The West and the World: The
Significance of Global
Encounters, 1450-1650
The West
CHAPTER 12
Sub-Saharan Africa Before
Europeans Arrived
• Several centralized kingdoms, with strong
bureaucratic systems modeled on Egypt
• Wealth from trade in gold, ivory and slaves
• Muslim kingdoms in west Africa: Mali,
forest kingdoms of Guinea
• Christian empire of Ethiopia
• By fifteenth century, many African states
were in decline and weakened by wars
European Voyages Along the
African Coast
• Long-established trade contacts with North Africa,
especially for gold
• Desire to outflank Islamic caliphates and reach
India drove exploration along west coast development of trading posts
• New maritime technologies enabled successful
ocean voyages
• New patterns of colonization: settler colonies and
plantation colonies
The Americas Before the
Conquistadores
• Great cultural diversity: nomadic hunters,
settled farmers, great empires
• Aztec Empire in Mexico (1325-1522) loose political structure, based on tribute
payments
• Incan Empire in Peru (1438-1533) centralized political control and imposition
of uniform culture
The Mission of European
Voyagers
• Voyage of Columbus defined by religion - desire
to reach Asia, outflank Islam and recapture
Jerusalem
• Amerigo Vespucci - first to state that the Americas
constituted a “New World”
• Treaty of Tordesillas, 1494 - divided the world
into Spanish (west) and Portuguese (east)
hemispheres
• Exploration driven by the quest for Asia
The Conquest of the Americas
• Conquistadores - often impoverished nobles
seeking wealth and opportunity
• Claimed territory for Spain in return for a portion
of the land and four-fifths of items of value
• Requerimento - a document requiring indigenous
Americans to submit to Spain and convert to
Christianity; provided justification for conquest by
force
The Fall of the Aztec and
Incan Empires
• Hernán Cortés (1485-1547)
• Policy of divide and conquer, to break up Aztec
Empire
• Aztec prophecies about the return of the white
god, Quetzalcoatl, delayed response
• Francisco Pizzaro (ca. 1478-1541):
– Held Incan emperor for ransom, paralyzing and
demoralizing the empire
• Conquest of Mexico and Peru provided Spain with
an immense empire and great wealth in gold and
silver
Spanish America
• Encomienda system provided basis for social and
economic system
• Shortage of female Spanish colonists led to
growth of mestizo population
• Continual African presence in process of conquest
and colonization
• Size and cultural diversity of territory inhibited
any strong centralized control
• Catholic Church provided a more effective vehicle
for acculturation than did the state
Portuguese Brazil: The
Tenuous Colony
• Remained a plantation colony, with very
few white settlers
• Conflict between Jesuits and colonists over
enslavement of indigenous population
• Demand for labor in sugar industry fueled
growth in slave trade and intensified
African presence in Brazil, creating a
vibrant, hybrid culture
North America: The Land of
Lesser Interest
• Little attraction to Europeans beyond cod fisheries
and the search for a northwest passage to Asia
• During most of the sixteenth century, English
interest was restricted to preying upon Spanish
and Portuguese Atlantic convoys
• Elizabeth I (r. 1558-1603) developed a strong navy
and encouraged investment in American colonies
• North America remained sparsely settled by 1650
Asia Before the European
Empires
• Ming China (1368-1644) - highly developed
civilization, with technological capacities superior
to those of Europe
• 1405-1433 - Chinese established contacts in India
and Africa; evolution of maritime
trading
networks across East Asia
• Ming emperors did not pursue colonial expansion,
but sought knowledge of the world
The Trading Post Empires
• Distance from Europe to Asia prohibited
development of colonies
• Establishment of trading posts (factories) that
utilized existing economic and political systems
• Absence of European conquest undermined efforts
at conversion to Christianity
• Influence of Asia on Europe was more significant
than European effect on Asia
The Columbian Exchange
• Slave trade transplanted African cultures and
institutions to the Americas
• Introduction of European diseases and disruption
of traditional systems led to unintentional
genocide of indigenous Americans
• Exchange of flora and fauna between Europe and
Americas
• Impact of the potato on European population
growth fueled migration to Americas
The Problem of Cultural
Diversity
• Neither Christian nor classical learning
allowed for the presence of the Americas
• Conceptual
challenge
to
European
intellectual system
• Development of the idea of cultural
relativism and tolerance - Peter Martyr
D’Anghiera (1457-1526), Michel de
Montaigne (1533-1592)
The Capitalist Global
Economy
• Agrarian capitalism - production of commercial
crops by slave labor
• Competition between states, for colonies, fueled
economic competition
• Western Europe became the core of a global
economy, integrated with a colonial periphery
• Foundation of economic inequality between the
West and the rest of the world
The Significance of Global
Encounters
• Establishment of permanent economic and
cultural contacts between Europe, Africa,
Asia and the Americas
• Export of Western culture across the globe
• Destruction of indigenous American
cultures and systems
• Challenge of cultural diversity to European
self-conception