,-;Asian Transitions in an
of Global Change
THINKINGHISTORICALLY:MeansandMotivesforOverseas
The Asian Trading World and the Coming of the Europeans
Expansion: Europe and China Compared
Fending Off the West: Japan's Reunification
Ming China: A Global Mission Refused
VISUALIZING THE PAST: The Great Ships of the Ming
Expeditions that Crossed the lndian Ocean
DOCUMENT: Exam Ouestions as a Mirror of Chinese Values
and the First Challenge
GLOBAL coNNEcTloNS: An Age of Eurasian Protoglobalization
fter savorinq the exhilaration that only those who have
tt¿. , breithrough discovery can know' Vasco da Gama
A^
/-\ano
his Portuquese crews received a number of rude shocks
Gama's
on the last legs of their epic voyage to lndia in 1498' Da
were a
exploratory probes were conducted in sailing ships that
good deal smaller than the Portuguese merchant vessel depicted
ãrriving in Japan a century later in the wonderful silk screen
at
painting (Figure 22.8) on page 514' After nearly five months
the
sea, hii tlny notitta of four ships made its way through
southern
treacherous waters off the Cape of Good Hope on the
Ocean'
tip of Africa and sailed into the lndian
After rounding the cape, Da Gama's expedition followed the
a
African coastline northward in search of other Christians and
port to take on fresh supplies (Map 22'1)'Io their chagrin' most
of the towns they encountered were controlled by Muslim
Arabs. Some of the Arabs, including those at Mombasa-the
largest commercial center on the coast-became hostile once
they realized that the Portuguese were Christians' Conversations
with the much friendlier sultan, traders, and townspeople farther north at Malindi, however, left no doubtthat Da Gama's expedition had indeed discovered a sea route from Europe to the
fabled lndies.
Da Gama and his compatriots were'
of course, delighted
and
they
perhaps a bit awed by what they had achieved even before
meant
crossed to lndìa. Their very entry into the lndian Ocean
had
They
Spain'
over
victory
that they had won a momentous
the
to
route
a
sea
find
to
their lberian rivals in a contest
bested
Eastlndiesthatbothnationshadpursuedatgreatexpensefor
because
decades. And their triumph was all the more satisfying
theyhadprovedcorrectthelong-standingconvictionofPorcould
tuguese navigators and mapmakers that the lndian Ocean
494
Ag'
turn confi
be reached by sailing around Africa' And that in
the Portuguese claim that Christopher Columbus's much
voyage acioss the Atlantic had been a failure' Columbus
at islan ds hith
reacñed the lndies after all' He had made landfall
value'
undetermined
of
and
erto unknown to the Europeans,
lndia,
was
Lea rning that the goal of Da Gama's expedition
captain
sultan at Malindi genero usly offered the Portuguese
to the
Sea
Arabian
the
across
s
hips
gulde
his
eral a pilot to
a
of spices and gems. Near ly a month later, Da Gama's shiPs
ancient
(Map
An
22.1).
at Calicut on lndia's Malabar coast
fìne textiles, and other Asian prod ucts that were
Del
the main objectives of the voyages of exp loration.
all
from
products
the
the fine q uality and abundance of
sp ices,
that were available in the town's great marketplace'
tuguese w ere startled to learn that the local'merchants
ln
interest in the P roducts they had brought to trade'
cast-iron pots, coarse cloth, and gl ass and coral beads
tle more than sneers from the merc hants theY aPP
p
Da Gama and his crew faced the humbling
they
tu rni ng home to Lisbon with little proof that
Asia and begun to taP its legendarY wealth. Reluctan
the sma
cluded that theY had little choice but to use
silver bullion they had brought along for emergenctes'
to take th
that the Asian merchants were quite willing
metal. But they also realized that their meage
would not go very far toward fillìng ihe holds
Asian treasures.
r
e
a
we22.1
VascoDaGama'sarrival inCalicutonlndia'sMalabarcoastasdepictedinal6th-centu
ry European tapestry. As the pomp and
captured in the scene convey, Da Gama's voyage was regarded by European contemporaries
as a major turning point in world history.
of the enterprise that occupied the Europeans who went out to Asia in the
l6th and lTth cenwhich is one of the major themes of the chapter that follows, was devoted
to wor king out the
of that first encounter in Calicut. The very fact of Da Gama's arrival demonstrated
not
the seaworthiness of their caravel ships but also that the
Europeans'needs ancl curiosity could
them halfiaray around the world. Their stops at Calicut and ports
on the eastern coast of Africa
confirmed reports oF earlier travelers that the Portuguese
had arrived in east Africa and south
Asia long after their Muslim rivals. This disconcerting, discovery promised resistance
trading and emPlre building in Asia. It also meant major obstacles to their plans for
the peoples ofthe area to Roman Catholicism. The Portuguese
and the other Europeans
after them found that their Muslim adversaries greatly o'utnumbered
them and had longand well entrenched political and economic
connections from east Africa to the Philipwe shall see, they soon concluded that only
the use of military force would allow them to
caravels
Slender, long-hulled vessels utilized by
Portuguese; highly maneuverable and able to sajl
against the wind; key to development of portuguese trade empire in Asia.
the vast Indian Ocean trading system.
Da Gama's voyage marked a major turning point for western Europe, its impact
much less decisive. As was the case with the Mughal and
Safavid empires (see Chapter
themes in the histo ry of Asian civilizations in the 16th and lTth centuries
often
nothing to do with European expansion The
development of Asian states and empires
long-term processes rooted in the inner workings of these ancient
civilizations and
with neighboring states and nomadic peoples. Although the European
Prestn each of the areas considered in
this chapter, the impact of Europe's global expantmportance except in the islands of southeast Asia, which were especially
sea power. Most Asian rulers, merchants, and religious leaders
refused to
potential threat posed by what was, after all, a handful
of strangers from across
495
496
part
IV .
The Early Modern Period, 1450-1750: The world shrinks
'1350 c.E.
1500
1368 Ming dYnasty
comes to Power ln
China
1368-1398 Reign of
the Hongwu emperor
1390 Ming restrictions on overseas
commerce
1403-1424 Reign of
the Yungle emperor
1550
c.e.
c.E.
1600
1662-1722 Reign of
1755-1757 Dutch
Ashikaga shogunate
become paramount
1573-1620 Reign of
Portuguese EmPire
China
the Wanli emperor
in Asia;decline of
defeat combined
Muslim war fleet near
Diu off western lndia
573
End
of the
5B0s Jesuits arrive
1510 Portuguese
1
in China
western lndia
1590 Hideyoshi
1603 Tokugawa
shogunate established
tSll
unifies Japan
'1592 First JaPanese
banned in Japan
invasion of Korea
1619-1620 Dutch
597 Second JaPanese
invasion of Korea
established at Batavia
in China
'1405-1433 Zheng
He expeditions from
China to southeast
in lndia
1
1540s Francis Xavier
makes mass converts
power on Java; Oing
conquest
of Mongolia
Portuguese power
conquest of Goa in
peninsu la
170O c.E.
the Kangxi emPeror in
1
Portuguese
c.E.
1600s Dutch and
British assault on
1507 Portuguese
conquer Malacca on
the tip of Malayan
1650
c.E.
1614 ChristianitY
East lndia CompanY
on Java
1640s Japan moves
into self-imposed
Asia, lndia, and east
isolation
1641 Dutch capture
Malacca from
Africa
t49B-1499 Vasco da
Gama opens the sea
Portuguese; Dutch
route around Africa
confined to Deshima
to Asia
lsland
off
Nagasaki
1644 Nomadic
Manchus put an end
to Ming
dynastY;
Manchu Oing dynastY
rules China
The Asian Trading World and the Coming of the Europeans
t-\.
@¡I
centuries following Da Gama's
voyage, most European enterprise in the
lndian Ocean centered on efforts to find
the most profitable ways to carry Asian
products back to Europe. Some
Europeans went to Asia not
for personal
gain but to convert others to
Christianity, and these missionaries, as
well as some traders, settled in coastal
enclaves.
Trade Routes
to Asia
ffil
Africa, which
As later voyages bY Portuguese fleets revealed, Calicut and the ports of east
of. alarger
segment
a
small
onlY
uP
made
Asia,
Gama had found on the initial foray into
thousands
stretched
system
trading
This
commercial exchange and cultural interaction.
the
Both
from the Middle East and Africa along all the coasts of the massive Asian continent.
had
it
sailed
who
by
those
followed
routes
ucts exchanged in this network and the main
lished for centuries-in many cases' millennia'
In general, the Asian sea trading network can be broken down into three main
the west was
which was focused on major centers of handicraft manufacture (MaP 22.L). In
at the head of
zone anchored on the glass, carpets, and tapestries of the Islamic heartlands
dominåteá the central
Sea and the Persian Gulf. India, with its superb cotton textiles,
and silk textiles, formed
porcelain'
system. China, which excelled in producing paper,
centers were areas such
manufacturing
pole. In betlveen or on the fringes of the three great
port cities of east
the
and
the mainland kingdoms and island states ofsoutheastAsia,
the trading
products-into
forest
mainly raw materials-Precious metals, foods, and
and highest
demand
broadest
the
Of the raw materials circulating in the system,
day) and
present
(Shri
in
the
Lanka
paid for spices, which came mainlY from Ceylon
1'rade
the eastern end of what is today the Indonesian archip elago. Long-distance
stones'
precious
and
Africa,
high-priced commodities such as spices, ivory from
livestock,
ton textiles also were traded over long distances. Bulk items, such as rice,
in each
normally were exchanged among the ports within more localized networks
trading zones.
Since ancient times, monsoon winds and the nature
ments available to sailors had dictated the main trade routes
Chapter 22
.
