Aztec realm, the Mexica rulers largely left their conquered people alone, i f the required tribute was f o r t h c o m i n g . N o elaborate administrative system arose to integrate the conquered territories o r to assimilate their
@ Description
in w h a t ways did Inca
authorities seek to integrate
their vast domains?
people to Aztec culture.
The Incas, on the other hand, erected a rather more bureaucratic empire. At the
top reigned the emperor, an absolute ruler regarded as divine, a descendant of the
creator god Viracocha and the son o f the sun god Inti. Each o f the some eighty
provinces in the empire had an Inca governor. In theory, the state owned all land
and resources, though in practice state lands, known as ?lands o f the sun,? existed
alongside properties owned by temples, elites, and traditional communities. At least
in the central regions o f the empire, subjects were grouped into hierarchical units
o f 10, 50, 100, 500, 1,000, 5,000, and 10,000 people, each headed by localofficials,
w h o were appointed and supervised by an Inca governor or the emperor. A sepa
rate set o f ?inspectors? provided the imperial center w i t h an independent check on
provincial officials. Births, deaths, marriages, and other population data were cafe
fully recorded on quipus, the knotted cords that served as an accounting device. A
resettlement program moved one-quarter or more o f the population to new locations, in part to disperse conquered and no doubt resentful people and sometimes
to reward loyal followers with promising opportunities. Efforts re cultural integt@
tion required the leaders o f conquered peoples to learn Quecha
Their sons wer
removedt o the capital o f Cuzco for instruction in Inca cultur nd 1 e l
now, millions o f people from Ecuador to Chile still speak C ane
ee
peak
official second language o f Peru after Spanish.
Quechua, and
,
But the sheer human variety o f
ibility. In some places Inca vale v n o t n a e s Re
were willing to accommodate Incas and thus b
us
Even
e.
.
it
he
1
pate
requiredg r e a t A e
resistance; ino t h e r s local elit
benefit from their inclusion in th®
CIVILIZATIONS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY: THE AMERICAS
Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu, high in the Andes Mountains, was constructed by the Incas in the fifteenth century on a spot long held
sacred by local people. Its 200 buildings stand at some 8,000 feet above sea level, making it a ?city in the sky.? It
was probably a royal retreat or religious center, rather than serving administrative, commercial, or military purposes.
The outside world became aware of Machu Picchu only in 1911, when it was discovered by a Yale University archeolOgist. (fStop/Superstock)
empire. Where centralized political systems already existed, Inca overlords could
delegate control to native authorities. Elsewhere they had to construct an administrative system from scratch. Everywhere they sought to incorporate local people
into the l o w e r levels o f the administrative hierarchy. W h i l e the Incas required their
subject peoples to acknowledge major Inca deities, these peoples were then largely
free to carry on their o w n religious traditions. The Inca Empire was a fluid system
that varied greatly from place to place and over time. It depended as much on the
posture o f conquered peoples as on the demands and desires o f Inca authorities.
Like the Aztec Empire, the Inca state represented an especially dense and
extended network o f economic relationships within the ?American web,? but these
relationships t o o k shape in quite a different fashion. Inca demands on their conquered people were expressed, n o t so much i n terms o f tribute, but as labor service,
k n o w n as mita, w h i c h was required periodically o f every household. W h a t people
produced at home usually stayed at home, but almost everyone also had to w o r k
for the state. Some labored on large state farms or on ?sun farms,? w h i c h supported
temples and religious institutions; others herded, mined, served in the military, or
toiled on state-directed construction projects.
527
CHAPTER 12 / THE WORLDS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY
w o r k m a n u f a c t u r i n g textiles, metal
kills were put to e l l - k n o w n o f these specialists w e r e
Those with particular s
rk. The most W
ounggirls, trained
goods, ceramics, and stonewo
ed from their homes as y
te centers. L a t e r
the ?chosen w o m e n , ? w h o were r e m o v
a n d c l o t h at sta
in Inca ideology, and set to p r o d u c i n g c o r n beer nt to serve as priestesses in vari-
they were given as wives to m e n o f distinction o r s¢
a
?or such
as
Sun.?
ous temples, where they were k n o w n
?wives o f the
In return
labor services, Inca ideology, expressed in terms o f family relationships, required
the state to arrange elaborate feasts at which large quantities o f food and drink were
consumed and to provide food and other necessities when disaster struck. Thus the
authority o f the state penetrated and directed Inca society and economy far more
Working w i t h Evidence, Source 13.4, page 596,
than did that o f the Aztecs. (See
for an early Spanish account o f Inca governing practices.)
ir political and ecoI f the Inca and Aztec civilizations differed sharply i n the
mbled each other more closely in their gender sysnomic arrangements, they rese
tems. Both societies practiced what scholars call ?gender parallelism,? i n w h i c h
?women and men operate in two separate but equivalent spheres, each gender
enjoying autonomy in its own sphere.?