Asran
Transitions in an Age of Global
Change
l.'i
Slovcs
Popci
Cold
Porcel¡in
Silk tcxrilcs
OlGswæ
Glusrvarc
Forest prcducLs
Carpcts
^t
JAPAN
Tcxtilcs
Hoßes
S¿¿
CHINÄ
Co(ton lcxtilcs
Gcms
EGYPT
Ctt
l.f
Silver
Hôngziou
ElephMls
S.lr
Cinlon
CHINESE ZONE
Mccca
INDIA
Itù)
PACI¡;]C
o.í
OCEAN
t)
AFRICA
cinÌmon
Euiror
.-
Ivory
ì
Forcst products
AniDìol hidcs
Cold
S
INDIAN OCEAN
lûvqs
ä=
Spiccs
Foest producls
Sofall
INDIAN ZONE
ARAB ZONE
t5m NtfLFl
t5m KtLoIlmR5
@
EE
El
fi
Major exports
Crucial choke points
Major ports
Major maritinre
trade routes
Sc¡lc îccúmlr for thr E(tualor
p
22.1
Routes and Major proclucts Exch anged ¡n the Asian Trading Network, c. I 500 By the early modern era
the ânc¡ent trading
that encompassed the lndian Ocean a nd neighboring seas from the Mediterranean to the North China sea
had expanded greatly in
volume of shipping and goods traded from the Middle
East to china as well as in the number of port c¡t¡es engaged in local and
nental commerce
the coasting variety that is, sailing along
the shoreline anå charting clistances and location
to towns and natural landmarks. The Arabs and Chinese, who had compasses and
well built ships, could, cross large expanses
of open water such as the Arabian and South
But even they preferred established coastal routes rather than the largely uncharted.
and
open seas. As the Portuguese quickly learned, there were several crucial polnts
of the trade converged or where geography funneled it into narrow areas. The
the Red Sea and Persian Gulf were two
of these points, as were the Straits of Malacca,
497
498
Part
IV '
World Shrinks
The Early Modern Period, 1450-1750: The
to the Encounter at Calicut
Trading EmPire: The Portuguese Response
Eco
governmeuts'prom
from other nations
mercantilists
ressed
mPorts
s
rn
order to improve tax revenues; popular during
the 17th md 18th centuries in Europe'
Portuguese
Church in
Southern lndia
H
over the centuries
bY the informal rules that had evolved
The Portuguese were not PrePared to abide
aPParent after the
It
was
great Asian trading complex.
for commercial and cultural exchanges in the
to exchange
silver,
and
gold
had little, other than
trip to the market in Calicut that the Portuguese
taught
mercantilists'
called
economic theorists'
with Asian peoPles. In an age in which Prominent
coffers,
his
in
had
a
monarch
amount of precious metals
that a state's Power dePended heavily on the
It was particularlY objectionable because it would
unthinkable.
was
a steady flow of bullion to Asia
from rival kingdoms and religions, including the
enrich and thus strengthen merchants and rulers
overseas enterPrises
had set out to undermine through their
Muslims, whose Position the Portuguese
presented, the PorAsia
to
for profit that a sea route
(Figure 22.2). Unwilling to forgo the Possibilities
theY could not get through fair trade.
tuguese resolved to take bY force what
from Asia reforce to extract spices and other goods
The decision bY the Portuguese to use
goods
trading
and
they could offset their lack of numbers
sulted largely from their realization that
junks,
no
Asian
for the huge war fleets of Chinese
with their suPerior shiPs and weaponrY. Except
Portuguese
the
of
the firepower and maneuverabilitY
people could muster fleets able to withstand
in Asian waters and their interjection of
sea
warfare into
squadrons. Their sudden aPPearance
intruders an element of surprise that kePt their
peaceful trading system gained the EuroPean
of empire building. The Portuguese forces were small
saries offbalance in the critical early Years
religious
after 1498 in their drive for wealth and
numbers but united at least in the early years
Asian
their
of the divisions that often separated
verts. This allowed them to take advantage
Da
when
their forces effectivelY in battle. Thus,
petitors and the Asians' inability to combine
on
in 1502, he was able to force Ports both
returned on a second expedition to Asian waters
tribute regime. He also assaulted towns that
African and Indian coasts to submit to a Portuguese
Figute 22.2 ln the
15th
a nd
1
was one of the
6th centuries, the port of Lisbon in tiny Portugal
exPloration' Although asPects of
of international commerce and European overseas
9
the earlY, strea
fore and
pictured here, additional square sails, higher
caravel design can be detected in the ships
of
stage
a
later
plify
in the shiPs' sides exem
numerous cannons Projecting from holes cut
aft
a
Chapter 22
.
Astan Transitions
in
an Age of Global
Change
4gg
fused to cooPerate. When a combined Egyptian and Indian fleet was finally sent in repr-isal
1509,
it was defeated off Diu on the western Inclian coast. The Portuguese woulcl not have to face so formidable an alliance of Asian sea powers again.
i¡
The Portuguese soon found that sea patrols and raicls on coastal towns were
not sufficient to
control the tracle in the items they wanted, especiaily spices. Thus, from 1507 onward they strove to
capture towns and build fortresses ¿ìt a number of strategic points on the Asian tradin! network
(see Map 22.2).In that year they took Ormuz at the southen.r end of the persian
Gulf; inlsto they
captured Goa on the western Indian coast. Most critical of all, in the next year they successfully
stormed Malacca on the tip of the Malayan peninsula. These ports served both as naval bases for
Portuguese fleets patrolling Asian waters and as factories, or warehouses where spices and other
products.could be stored until they were shipped to Ë,urope or elsewhere in Asia. Ships, ports, and
factories became the key components of a Portuguese trading empire that was financed and ofûcially directed by the kings of Portugal, but often actually controiled by portuguese in Asia and their
Ormuz
Portuguese factory or fortifieJ tradc
torvn locrtcd al soutl¡crn crri ol" l)ersi.rn Gulf; sile
for forcible cntry into Asian
sea trad€
Goa
Portuguese factory or fortifìerJ trrde low¡t
loc.rtecl on rvestcrn ludia coast; sjte lor [orcibje
ertry iDto Asian sea trade network
local allies.
The airn of the empire was to establish Portuguese monopoly control over key Asian prodparticularly
spices such as nutmeg and cinnamon (Figure zi.z).tdeally,all the spices p.oå.r..d
ucts,
be
shipped
to
in Portuguese vessels to Asian or European markets. There they would f e sold
were
at
high prices, which the Portuguese coulcl dictate because they controlled the suppiy of these goods.
('--
\.1
Classrvæ
CaqrcLr
JA,PAN
Tqdls
CHINA
Hosc
S¡lvcr
Colton tcxtilcs
Gcms
Elcphants
GtI
EGYgT
Pape¡
Srlr
Porccl¡in
Silk tcxl¡ls
Câlcutta
INDIA
PACIFIC
Iì:'
lltngtl
OCEAN
tj
AFRICA
\
Cinno¡lon
Equ¡tor
-
*)*
F
INDIAN OCEAN
AUSTRÂLIA
Imperial lrade
Imperial capitals
routes ln Asia
in Asia
=.1
$
E
I5M KILON{ETEßS
Scalc Âccurûtc
forthc Equalor
tsonuguese
Spanish
Durch
English
-
Major routes
f_E
6
t---l
El
Portuguese
Spanish
Dutch
English
Major ports
lhe pattern
of Early European Expansion in Asia The differing routes and choice of fortified outposts
adopted by
n nations as they sought
to tap directly into the lndian Ocean tradin g network reflect
greater
that
la te
the
network.
information regarding
comers, such as the Dutch and English possessed, relati ve to the pioneering Portuguese.
500
Part
IV '
Shrinks
The Early Modern Period, 1450-1750: The World
irnpose a licensing syster¡
The Portuguese also sought, with little success'-to
from Ormuz to
on all meichant ships that traclecl in the Inclian Ocean
Malacca.Thecombinationofmonopolyanclthelicensingsystem'backed
sizeable portion
was intendecl to give the Portuguese control of a
Uy
fo..",
of the Asian trading network'
Dutch
Portuguese Vulnerability and the Rise of the
ancl English Trading EmPires
up on paper never became
The plans for emP ire that the Portuguese drew
some of the flow of
control
to
reality. They managecl for sorne decacles
very limited areas.
in
grown
were
spices, such as nutmeg and mace, which
as PePPer and
such
concliments,
But a rnonoPolY of the market in keY
severe Punishto
resorted
cloves, eluded them. At times the Portuguese
ships' crews
and
traders
rival
the
ments such as cutting off the hands of
they simply
But
monopoly.
caught transPorting sPices in defiance of their
much less
monopolies,
their
clid not have the soldiers or the ships to sustain
discipline,
military
poor
rivals,
licensing system. The resistance of Asian
the
Portuguese shipping
ramPant corruPtlon among crown officials, and heavy
a heary toll on the
taken
had
losses causecl bY overloading ancl poor clesign
emplre by the end ofthe 16th century'
empire proved no
The overextended ancl declining Portuguese trading
it i'n
challenged
fleets
match for the Dutch and English rivals, whose war
short
in
the
least
at
early lTthcentury. Of the two, the Dutch emerged,
port and fortress
as the victors. TheY caPtured the critical Portuguese
on the
Batavia
aÍ
Malacca and built a new port of their own in 1620
sources
island
the
to
of |ava. The latter location, which was much closer
knowledge
EuroPean
k"y spices (see MaP 22.2), reflected the improved
the Dutch decision to
in the early
condiment'
a
minor
is
nutmeg
today
Atthougtr
22,3
Asian geograPhY. It was also the consequence of
Figure
manuscript
rather than on
ln
this
modern era it was a treasured and widely used spice'
centlate on the mo nopoly control of certain spices
being
are
nutmeg
an
oversized
lost the struggle
of
but
ustratio n from the 1 6th century, slices
t¡ade more generallY. The English, who fought I-rard
market'
international
the
on
India.
sale
to
for
weighed in preparation
control of the SPice Islands, were forcecl to fall back
as
uP of the same basic comPonents
The Dutch trading emPire (Map 22.2) was made
Batavia Dutch fo¡t¡ess located after 1620 on the
a
of
control
warshiPs on Patrol' and monoPolY
island of Java
Portuguese: fortified towns and facto ries,
numerous and better armed shiPs and went
more
had
Dutch
the
number of Products. But
extendsystem
Dutch
The
enpire
trading
Dutch
sYstematic fashion. To regulate the
the business of monoPoiY control in a much more
1n8 into Asia with fortihed towns and factories,
uprooted the plants that produced these sPlces
warships on patrol, and monopoly control of a
cloves, nutmeg, and mace, for example, they
products.
of
number
limited
removed and at times executed island
lands they did not control' TheY also forcibly
and dared to sell them to their trading
cultivated these spices without Dutch suPervision
EuroPe in the mid-17th centurY
Although the profits from the sale of these sPices in
run
that the greatest profits in the long
sustain Holland's golden age' the Dutch found
trading
themselves into the long-established Asian
trt6
i II
gained from peacefullY working
gain control over crops such as PePPer
mand for spices declined ancl their futile efforts to
In resPonse' the Dutch
grown in many places became more and more exPensive.
charged for transPorttng
mainly (as they had long done in EuroPe) on the fees theY
from buYing Asian
gained
profits
on
dePended
aiso
one area in Asia to another. TheY
in
areas for goods that could be sold
as cloth, in one area and trading them in other
their
although
flated prices. The English also adoPted these peaceful trading Patterns,
(discussed in
trade
cloth
cotton
the
and
on
India
of
were concentrated along the coasts
rather than on the spices of southeast Asia'
GoingAshore: European Tribute Systems inAsia
waY into the Asian trading
Their ships and guns allowed the EuroPeans to force their
and awaY from the sea, their
16th and 17th centuries. But as they moved inland
the
raPidlY disappeared. Because
and their abilitY to domina te the Asian PeoPles
t
Chapter 22
,
Asian Tiansitions in an Age of Global Change
50r
numbers of Asian armies offset the Europeans' advantage in weapons and organization
for waging
war on land, even small kingdoms such as those on lava and in mainland southeast Asia
were åble
to resist European inroads into their domains. In the larger empires such as those in Ct i.,u,-t-.r¿iu,
and Persia, and when confronted by martial cultures ,rr.h u, lapan's, the Europeans quickly
í"u.rr.d
their place' That they were often reduced to kowtowing or humbling themselves before the thrones
of Asian Potentates as demonstrated by the instructions given by abutch envoy about the proper
behavior for a visit to the Japanese court:
Our ministers have no other instruction to take there except to look to the wishes
of that brave,
superb, precise nation in order to please it in everything, and by no means
to think on anything
which might cause greater antipathy to us. . . . That consequently the Company,s
ministers frel
quenting the scrupulous state each year must abc ve all go aimed in modest¡
humility, courtesy,
and amit¡ always being the lesser.
In certain situations, however, the Europeans were drawn inland. away from their forts,
factories, and war fleets in the early centuries of their expansion into Asia. The Portuguese, and
the
Dutch after them, felt compelled to conquer the coastal areas of Ceylon to control the production
and sale of cinnamon, which grew in the forests of the southwest portions of that island. The
Dutch
slowly inland from their base at Batavia into the highlands of western
]ava. They discovered
this area was ideal for growing coffee, which was in great demand in Europe by
the 17th cenBy the
mid-l8th centur¡ the Dutch not only controlled the coffee-growing
power on Java.
areas
but were the
The Spanish, taking advantage of the fact that the Philippine Islands lay in the
half of the
the pope had given them to explore and settle in I 493,invaded the islands
in the 1560s. The
of Luzon and the northern islands was facilitated by the fact that the animistic
inhabitants
in small states the Spanish could subjugate one by one. The repeated failure
of Spanish expedito conquer the southern island of Mindanao, which was ruled by a single
kingdom whose
rulers were determined to resist Christian dominance, dramatically underscores
the limits
Europeans'ability to project their power on land in this era.
In each area where the Europeans went ashore in the earþ centuries
ofexpansion, they set up
regimes that closely resembled those the Spanish imposed
on the Native American peoples
New World (see Chaprer l9). The European overlords were
content to let the indigenous
live in their traditional settlements, controlled largely by hereditary
leaders drawn from
communities. In most areas, little attempt was made to interfere
in the daily lives of the
peoples as long as their leaders met the tribute quotas
set by the European conquerors.
was paid in the form of agricultural products grown by the
peasantry under forced
supervised by the peasants'own elites. In some cases, the
indigenous peoples contincrops they had produced for centuries, such as the bark
of the cinnamon plant. In
new crops, such as coffee and sugar cane, were
introduced. But in all cases, the demands
took into account the local peasants'need to raise
the crops on which they subsisted.
Lurcn
No¡thern islaird of pltilippines; conquered
by Spain during the 1560s; site
Mindmao
Southe¡n island of philippines; a
Muslim kirgdom that was al¡le to successfully resist
Spanish conquest.
the Faith: The MissionaryEnterprise in south
and southeastAsia
setbacks, of all the
Asian areas where European enclaves were established in the
expansion, India
appeared to be one of the most promising fields for religious
ofmajo¡ Cathàlic
missionary effort.
Æil
Jesuits in
lndia
502
Part
IV '
Shrinks
The Early Modern Period, 1450-1750: The World
St
Francis
Xavier, Jesuit
in lndia
Xavier,
Francis
Spanish Jesuit missionary;
worked in India in 1540s among the outcaste
and lower caste groups; made little headway
amoug elites.
di (1577-1656) Italian Jesuit missionary: worked in lndia during the early I ó00s;
introduced strategy to convert elites firstl strategy
Iater widely adopiéd by Jesuits in various parts of
Asia; mission eventuallY failed.
Nobili, Robert
and Dominican missionaries' as well as the Iesuit
conversion. From the 1540s onward, Franciscan
the poor' low-caste fishers and untouchables along
Francis Xaviet who were willing to minister to
Sut the missionaries soon found that they were
the southwest coast, converted tãns of thousands.
In fact' taboos against contact with untouchables
making little headway among high-caste groups.
for the missionaries to approach prospective
and other low-caste grorp, ,îu¿ã it .t.urly i-po.sible
upper-caste converts.
named Robert di Nobili devised a different conTo overcome these obstacles, an Italian Jesuit
Indian languages' including sanskrit' which
version strategy i" th. ;".it looor. rr. learned several
He donned the garments worn by Indian brahallowed him to read the sacred texts of the Hindus'
upper-caste
measures were calculated to win over the
mans and adopted a vegetarian diet. Atl these
Christianizin
Nobili reasoned that if he succeeded
Hindus in south India, ïhere he was based. Di
the lower Hindu castes into the fold' But' he arbring
then
ing the high-caste Hindu¡ they would
Indian
wa"s sophisticated and- deeply entrenched'
gued, because the ancient Éindu religion
listen ãnly to those who adopted their ways' Meat
brahmans and other trigh-.utt. grouPs irould
*t o were unfamiliar with the Hindus'sacred texts would be
eaters would be seen as äefiling; iho..
considered ignorant.
was undone by the refusal of high-caste
Despite some early successes, Di Nobili's strategy
and to give up many of their traditional beliefs
Hindu converts to worshiP with low-caste grouPs
particularlY the Dominicans and Franciscans, deand religious rituals. Rival missionary orders,
culture, theY claimed, Di Nobili and his
nounced his aPProach. In assimilating to Hindu
His rivals also pointed out that the
not the Indians' were the ones who had been converted.
untouchable Christians defied one of the
of di Nobili's high -caste converts to worshiP with
before God. His rivals finalþ won the ear of
tenets of ChristianitY: the equality of all believers
Deprived of his energetic ParticiPation
pope, and Di Nobili was forbidden to Preach in India'
quickly collaPsed, though he
India
south
in
knowledge of Indian waYs' the mission
India.
in
translate Indian texts and even tuaþ died
the conversion of the
Beyond sociallY stigmatized grouPs, such as the untouchables,
the greatest successes of the Christian
populace in Asia occurred only in isolated areas. PerhaPs
which had not previouslY been
Philippines,
the
sions occurred in the northern islands of
SPanish had conquered the island'
the
Because
a world religion such as Islam or Buddhism.
governed them as part of their vast
Luzon and the smaller islands Lo the south, and then
effort. The friars, as the Priests
misslonary
major
nental emPire, they were able to launch a
were called, became the
poPulace
rural
the
brothers who went out to convert and govern
friars fìrst converted Iocal FiliPino leaders'
channel for transmitting European influences. The
in
settlements that were centered, like those
leaders then directed their followers to build new
church, the residences of the
and the New World, on town squares where the local
to the spiritual needs of the
tending
BeYond
thers, and government offices were located.
their congregation, the friars served as government offìcials'
most FiliPinds were
Like the Native Americans of Spains New World emPire,
brand of
FiliPinos'
the
Americans,
verted to Catholicism. But also like the Native
religion
the
and
customs
and
of their traditional beliefs
sented a creative blend
taught
friars. Because keY tenets of the Christian faith were
that
corrupted if Put in the local languages' it is doubtfirl
Spanish dominance and
because
grasP of Christian beliefs. ManY adopted Christianity
embraced the new faith because
leaders' conversion gave them little choice' Others
or because they were taken with
illness
that the Christian God could protect them from
that they would be equal to their Spanish overlords in heaven.
seriouslY
Filipinos clung to their traditional ways and in the Process
Almost all
continued Public bathing,
Christian beliefs and Practices. The peoples of the islands
ritual drinking. TheY also
give
uP
to
sionaries condemned as immodest' and refused
in sessions that were
commune with deceased members of their families' often
European control was
where
area
recitations of the rosary. Thus, even in the Asian
of the Preconquest
much
greatest'
pressures for acculturation to European ways the
approach to the world was maintained.
Chapter 22
.
Asían Transitions
in
an Age of Global
Change
503
Ming China: A Global Mission Refused
ZhuYuanzhang, a military commander of peasant origins who founded the Ming dynast¡ had suffered a great deal under the Mongol yoke. Both his parents and two of his brothers had died in a
plague in 1344, and he and a remaining brother were reduced to begging for the land in which to
bury the rest of their family, Threatened with the prospect of starvation in one of the many famines
that ravaged the countryside in the later, corruption-riddled reigns of Mongol emperors ; Zhu alternated between begging and living in a Buddhist monastery to survive. When the neighboring countryside rose in rebellion in the late 1340s, Zhu left the monastery to join a rebel band. His .ou.ug.
in combat and his natural capacify as a leader soon made him one of the more prominent of several
rebel warlords attempting to overthrow the Yuan dynasty. After protracteã military struggles
against rival rebel claimants to the throne and the Mongol rulers themselves, Zhu's
"à.rquered most,of China. Zhu declared himself the Hongwu emperor in 1368. He reigned for 30 years.
Immediately after he seized the throne, Zhu launched an effort to rid China of all traces of
ar-i.,
the "barbarian" Mongols. Mongol dress was discarded, Mongol names were dropped by those who
had adopted them and were removed from buildings and court records, and Mongol palaces and
administrative buildings in some areas were raided and sacked. The nomads themselves fled or were
driven beyond the Great Wall, where Ming military expeditions pursued them on several occasions.