d Andean societies, such systems had emerg ed l o n g
In both Mesoamerican an
before their incorporation into the Aztec and Inca empires. I n t h e A n d e s , m e n
d w o m e n from their mothers, w h i l e
reckoned their descent from their fathers an
Mesoamericans had long viewed children as belonging equally to their mothers and
fathers. Parallel religious cults for women and men likewise flourished i n b o t h societies. Inca men venerated the sun, while w o m e n worshipped the m o o n , w i t h
matching religious officials. In Aztec temples, both male and female priests presided
over rituals dedicated to deities o f both sexes. Particularly among the Incas, parallel
hierarchies o f male and female political officials governed the empire, w h i l e i n
A z t e c society, women officials exercised local authority under a title that meant
female person in charge o f people.? Social roles were clearly defined and different
f o rm e n a n d women, but the domestic concerns o f w o m e n ? c h i l d b i r t h , c o o k i n g
fheAne cleaning were not regarded as inferior to the activities o f men. A m o n g
significance as ?an set. o f purification and a prevent he
etrating the center o f the Aztec universe th h o r e
the ground, women sowed, and b o t .h
i e ome.
ee
n i w i t h symbove
against evil elements p e n In the Andes, m e n broke
Harvest.
This was gender complementari
e
e
e
positions in both political and religions l i f e a n a equality. Men occupied the top
lightly than was women?s unfaithfulne A s v n t a l e infidelity was treated more
?the Inca and Aztec empires expanded,
military life, limited to men, grew in oe
Prestige, perhaps skewing an earlier gender
WEBS OF C O N N E C T I O N
529
by women as ?our kind o f war.??° Inca rulers replicated the gender parallelism o f
their subjects at a higher level, as the sapay Inca (the Inca ruler) and the coya (his
female consort) governed j o i n t l y , claiming descent respectively f r o m the sun and
the moon.
Webs o f C o n n e c t i o n
Few people i n the fifteenth century lived i n entirely separate and self-contained
communities. A l m o s t all were caught up, to one degree o r another, in various and
overlapping webs o f influence, communication, and exchange.?! Perhaps most o b v i ous were the webs o f empire, large-scale political systems that b r o u g h t together a
variety o f culturally different people. Christians and Muslims encountered each other
directly i n the O t t o m a n Empire, as did Hindus and Muslims i n the M u g h a l Empire.
A n d no empire tried m o r e diligently to integrate its diverse peoples than t h e
fifteenth-century Incas.
R e l i g i o n t o o linked far-flung peoples, and divided them as well. Christianity
provided a c o m m o n religious culture for peoples from England to Russia, although
the great divide between R o m a n Catholicism and Eastern O r t h o d o x y endured,
and in the sixteenth century the Protestant R e f o r m a t i o n w o u l d shatter permanently the Christian unity o f the Latin West. A l t h o u g h Buddhism had largely vanished f r o m its South Asian homeland, it remained a l i n k among China, Korea,
Tibet, Japan, and parts o f Southeast Asia, even as it splintered intoa variety o f sects
and practices. M o r e than either o f these, Islam actively b r o u g h t together its m a n y
peoples. In the hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca, Africans, Arabs, Persians, Turks, I n d i ans, and m a n y others j o i n e d as one people as they rehearsed together the events that
gave b i r t h to their c o m m o n faith. A n d yet divisions and conflicts persisted w i t h i n
the vast realm o f Islam, as the violent hostility between the Sunni O t t o m a n E m p i r e
and the Shia Safavid E m p i r e so vividly illustrates.
Long~established patterns o f trade among peoples occupying different e n v i r o n ments and p r o d u c i n g different goods were certainly much i n evidence d u r i n g the
fifteenth century, as they had been f o r millennia. H u n t i n g societies o f Siberia f u n neled furs and other products o f the forest i n t o the Silk R o a d trading n e t w o r k
traversing the civilizations o f Eurasia. In the fifteenth century, some o f the agricultural peoples i n southern Nigeria were receiving horses b r o u g h t overland f r o m the
drier regions o f Africa to the north, where those animals flourished better. T h e
Mississippi R i v e r i n N o r t h America and the O r i n o c o and A m a z o n rivers in South
America facilitated a canoe-borne commerce along those waterways. Coastal shipping in large seagoing canoes operated i n the Caribbean and along the Pacific coast
between M e x i c o and Peru. I n Pacific Polynesia, the great voyaging networks across
vast oceanic distances that had flourished especially since 1000 were in decline b y
1500 o r earlier, leading to the abandonment o f a n u m b e r o f islands. Ecological
devastation perhaps played a role, and some scholars believe that a c o o l i n g and f l u c tuating climate change k n o w n as the Little Ice Age created less favorable conditions
@ Connection
In what different ways did
the peoples of the fifteenth
century interact with one
another?