.Another Scholar-Gentry Revival
the Hongwu emperor, like the founder of the earlier Han dynast¡ was from a peasant famand thus poorly educated, he viewed the scholar-gentry with some suspicion. But he also realthat their cooperation was essential to the full revival of Chinese civilization. Scholars well
in the Confucian classics were again appointed to the very highest positions in the imperial
The generous state subsidies that had supported the imperial academies in the capital
the regional colleges were fully restored. Most criticall¡ the civil service examination system,
the Mongols had discontinued, was reinstated and greatly expanded. In the Ming era and the
that followed, the examinations played a greater role in determining entry into the Chinese
than had been the case under any earlier dynasty.
In the Ming era, the examination system was routinized and made more complex than before.
or county, exams were held in two out of three years. The exams were given in large comlike the one depicted in Figure 22.4, that were surrounded by walls and watchtowers from
the examiners could keep an eye on the thousands of candidates. Each candidate was assigned a
cubicle where he struggled to answer the questions, slept, and ate over the
several days that it
complete the arduous exam. Those who passed and received the lowest degree were eligible to
next level of exams, which were given in the provincial capitals every three years. Only the
and ambitious went on because the process was fi.ercely competitive-in some years as
4000 candidates competed for 150 degrees. Success at the provincial level brought a
rise in
opened the way for appointments to positions in the middle levels of the imperial bureaualso permitted particularþ talented scholars
to take the imperial examinations, which were
the capital every three years. Those who passed
the imperial exams were eligible for the highin the realm and were the most revered
of all Chinese, except members of the royal family.
Hongwu's Efforts to Root OutAbuses in Courtpolitics
mindful of his dependence on a well educated and loyal scholar-gentry for the day-toof the empire. But he sought to put clear limits on their influence and to instithat would check the abuses of other factions at court. Early in
his reign, Hongwu
position of chief minister, which had formerly been the
key link between the many
the central government. The powers
that had been amassed by those who occupied
transferred to the emperor. Hongwu also tried to impress
all ofÊcials with the honand discipline
he expected from them by introducing the practice of public beatings
found guilty of corruption or incompetence.
Offìcials charged with misdeeds were
the assembled courtiers
and beaten a specified number of times on their bare
aà:-"
@)il . restoration of ethnic Chinese
rule and the reunification of the country
under the Ming dynasty
(1
368-1 644),
Chinese civilization enjoyed a new age
of splendor. Renewed agrarian and
commercial growth supported a
population that was the largest of
any center of civilization at the time,
probably exceeding that of all western
Eu
rope.
eror in I368; originally
name Zhu yuanzhag;
e; restored
position of
504
Part
IV '
World Shrinks
The Early Modern Period, 1450-1750: The
took
the cubicles in which Chinese students and bureâucrats
for
cubicles
the
capital at Beijing. Candidates were confined to
the im perial civil service examinations in the
their own
surveillance of official proctors. They brought
constant
the
under
exams
days and completed their
or going
exams
the
taking
others
to
talking
ifthey were found
food, slept in the cubicles, and were disqualified
given'
outside the compound where the exams were being
Figu re 22.4 A 19th-century engraving
sh ows
in the ordeal' Those who survived never
buttocks. ManY died of the wounds theY received
was shared by all the scholarfrom the humiliation. To a certain extent' the humiliation
could be meted out to any of them'
virtue of the very fact that such degrading punishments
on the court factionalism and neverHongwu also introduced measures to cut down
earlier dynasties. He decreed that the emPeror's
conspiracies that had eroded the Power of
This was intended to Put an end to the Power
should come onlY from humble famiþ origins.
palace cliques that were centered on
ofthe consorts from high -ranking families, who built
eunuchs to occuPy Positions
fluential aristocratic relatives' He warned against allowing
within the Forbidden CitY. To
pendent power and sought to limit their numbers
established the practice of exiling all
against the ruler and fights over succession, Hongwu
in
and he forbade them to become involved
rivals to the throne to estates in the provinces,
some
hqd
he
when
as
thought control'
affairs. On the darker side, Hongwu condoned
forever from the writings included on
deleted
him
displeased
Mencius's writings that
went far to keeP Peace at court under Hongwu
exams. Although many of these measures
(r. 140 3 -l 424), theY were allowed to lapse under
strong successor, the Yungle emPeror
for the Ming EmPire.
pable, rulers, with devastating consequences
A Return to Scholar-Gentry Social Dominance
suffering made him sensitive to the
lot of the common
Perhaps because his lowlY origins and personal
imProve the
peasantry, Hongwu introduced measures that would
projects, including dike building
most strong emperors, he Promoted public works
To bring new lands
sion of irrigation sYstems aimed at imProving the farmers'Yields
it toiled so hard
lands
the
tion and encourage the growth of a peasant class that owned
would become the tax
production, Hongwu decreed that unoccuPied lands
forced labor demands on the
those who cleared and cultivated them. He lowered
Hongwu also Promoted silk and
the government and members of the gentrY class.
income for Peasant
duction and other handicrafts that Provided supplemental
Exam Questions as a Mirror
of Chinese Values
The subjects and specific learning tested on the Chinese civil service
exams give us insight into the behavior and attitudes expected of
the literate, ruling classes of what was perhaps the best-educated
preindustrial civilization. Sample questions from these exams can
tell us a good deal about what sorts of knowledge were considered
important and what kinds of skills were necess ary for those who aspired to successful careers in the most prestigious and potentially
the most lucrative field open to Chinese youths: administrative
service in the imperial bureaucracy. The very fact that such a tiny
portion of the Chinese male population could take the exams and
very few of those successfully pass them says a lot about gender
roles and elitism in Chinese society. In addition, the often decisive
role of a student's calligraphy-the skill with which he was able to
brush the Chinese characters-reflects the emphasis the Chinese
elite placed
on
a
refined sense ofaesthetics.
Question l: Provide the missing phrases and elaborate on the meaning of the following:
The Duke of She observed to Confucius: "Among us there was an
upright man called Kung who was so upright that when his father appropriated a sheep, he bore witness against him." Confucius said. . .
[The missing phrases are, "The upright men among us are not
like that. A father will screen his son and a son his father . . . yet up_
rightness is to be found in that."]
Question 2: Write an eight-legged essay [one consisting of eight
sections] on the foilowing:
Scrupulous in his own conduct and lenient only in his dealings
with the people.
Question 3: First unscramble the following characters and then
comment on the significance of this quotation from one of the clas_
sic texts:
Beginning, good, mutually, nature, basicall¡ practice, far, nea¡
men's
[The correct answer is, "Men's beginning nature is basically
good. Nature mutually near. Practice mutually far.,,]
QUESTIONS Looking at the content
we learn about Chinese society and
do the Chinese look for models to
of
What kinds of knowledge are
stress specialist skills or the sort of
broad liberal arts education?
Although these measures led to some short-term improvement in the peasants' condition,
were all but offset by the growing power of rural landlord families, buttressed by alliances with
in the imperial bureaucracy. Gentry households with members in government service were
from land taxes and enjoyed special privileges, such as permission to be carried about in
chairs and to use fans and umbrellas. Many gentry families engaged in moneylending
on the
some even ran lucrative gambling dens. Almost all added to their estates
either by buying up
held by peasant landholders or by foreclosing on loans made to farmers in times
of need in
for mortgages on their family plots. Peasants displaced in these ways had little choice but
tenants of large landowners or landless laborers moving about in search of employment.
land meant ever larger and more comfortable households for the gentry class. They jusgrowing gap between their wealth and the poverty ofthe peasantry by contrasting their
and industry with the lazy andwasteful ways of the ordinary farmers. The virtues
of the
were celebrated in stories and popular illustrations. The latter showed members of genhard at work weaving and storing grain to see them through the cold weather, while
who neglected these tasks wandered during the winter, cold and hungr¡ past the
and closed gates of gentry households.
levels of Chinese societ¡ the Ming period continued the subordination of youths
to
women to men that had been steadily intensiS,ing in earlier periods.
If an¡hing, Neowas even more influential than under the late song and Yuan dynasties. Some
proposed draconian measures to suppress challenges to the increasingly
rigid social
students were expected to venerate and follow the instructions of their teachers,
muddle-headed or tipsy the latter might be. A terrifring lesson in proper
decorum
an incident in which a student at the imperial academy dared
to dispute the findhis instructors. The student was
beheaded, and his severed head was hung on a pole
to the academy. Not surprisingl¡ this rather unsubtle
solution to the problem of
classroom merely drove student protest underground. Anonymous letters
Ptepared teachers continued to circulate among the
student body.
crit-
505
506
part
IV .
The Early Modern Period ,1450-1750: The world shrinks
subordination and, if
Women were also driven to underground activities to ameliorate their
despite Hongwu's
continued,
they
court,
the
At
they dared, expand their career opportunities.
were swayed by
Hongwu
as
such
rulers
able
Even
measures, to play strong roles behinâ the scenes'
chided the
Hongwu
occasion,
one
On
aunts.
and
the advice of favorite *i*, o, dowager mothers
that bereplied
She
people'
common
the
of
empress Ma for daring to inquire inio the condition
her
for
to be
proper
quite
it
was
thus
and
mother,
cause he was the father of the people, she was the
concerned for the welfare of her children'
Hundreds, sometimes thousands
Even within the palace, the plight of most women was grim.
that they would catch the emhope
in
the
ght to the court
elevated to the status of wife.
be
even
perhaps
ãncubines or
inactivity, just waiting for
and
in
loneliness
spent their lives
the emperor to glance their waY.
they could win within
In society atlatge, women had to settle for whatever status and respect
children and' when
male
on
bearing
the family. As before, their success in this regard hinged largely
-law to mother-in-law. The
these children were married, moving from the status of daughter-in
write by their parents or brothers,
daughters of upPer-class families were often taught to read and
(Figure 22.5)
and many comPosed Poetry, painted, and played musical instruments
degree of independence and
some
For women from the nonelite classes, the main avenues for
should be clearly distinformer
self-expression remained becoming courtesans or entertainers. The
were literate and
and
guished from prostitutes because theY served a very different clientele
lives of
enjoYed
often
accomplished in painting, music, and PoetrY' Although courtesans
for
men
of
upper-class
the most successful made their living by gratifying the needs
even
ited sex and convivial companionship.
An Age of Growth: Agriculture, Population, Commerce' and the Arts
growth in China that both
The first decades of the Ming Period were an age of buoyant economic
The territories
fed by and resulted in unprecedented contacts with other civilizations overseas.
Tang
dynasty. But in
the
trolled by the Ming emperors were trever as extensive as those ruled by
late Song
in
the
begun
Ming era, the great commercial boom and population increase that had
was given a
south
the
to
neweð and accelerated' The peopling ofthe Yangzi region and the areas
new food
of
intermediaries,
boost by the importation, through Spanish and Portuguese merchant
(
plants-maize
Three
from the Americas, particularþ root crops from the Andes higtrlands'
on
grown
be
could
crops
sweet potatoes, and peanuts-were especiaþ important. Because these
hilly and marginal
the
through
quickly
spread
cultivation
their
irrigation,
without
rior soils
to the
bordered on the irrigated rice lands of southern China. Theybecame vital supplements
regions'
southern
or millet diet of the Chinese people, particularly those of the rapidly growing
an
Because these plants were less susceptible to drought, they also became
the
behind
factor
against famine. The introduction of these new crops was an important
scene of court life. ln addition to court intrigues
Thevaried diversions of the wives and concubines of Ming emperors are depicted in this
games,
and polite conversation. With eunuchs, officia
music,
dance,
with
themselves
occupied
win the emperor's favor, women of the imperial household
yet well appointed spaces.
guards watching them closely, the women of the palace and imperial city spent most of their lives in confined
Figure 22.5
(c The Trustees of the Br¡tish Museum/Art
Resure,
NY.)
Chapter 22
.
Lsian Tiansitions in an Age of Global
Change
507
in population growth that was under way by the end of the Ming era. By 1600 the population of
China had risen to as many as 150 million from 80 to 90 million in the t¿ih century. i*ò centuries
later, in 1800, it had more than doubled and surpassed 300 million.
Agrarian expansion and population increase were paralleled in early Ming times by a renewal
commercial
growth. The market sector of the domestic economy became ever more pervasive,
of
and overseas trading links multiplied. Because China's advanced handicraft industries pioduced a
wide variety of goods, from silk textiles and tea to fine ceramics and lacquerware, whìch were in
high demand throughout Asia and in Europe, the terms of trade ran very much in China's favor.
This is why China received more American silver (brought by European merchants) than any other
in the world economy of the early modern period. In addition to the Arab
Ariun
"nà
traders, Europeans arrived in increasing numbers at the only two places-Macao and, somewhat
later and more sporadicall¡ Canton-where they were officially allowed to do business in Ming
China. Despite state-imposed restrictions on contacts with foreigners, China contributed significantly to the process of protoglobalization that was intensiSring cioss-cultural contacts world-wide
in the early modern era.
single society
Macao
One oftwo ports in which Europeans
rere permitted ro trade in China during the Ming
dynasty.
Canton One oftwo port cities in which Euro_
peans rere permitted to trade in China during the
Ming dynasty.
Not surprisingly, the merchant classes, particularly those engaged in long-distance trade,
profits from the economic l¡oom. But a good portion ãf th.i. gain-s was transferred
to the state in the form of taxes and to the scholar-gentry in the form of bribes for official favors.
reaped the biggest
Much of the merchants'wealth was invested in land rather than plowed back into trade or manufacturing, because land owning' not commerce, remained the surest route to social status in China.
Ming prosperity was reflected in the fine arts, which found generous patrons both at court and
the scholar-gentry class more generally. Although the monochromatic simplicity of the work
earlier dynasties was sustained by the ink brush paintings of artists such as Xu Wei, much of the
output was busier and more colorful. portraits and scenes of court, city, or country life were
prominent. Nonetheless, the Chinese continued to delight in depicting individual scholars or
contemplating the beauty of mountains, lakes, and marshes that dwarf the human observers.
Whereas the painters of the Ming era concentrated mainly on developing established techand genres, major innovation was occur-
in literature. Most notable in this regard
the full development of the Chinese novel,
had had its beginnings in the writings of
Yuan era. The novel form was glven great
@
by the spread of literacy among the
classes in the Ming era. This was faciliby the growing availability of books that
ASIA
from the spread of woodblock
from the lOth century onward. Ming
ARÀI'IA
PERS'A
Jidda
such as The Water Margin, Mo nkey, and
Lotus werc recognized as classics in
0
time and continue to set the standard
prose literature today.
and Retreat,
ofthe Europeans
boundless energy of the Chinese
of Ming rule drove them far beareas of expansion in centhe reglons south of the Yangzi.
In
the rhird Ming emperor, Yungle,
a series of expeditions that had
ur Chinese history. Between
1405
Zheng He, one of yungle's
led seven major ex(See Map 223
and Chaprer
of motives, including a desire
INDIA
ç
AFRICA
s
Boy
of
Ben
øl
g
&
Qt
ö'
.J
INDIAN OCEAN
E
Areas covered by
Zhenghe 14O5-1433
otm
MILS
tmKtLoÀrm
Map 22.3 Ming china and the Zheng He Expeditions, l405-1433 The composite view of
the Zheng He expeditions shown on this map indicate the great distances traveled as well as the
fact that most of the voyages hugged the familiar coastlines of southern Asia and East Africa
rather than risking navigation large expanses of open sea.
50E
Part
IV .
The Early Modern Period, |450-1750: The World Shrinks
Ricci, Matteo IrEnr chEE] (I552-1610) Along
with Adam Sctrall, Iesuit schola¡ in court oIMing
emperors; skilled scientist; won few converts to
Christianit¡
Schall, Adam (159I-1666) Along with Matteo
Ricci, fesuit scholat in court of Ming emperors;
skilled scientist; won feiv converts to Christianity'
to the wider world' prompted the
to explore other lands and proclaim the glory of the Ming Empire
voyages.
and.kingdoms Thelast
The early expeditions were confined largely to southeast Asia¡ 1e1
comparable
Africa-distances
of
coast
persia,
east
the
and
southern Arabia,
three reached as far as
The hunÆrica'
around
voyages
early
their
in
to those that would be covered by the Portuguese
exexpeditions
these
on
deployed
Past)
the
dreds of great ships (see the illustrations in Visualizing
centuries
fi'rst
of
the
in
China
of
power
and
emplified" the teJhnological sophistication, wealth,
Ming rule.
A Ming Naval
Expedition
Malteo Ricci's
Journals
expeditions in 1433' China's rulers
Nonetheless, in the decades after the last of the ZhengHe
overseas' and increasingly
presti^geand
power
purposely abandoned the drive to extend Ming
an emphasis on buildfrom
shift
The
world.
sought to limit and control contacts with the outiiãe
joining
the northern defense
and
repairing
i.rgîn. impressive fleets of the Zheng He voyages to
in policy and decichanges
key
these
works to form the Great Wall as we know it today reflected
sions about geopolitical orientation'
the Ming war fleet
In the centuries that followed the suspensio n of overseas expeclitions'
its ships, and strict
of
quality
and
declined dramaticallY in the number
with which a
masts
of
number
and
limits were placed on the size
priority
longstanding
the
to
return
seagoing ship might be fìtted. This
of defending against nomadic invasions eventually left China, and the
Indian Ocean world as a whole, vulnerable to European rncursions
by sea.
While the Chinese closed themselves in, the Europeans pro
to the
ever farther across the glo be and were irresistibly drawn
IL
,4i:iø.[¿<<at ! f.':
.',1,i ;, -42,,," ,¡'i"'ii""1'/"
Figure 22.6
6o/'"'
LC
Jesuits in Chinese dress at the emperor's court' The Jesuits
believedthatthebestwaytoconvertagreatcivilizâtionsuchasChinawasto
adopt the dress, customs, language, and manners of its elite' They reasoned
that once the scholar-gentry elite had been converted, they would bring the
rest of China's vast population into the Christian fold'
legendary of all overseas civilizations, the Middle Kingdom of
in additio n to the trading contacts noted earlier, Christian
ies infiltrated Chinese coastal areas and tried to gain access to
court, where theY hoPed to curry favor with the Ming emPerors.
to
religious orders such as the Franciscans and Dominicans toiled
modest
made
ancl
Progress
converts among the common PeoPle
the
could be counted in the tens of thousands, the Jesuits adoPted
(Figure
22'6)
India
in
down strategy that Di Nobiti had pursued
of a
China, howevet, a single person, the Ming em peror, instead
reason
that
for
and
caste, sat at the top of the social hierarch¡
the J
rulers and their chief advisors became the p rime targets of
mlssron.
Some Chinese scholars showed interest in Christian
and Western thinking more generallY. But the J esuit missionaries
made their waY to Beijing clearlY recognized that their
a
knowledge and technical skills were the keys to måintaining
elite
Chinese
the
at the Ming court and eventually interesting
tianity, Beginning in the 1580s, a succession of brilliant Jesuit
their
such as Matteo Ricci and Adam Schall, spent most of
forging
imperial cit¡ correcting faulty calendars,
Chinese
clocks imported from EuroPe, and astounding the
their
and
gentry with the accrlracy of therr instruments
dict eclipses. They won a few converts among the elite.
court officials were suspicious of these strange-looking
with large noses and hairy faces, and they tried to limit
with the imperial familY. Some at the court, especiallY
offìcials who were humiliated bY the foreigners'
calendars, were oPenlY hostile to the Jesuits. Despite
ment, however, the later Ming emperors remained
nated by these verY learned and able visitors that
handful to remain.
The Great Ships of the Ming Expeditions
that Crossed the Indian Ocean
In the early modern era Chinese ships for canal, river and ocean transportation improved significantly and their numbers multiplied many
times. By the fust decades of the Ming dynast¡ some of them had also
increased dramatically in size (see the image below). This trend was
given great impetus by the impressive series of expeditions that were
led by the eunuch Zheng He through island Southeast Asia and on to
coastal India and east Africa beginning in 1405. Some of the dragon
ships of Zheng Het fleet exceeded four hundred feet in length, thus
dwarfing the caravel Niña, one of the ships of Columbus's first voyage
to the Americas (see the image below). Chinese junks in this and earlier centuries were equipped with magnetic compasses, water-tight
compartments, and stern post rudders that would have allowed them
to navigate the open seas rather than simply following the coastlines of
the lands from which Zheng He and his crews sought to command
nibute and establish direct commercial relations.
Over the course of the seven expeditions led by Zheng iHe,
of these great treasure vessels accommodated tens of thouof sailors, merchants and soldiers. As the illustration below
clearly indicates, the largest Chinese junks were far larger than the
caravels, naos and other vessels that the portuguese, Spanish, and
rival Europeans deployed in their voyages of exploration and discovery from the 15th through the lTth century. They also dwarfed
the ubiquitous and swift Arab dhows that plied the waters of the Indian Ocean and adjoining seas. With such vessels the Chinese became for much of the fifteenth century a dominant force in Asian
seas east of the Malayan peninsula. The stout-walled chinese ships
also proved the only vessels in Asia that could stand up to the can_
non carried by the first waves of portuguese ships that sought to
dominate the Indian Ocean trading network.
ships
of this
size carry? Do
equipped with the naval
crossed the Pacifìc Ocean to the
to Europe? If not, why
"discover" and
and the Chinese Predicament
1500s, the
Ming retreat from overseas involvement had become just one facet of a faof dynastic decline. The highly centralized, absolutist political structure, which
established by Hongwu and had been run well
by able successors such as Yungle, beliability under the mediocre or incompetent men who occupied the throne
of the last two centuries of Ming rule. Decades of rampant official corruption, exgrowlng isolation of weak rulers by the thousands of eunuchs who gradually
within the Forbidden Cit¡ eventually eroded the foundations on which the
works proj ects, including the critical dike works
on the Yellow Rive¡ fell into disredrough t, and famine soon ravaged the land. Peasants in afflicted districts
were rethe bark from trees or the excrement of wild geese. Some peasants
sold their
to keep them from starving, and peasants in some areas resorted to cannibalism.
509
Means and Motives for Overseas
Expansion: Europe and China Compared
decades of the 14th centur¡ Chinese mariners dramatically demonstrated their
capacity to mount large expeditions for over-
In the early
tition on the part of the Europeans than the Chinese rulers could
even imagine. China's armies were far larger than those of any of
the European kingdoms, but European soldiers were on the whole
better led, armed, and disciplined. Chinese wet rice agriculture was
more productive than European farming, and
the Chinese rulers had a far larget populatio¡
to cultivate their fìelds, build their dikes and
bridges, work their mines, and make tools,
clothing, and weapons. But on the whole' the
technological innovations of the medieval period had given the Europeans an advantage
over the Chinese in the animal and machine
power they could generate-a capacity that did
much to make up for their deficiencies in
seas exploration and expansion. Because their
failure to sustain these initiatives left Asian waters from the Persian Gulf to the China seas
open to armed European interventions a century later, the reasons for the Chinese failure to
follow up on their remarkable naval achievements merits serious examination. The explanations for the Chinese refusal to commit to
overseas expansion can be best understood if
they are contrasted with the forces that drove
human power.
Despite their differences, both civilizations had the means for sustained exploration
and expansion overseas, although the Chinese
were ready to undertake such enterprises a few
centuries earlier than the Europeans. As the
the Europeans with increasing determination
into the outside world. In broad terms, such a
comparison underscores the fact that although
boththe Europeans and the Chinese had the means to expand on a
global scale, only the Europeans had strong motives for doing so'
The social and economic transformations that occurred in
European civilization during the late Middle Ages and the early Renaissànce had brought it to a level of development that compared
favorably with China in many areas (see Chapters 10 and 12)' A1though the Chinese empire was far larger and more populous than
tiny nation-states such as Portugal, Spain, and Holland, the European kingdoms had grown more efficient at mobilizing their more
limited resources. Rivalries between the states of a fragmented Europe had also fostered agreafer aggressiveness and sense ofcompe-
voyages of Da Gama, Columbus, andZhengHe demonstrated' both
civilizations had the shipbuilding and navigational skills and tech:
nology needed to tackle such ambitious undertakings.'vVh¡
were the impressive ZhengHe expeditions a dead end' whereas
more modest probes of Columbus and Da Gama were the
ning of half a millennium of European overseas expanslon
global dominance?
The full answer to this question is as complex as the
it asks us to compare. But we can learn a good deal by looking at
grouPs pushing
for
expansion
within each civilization
needs that drove them into the outside world. There
and
was
Rup acious local landlords built huge estates by taking advantage of the increasinglY
peasant population. As in earlier phases of dynastic decline' farmers who had been turned
land and tortured for taxes, or had lost most of the crops they had grown' turned to
ditr¡ and finally open rebellion to confiscate food and avenge their exploitation by
the Mingemperors; committed suicide i¡ 1644 in the face of a
|urchen capture ofthe Forbidden City at Beijing.
Chongzhen [chohng-jehn] Lastof
510
lords and corrupt officials.
Tiue to the pattern of dynastic rise and fall, internal disorder rçsulted in and was
Wall'
by foreign threats and renewed assaults by nomadic peoples from béyond the Great
the earþ signs of the seriousness of imperial deterioration was the inability of Chinese
and military forces to put an end to the epidemic of fapanese (and ethnic Chinese)
that ravaged the southern coast in the mid-16th century. Despite an official
Mongols early in the Ming era and with the Manchus to the northeast of the Great
times, the dynasty was finally toppled in 7644, not by nomads but by rebels from
time, the administrative apparatus had become so feeble that the last Ming emperor'
(chohng-jehn), did not realize how serious the rebel advance was until enemy soldiers
to
the walls of the Forbidden City. After watching his wife withdraw to her chambers
cide, and after bungling an attempt to kill his young daughter, the ill-fated Chongzhen
the imperial gardens and hanged himself rather than face capture'
spread support for exploration and overseas expansion in seafaring
European nations such as Portugal, Spain, Holland, and Englànd.
European rulers financed expeditions they hoped would bring
home precious metals and trade goods that could be sold at great
profits. Both treasure and profits coulcl l¡e translated into warships
and armies that would strengthen these rulers in their incessant
wars with European rivals and, in the case of the Iberian kingdoms,
with their Muslim adversaries.
European traders looked for much the same beuefits from
overseas expansion. Rulers and merchants also hoped that explorers
would find new lands whose climates and soils were suitable for
growing crops such as sugar that were in high demand and thus
would bring big profits. Leaders of rival branches of the Christian
faith believed that overseas expansion would give their missionaries
access to unlimited numbers of heathens to be convertecl or would
put them in touch with the legendary lost king, Prester lohn, who
would ally with them in their struggle with the infìdel Muslims.
By contrast, the Chinese Zheng He expeditions were very
much the project of a single emperor and a favored eunuch, whose
Muslim family origins may go a long way toward accounting for his
wanderlust. Yungle appears to have been driven by little more than
curiosity and the vain desire to impress his greatness and that of his
empire on peoples whom he considered inferior. Although some
Chinese merchants went along for the ride, most felt little need for
voyages. They already traded on favorable terms for all the
Asia, and in some cases Europe and Africa, could offer.
merchants had the option of waiting for other peoples to come
them, or, if they were a bit more ambitious, of going out in their
ships to southeast Asia.
The scholar-gentry were actively hostile to the Zheng He exThe voyages strengthened the position of the much-
hated eunuchs, who vied with the scholar-gentry for the emperor's
favor ancl the high posts that went with it. In addition, the scholargentry saw the voyages as a foolish waste of resources that the ernpire could not afford. They believed it would be better to clirect rhe
wealth and talents of the empire to building armies and fortifications to keep out the hated Mongols and other nomads. After all,
the memory of foreign rule was quite fresh.
As had happened so often before in their histor¡ the Chinese
were drawn inward, fixated on internal struggles and the continuing
threat from central Asia. Scholar-gentry hostility and the lack of enthusiasm for overseas voyages displayed byyungle's successors after
his death in I424led to their abandonment after 1430. As the Chinese retreated, the Europeans surged outward. It is difficult to exaggerate the magnitude of the consequences for both civilizations and
all humankind.
QUESTIONS How might history have been changed if the Chinese had mounted a serious and sustained effort to project their
power overseas in the decades before Da Gama rounded the Cape
of Good Hope? Why did the Chinese fail to foresee the threat that
European expansion would pose for the rest of Asia and finally for
China itselß Did other civilizations have.the capacityfor global expansion in this era? What prevented them from,launching expeditions similar to those of the Chinese and Europeans? In terms of
motivation for overseas expansion, were peoples such as the Muslims, Indians, and Native Americans more like the Europeans or
the Chinese?
Off the West: fapan's Reunifìcation
the First Challenge
g
Nobuaga, Oda (1534-1582) Japanese dairnyo;
first to make extensive use of firearms; in 1573 deposed last ofAshikaga shoguns; unifìed much
of
cent¡al Honshu unde¡ his command.
16th century the daimyo stalemate and the pattern of recurring civil war were so entrenched .z1i:\:
society that a succession of three remarkable military leaders was needed to restore f/a,\ mid-16th century the Japanese
\rlgÞè
internal peace. oda Nobunaga, the fìrst of these leaders, was from a minor warrior found leaders who had the military and
But his skills as a military leader soon vaulted him into prominence in the ongoing diplomatic skills and ruthlessness needed
for power among the daimyo lords. As a leader, Nobunaga combined daring, a willingness
to restore unity under a new Shogunate,
and ruthless determination-some would say cruelty. He was not afraid to launch a the Tokugawa. By the early 1600s, with
attack against an enemy that outnumbered
him ten to one, and he was one of the first of the potential threat from the Europeans
to make extensive use of the firearms that the
looming ever larger, the Tokugawa
Japanese had begun to acquire from the
\-/
in the 1540s.
Nobunaga deposed the last of the Ashikaga shoguns, who had long ruled in name
he had unified much of central Honshu under his command (Map 22.\. As his
agarnst the powerful western
daimyo in l582,Nobunaga was caught off guard by one
generals and
was killed when the Kyoto temple where he had taken refuge was burned
shoguns succeeded in enveloping the
islands in a state of isolation that lasted
nearly two and a half centuries.
5ll
512
parr
IV .
The Early Modern Period, 1450-1750: The World Shrinks
<.r
Seo of .lupan
þ
Datê
0
A
o
Mikawa Province
home ofTokugawa
Owari P¡ovincc
ø
home of Nobunaga
and Hideyoshi
Unified by Nobunaga, 1582
-EB
HideYoshi's camPaigns
t---l-
?M
MILð
"fl
of the Tokugawa Shogunate As th is map ind icates, the main centers of popu lation and political
best project their milita
power in early modern Japan were readily accessible to the sea, which was the arena which the Europeans could
prerogatives.
commercial
prowess and exercise their
Map 22.4 Japan During the
Rise
At first it appeared that Nobunaga 's campaigns to restore central authority to the
Hideyoshi, Toyotomi General under Nobunaga;
succeeded as leading military power in cent¡al
Japan; continued efforts to break power of
daimyos; constructed a series of allimces that
madehim nilitarymasler of )apan in 1590; died
in
1598.
Ieyasu, Tokugawa ltoh-kuh-GAH-wâh ee-YAHsool Vassal ofToyotomi Hideyoshi; succeeded him
as nost powerful military figure in Japan; Srmted
title of shogun in I603 and established Tokugawa
Shogunate; established political unity in Iapan.
migh i be undone. But his ablest general, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (Figure 22.7),moved quicklY to
ish those who had betrayed Nobunaga and to renew the drive to break the power of the
who had not yet submitted to him. Though the son of a peasant, Hideyoshi matched his
military prowess but was far more skillful at diplomacy. A system of alliances and a string of
1590.
ries over the last of the resisting daimyo made Hideyoshi the military master of JaPan bY
He
in
mind.
uest
The ambitious overlord had much more grandiose schemes of conq
of ruling China and even India, although he knew little about either place' Hideyoshi also
ened, among others, the SPanish in the Philippines. Apparently as the first step toward
vision of empire building on a grand scale, Hideyoshi launched two attacks on Korea in
1597,eachof which involved nearly 150,000 soldiers. After initial successes, both campaigns
The first ended in defeat; the second was still in progress when Hideyoshi died in 1598
Although Hideyoshi had tried to ensure that he would be succeeded by his son,
his
he had appointed fo carry out his wishes tried to seize Power for thdmselves after
of these Yassals, Tokugawa IeYasu (toh-kuh- GAH-wah ee-YAH-soo ), had originally
minor daimyo house. But as an ally of Hideyo shi, he had been able to build uP a
main on the heavily populated Kanto plain. Ieyasu soon emerged triumphant from
warfare that resulted from Hideyoshi's death. Rather than continue HideYoshi's
he
overseas expansion, Ieyasu concentrated on consolidating power at home. In 1603
of
the title of shogun by the emperor, an act that formally inaugurated centuries
Edo
Tokugawa capital city; modern-day Tokyo;
center of the Tokugawa Shogunate.
Tokugawa shogunate.
the
Under leyasu's direction, the remaining daimyo were reorganized. Most of
ruled
tral Honshu were either controlled directly by the Tokugawa family, who now
with
the city of Edo (later Tokyo), or were held by daimyo who were closely allied
were
theY
of the outlying or vassal daimyo retained their domains,
Although many
was
trolled and were required to pledge their personal allegiance to the shogun' It
Chapter 22
,
AsianTiansitions in an Age of Global Change
513
the Tokugawas' victory had put an end to the civil wars and brought a
semblance of political unity to the islands.
Dealing with the European Challenge
All through the decades when the three unifierò were struggling to bring
the feisty daimyo under control, they also had to contend with a new force
ffearms, which the ]apanese could themselves manufacture within years
and were improving in design within a generation, revolutionized
fapanese
warfare and contributed much to the victories of the unifiers. Commercial
with the Europeans also encouraged the J apanese to venture overto trade in nearby Formosa and Korea and in places as distant as the
and Siam.
Soon after the merchants, Christian missionaries (Figure 22.g) ar
in the islands and set to work converting the fapanese to Roman
Beginning in the outlying'domains, the missionaries worked
way toward the political center that was beginning to coalesce around
and his followers by the 1570s. Seeing Christianity as a counterto the militant Buddhist orders that were resisting his rise to power,
took the missionaries under his protection and encouraged
to preach their faith to his people. The
lesuits, adopting the same topstrategy of conversion that they had followed in India
and China, Figure 22.7
ln this late 16th-century portrait, Hideyoshi (1536-1S98)
many of the daimyo and their samurai retainers. Some of the
Jegrasps the sword that catapulted him to power and exudes
the discipline
were also convinced that they were on the verge of
winning over and self-confidence that made possible his campaigns to unify Japan.
who delighted in wearing Western clothes, encouraged his Although warrior skills were
vital in his rise to power, he and other
to copy Western paintings of the Virgin Mary and scenes
from the members of the samurai class were expected to be l¡terâte, well mannered
Christ, and p ermitted the missionaries to build churches
i4 towns by the conventions of the day, and attuned to the complex and refined
the islands. The missionaries were persuaded that Nobunagat aesthetics of rock gardens and tea ceremonies.
would bring rhe whole of the Japanese people into the Christian
without it, they reported converts in the hundreds of thousands
by the early 1580s.
the late 1580s, quite suddenl¡ the missionaries
saw their carefully mounted conversion
A Japanese
V¡ew of
was murdered, and his successor, Hideyoshi, though not yet openly
European
the missionary enterprise. In part, the missionaries' fall from favor
Missionaries
from the fact that the resistance of the Buddhist
sects had been crushed. More criticall¡
and his followers were alarmed by reports
of converts refusing to obey their overlords'
when they believed them to be in conflict
with their newly adopted Christian beliefs.
threat that the new religion
posed for the established social order was groung more apthreat was compounded by signs
that the Europeans might follow up their commercial
overtures with military expeditions aimed at
conquering the islands. The fapanese
impressed with the firearms and pugnacity of the Europeans,
and they did not
rnvasion lightly.
H
Isolation
about European intentions,
and fears that both merchants and missionaries might
social order, led to official measures
to restrict foreign activities in Japan, begin1580s. First,
Hideyoshi ordered the Christian missionaries
to leave the islands-an
514
Part
IV .
The Early Modern Period, 1450-1750: The world Shrinks
peoples and those of Asia are vividly illustrated in this panoramic Japanese
A number of the nrajor forms of interaction between expan sive European
powe
r of the Portuguese ship that has just arrived in harbor is evident in the artist's
size and
silkscre en painting from the early 1 600s. The strong ìmpressiotr made by the
main
ly chinese silks, which are also being sold in the marketplace at the right of thc
unloaded'
exaggeratìon of the height of its fore and aft castles. The trade goods being
whichthePortuguesehadbecomecarriersbetweendifferentareasinAsia,
in
ways
the
demonstrate
skins,
painting, but also exotic products such as peacocks and tiger
efforts to
sea captain (under the umbrella in the center) suggests that
Portuguese
arriving
greet
the
to
waiting
missionaries
including Japa n. The cluster of black-robeci
the kingdom'
convert the JaPanese to Christianity were in fult swing, at least in this area of
re 22.8
"Closed
Country Edict
of 1635" and
"Exclusion
of the
Portuguese,
1 639" by
Tokugawa
leyasu
Island in Nagasaki Bay; only port open
to non-Japanese after clostlre of thc islands in the
1640s; only Chinese and Dutch ships rverc permitted to enter,
Deshima
school ofNational Learning New ideology that
laid emphasis on lapan's unique historical experience anà the revival of indigenous culture at the
expense of Chinese imports such as Confucianism;
typical ofJapan in lSth centur¡
Hideyoshi was acorder that was not rigorously enforced, at least at the outset' By the mid-1590s,
this persecontinued
Ieyasu,
successor,
His
converts.
and
missionaries
tively persecuting Chiistian
out of the
driven
were
missionaries
European
in
1614.
the
faith
cution ancl then officially banned
conor
expelled'
killed
and
|apanese
down
hunted
were
underground
islands; those who remuined
t*tortured'
imprisoned,
were
refused
who
those
faith;
their
verts were compellecl to renollnce
lq
to practice their faith in
ecuted. ny the ìO:Os, the persecutions, even against Christians who tried
regions joinecl in hardsecret, hacl become so intense that tirousands of converts in the western
With the.supfought but hopeless rebellions against the local daimyo and the forces of the shogun'
of isolated
faith
underground
to
an
reduced
was
in
fapan
pression of these uprisings, Christianity
communities.
a broader
Under Ieyasu and his successors, the persecution of the Christians grew into
to a handful
confined
were
traders
foreign
In
1616
influences.
paign to isolate faPan from outside
overseas. One after
cities; in the 1630s all faPanese ships were forbidden to trade or even sail
(
Spanish) or
other, different EuroPean nations were either officially excluded from fapan the
cided that trading there was no longer worth the risk (the English). By the 1640s
the
number of Dutch and Chinese ships were allowed to carry on commerce on
and
restricted,
greatly
was
copper
and
silver
of
Deshima in Nagasaki Bay' The export
were
Foreigners
courtrY.
the
reentering
from
ideas
books were banned to prevent Christian
led to live and travel only in very limited areas
Much
By the mid-17th century, fapan's retreat into almost total isolation was complete'
next centurv was spent in consolidating the internal control of the Tokugawa shogunate the
islands' In
rng bureaucratic administration into the vassal daimyo domains throughout the
of the
century, a revival of Neo-Confucian philosoph¡ which had marked the Period
the School
chamPioned
who
of
thinkers
way to the influence
rise to power, increasingly gave
tional Learning. As its name implies, the new ideology laid great emphasis on J
inPorts
torical experience and the revival of indigenous culture at the expense of Chinese
Dutch
Confucianism. In the centuries that followed, through contacts with the small
Their
West.
the
in
developments
followecl
Deshima, members of the JaPanese elite also
Chinese
of
the
indifference
the
with
in European achievements contrasted sharply
this period to the doings of the "hairy barbarians" from Europe'
Chapter 22
Global Connections
Asian Transitions in an Age of Global
Change
515
Promising missionary inroads in the l6th century were stifled by
hostile Tokugawa shoguns in the early lTth century. They were
fur Age of Eurasian Protoglobalization
also carefully contained by the Ming emperors and the nomadic
In 1700, after two centuries of European involvement in south and
southeast Asia, most of the peoples of the area had been little affected by efforts to build trading empires and win Christian converts. European sailors had added several new routes to the Asian
Íading network. The most important of these were the link
around the Cape of Good Hope between Europe and the Indian
Ocean and the connection between the Philippine Islands and
Mexico in the Americas. The Europeans'need for safe harbors and
storage areas led to the establishment and rapid growth of trading
centers such as Goa, Calicut, and Batavia. It also resulted in the
gradual decline of existing indigenous commercial centers, especially the Muslim cities on the east coast of Africa and somewhat
later the fortress town of Malacca. The Europeans introduced the
principle of sea warfare into what had been a peaceful commercial
world. But the Asian trading system as a whole survived the initial
shock ofthis innovation, and the Europeans eventually concluded
they were better off adapting to the existing commercial
rather than dismantling them.
Because exchanges had been taking place between Europe
Asia for millennia, few new inventions or diseases were spread
the early centuries of expansion. This low level of major exwas particularly strfüng compared with the catastrophic
between Europe and the Americas. But, as in Africa,
discoveries in the long-isolated Western Hemisphere
result in the introduction of important new food plants into
China, fava, the Philippines, and other areas from the 1600s
These new foods led to substantial increases in the populn the areas affected. The import of silver was also an addito wealth and adornment in China. Otherwise, Europeans
of diseases that they contracted in Asia, such
.
as
new
of malaria and dysentery. They spread diseases only to the
isolated parts of Asia, such as the Philippines, where the
of the Spanish was accompanied by a devastating smallThe impact of European ideas, inventions, and
of social organization was also very limited during the
first
of expansion. Key European
devices, such as clocks, were
toys by Asian rulers to whom they were given as presthe ritual-minded Chinese emperors took
these suDertor
very seriousl¡ thereby providing the
Jesuit missionaras
them to China with access to the court and ruler
powerful empire in an increasingly interconnected
for clocks and guns, during the early modern period
the West's surge in exploration and commercial
touched most
of Asia only peripherally. This was parof east Asia, where the political cohesion and miliof the vast Chinese empire and the fapanese
states blocked all hope of European advance.
Qing dynasty {lom the mid-l
rulers limited trading contacts
apanese
ans and
confined European merchants
Canton
in China, Deshima in fapan-that were remote from their respective capitals. In its early decades, the Ming dynasty also pursued a
policy of overseas expansion that had no precedent in Chinese
history. But when China again turned inward in the last centuries
of the dynast¡ a potentially formidable obstacle to the rise of European dominance in maritime Asia was removed. China's strong
position in global trade continued, in marked contrast to fapan,s
greater isolation. But even China failed to keep pace with changes
in European technology and merchant activit¡ with results that
would show more clearly in the next stage of more intense global
interaction.
Further Readings
The account of Da Gama's epic voyage that opens the chapter is
based heavily on I. H. Parry's superb The Discovery of the Seø
(1981). C. c. F. Simkins, The Traditional Trade of Asia (1968),
and Anthony Reid, Southeast Asia
in
the Age of Commerce,
1450-1680 (1988), provide overviews of the Asian trading network from ancient times until about the lSth century. Much
more detailed accounts of specific segments of the system, as
well as the impact upon it of the Dutch and Portuguese, can be
found in the works of I. C. van Leur, M. A. P. Meilink-Roelofsz,
K. N. Chaudhuri, Ashin Das Gupta, Sanjay Subrahmanyam, and
Michael Pearson. C. R. Boxer's The Portuguese Seaborne Empire
(1969) and The Dutch Seøborne Empire (1965) are still essential
reading, although the latter has little on the Europeans in Asia.
Boxer's Race Relations in the Portuguese Coloniøl Empire,
1415-1852 (1963) provides a stimulating, if contentious, introduction to the history of European social interaction with overseas peoples in the early centuries of expansion. Important
correctives to Boxer's work can be found in the more recent contributions of George Winius.
Louise Levathes, When Chinø Ruled the Seøs: The Treøsure
Fleet of the Dragon Throne, 1405-33 (1994), is the most thorough
account in English of China's global reach. G. B. Sansom, The
WesternWorld and lapan (1968),includes a wealth of information
on the interaction between Europeans and, despite its title, peoples throughout Asia, and it has good sections on the missionary
initiatives in both China and fapan.
The period of the Ming dynasty has been the focus of
broader and more detailed studies than the dynasties that preceded it. An important early work is Charles O. Hucker, The Censorial System of Ming China (1966). Two essential and more recent
5f
6
Part
IV .
The Early Modern Period, 1450-1750: The World Shrinks
works are Albert Chan's The Glory and Fall of the Ming Dynasty
(1982) and Edward Dreyer's more traditional political histor¡
Early Ming China, 1355-1435 (1982). See also F. Mote and D.
Twitchett, eds., The Cambridge History of China: The Ming Dy-
shogunate was established after a civil war that followed the reigns
nasty 1j68-1644, vols. 6 andT (1988, 1998).
There are also wonderful insights into daily life at various
en/rnainmenu.htm, or http://wwwosakacastle.net/english/, and
levels of Chinese society in Ray Huang's very readable 1587: A
Year of No Significønce: The Ming Dynasty in Decline ( 198 I ), and
main.html).
into the interaction between the Chinese and the Iesuits in
Jonathan Spence's The Memory Palace of Matteo Ricci (1984).
Frederic Wakeman lr., The Great Enterprise, 2 voIs. (1985), is essential to an understanding of the transition from Ming to
Manchu rule. The early chapters of Spence's The Seørch for Modern China (1990) also provicle an illuminating overview of that
Process.
Perhaps the best introductions to the situation in Japan in
the early phase of European expansion are provided by G. B. Sansom's surve¡ A History of løpan, 1615-1867 (1963) and Conrad
Totman's Politics in the Tokugawø Bakufu, 1600-1843 (1967).
Numerous studies on the Europeans in Japan include those by
Donald Keene, Grant Goodman, Noel Perrin, and C. R. Boxer, Intellectual trends in Japan in this era are most fully treated in H. D.
Harootunian's Toward Restorøtion: The Growth of Political Consciousness in Tokugawa løpan (1970).
of
Nobunaga Oda (http://ox.compsoc.net/-gerlini/simons/
historyweb/oda-nobunaga.htn-rl) and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, developer of the grand Osaka Castle (http://www.osakacastle.net/castle__
http ://ngm.natìonirlgeo graphic. corn/ngrn/03
1
2/tèatur:e5/zoomit_1./
Hideyoshi's death may or may not have been hastened by
the great losses lapan sustained as a result of his two failed invasions of Korea (for a Korean view of these events, known as the
Imjin Wars, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imjin-War, http://
en.wikipeclia.org/wiki/Yi_Sunsin, and http://www.umich.eciu/
- urecord/
9899IF
eb22 _99 I imjin.
htm). Howeve6 his passing hastened
the ascension of Tokugawa Ieyasu (http://www.samurai-a¡chives
.com/ieyasu.html and http://www.japan-guicle.corn/e/e2 1 28.htrnl),
whose shogunate paved the way for the construction of modern
lapan.
The era of the rise and development of the Tokugawa also
saw significant exchange between Asians and Christian missionar-
ies elsewhere in Asia. An exceptional online study of these exchanges and the lives of Mateo Ricci, Adam Schall, and Robert di
Nobili can be found ar http I I acc6. its.bro old;'n. cuny. edu/ - ph
texts/r'ic-jour.html, http ://ww-iv.nelvadvent.org/cathen/ I 3
http ://r,rwwthefi eelibrary. com/Preaching+Wisdom+to +the'f
+Three+'lteatises-a077205106, and http://rvww.fordharn,
:
halsali/eastasia/eastasiasbook.h
On the Web
The achievement of the Ming and later Qing dynasties are on view
at virtual tours of their versions of the Great Wall and Forbidden
City offered at http://wwrv.chinar.ista.com/beijing/gugong/map.htrnl
and http ://wm.^,r walkthelvall. com/. A view of the Great Wall provided
by satellite imagery is offered at http://www.jpl.nasa.govhada¡l
sìrc.xsar/sc-gwall.gif. An interactive 360 degree panoramic view of
the Forbidden City can be found at http://www.thebeijingguicle
com/forbidden_citylforbidden_city_virtual_tour.html.
Perhaps the fìnest of all virtual tour sites on the Web is that
which provides a glimpse into the rich cultural life of the Tokugawa capital of Edo at http://www.us-japan.orgledomatsu/. This
.
These exchanges were made possible by earlier
ments in seagoing transportation, trade, and exploration, such
the travels of Zheng He (or Chengho) (http://chi
chengho.htrrl) and the development of Portuguese and
trading empires (http:/irvlvw.colonialvoyage.com).
Web pages devoted to the activities of the Dutch
India Company (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/l)
Co rnp any, ht tp ://wlvu'.tanap. net/-res o ut'ces/inr ages/ cl
.jpg, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deshima, and
worlclhistoryconnectecl.press. uiuc. edr-r/3. 3/ giibert.html)
luminous virtual tours of both Batavia and
demonstrate the still peripheral role of Euroqeans in Asia
time.
.
Chapter 22
Asian Transitions in an Age of Global Change
5t7
Test Prep
When the Portuguese arrived in India in
149g, they
(A) found they hacl little to offer in trade, but could get rich
by forcing themselves into the existing trade
(B)
(C)
exchangecl valuable European goods for
Asian
established cordial relations with Muslim
merchants.
6.
the Asian trading sys_
tem as the first Europeans encountered it?
(B)
(C)
(D)
(A)
silk from China to the Middle East.
(B)
(c)
cottons from India to the Middle East.
bulk items, usually foodstuffs, exchanged
among each
of the main zones.
(D)
spices from the East Indies.
luxury
2. Which of the following characterized
(A)
The raw material with the broadest demand
and highest price
was
network.
integrated themselves on peaceful terms into
_quicldy
the Asian trade system.
items.
(D)
5,
(A)
(B)
The Indian Ocean trade was monopolized
by Hindu
merchants.
(C)
(D)
The trade in slaves was the principal cargo traversing
the Indian Ocean.
tade?
(A)
(C)
(D)
(D)
and
Access
to the most profitable spices was controlled by
the Chinese.
Asian society witnessed the largest percentage
of its
converted to Christianitv?
China
India
the Philippines
Iapan
Question
effects on East
Asia of the intensification of European
the periocl
I 450-1750.
the civil service exam system of the Mongols
was
In the 17th centur¡ the /apanese dealt with the startling
rival of the Europeans to East Asia by
(A) The Mughal and Ottoman navles were too strong.
(B) French traders offered too much competition.
(C) Portugal was a small nation and lacked the
ships
manpower needed to overcome its Asian
and Èuropean
competition.
China converted to Buddhism.
ended.
7.
What circumstances prevented the portuguese
from estab_
lishing a monopoly over the Asian spice
Chinese manufacturing expanded further.
peasants were granted equality with the
scholar_gentry
and noble classes.
The Indian Ocean trade was dominated by
Muslim
merchants.
The Indian Ocean trade was highly m ilitartzed.
Following the defeat and expulsion of the Mongols
from
China,
allying with the portuguese against the other
Europeans.
(B)
permitting the /esuits to convert the
Christianity.
Japanese to
permitting the Europeans to establish controj over
|apan's foreign trade.
self-imposed isolation and forbidding most contact
with Europeans.
ar_