The Early Modern Period
1450-1750 CE
UNIT 4
APWH EXAM REVIEW
MAJOR CHANGES
 World becomes global - exploration;
technological innovations; political
organizations; trade
 Domination of Maritime trade - shift from
land based trade in Classical and PostClassical Periods
 Decline of nomadic groups and their power
 Shift in labor systems
 Gunpowder Empires
Major Early Modern Empires
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Spain
Portugal
England
France
The Netherlands
Russia
 Gunpowder
Empires:
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Ottoman Empire
Tokugawa Japan
Safavid Persia
Ming China
Mughal India
The Ottoman Empire
1299-1923
 Founded by Osman
 1453: take Constantinople and end Byz.
Empire
 Take control of land on 3 continents - From
Iraq in the east, North Africa to the South;
Balkans to the East
 Sultan (supreme leader) w/ a bureaucracy
 Strong army (Janissaries); Slave labor
 Religiously and culturally tolerant
 Emphasized Merchant class
 Women have right to own property
Mughal India
1526-1858
 Descendants of Mongol
invaders and Muslim
merchants in Northern India
 Included India, Pakistan and
Afghanistan
 Strong military, funded by
high taxes
 Those in military earn pieces
of land, which makes regional
princes upset
 Muslim leaders over Hindu
majority - religiously tolerant
(they have to be!)
 Creation of new religion:
Sikhism (Islam and Hinduism)
 Great architectural feats - Taj
Mahal
Tokugawa Japan
1600-1868
 Tokugawa family unite regional daimyos under
one government
 Capital: Edo (Tokyo)
 Opposed to European presence in Asia (after
seeing Spanish take over Philippines; did not
want Europeans to appeal to daimyos to
overthrow gov’t)
 1630s: close Japan from European influences
 No travel to Europe; no Europeans in Japan except
Dutch traders (limited)
Ming China
1368-1644
 Follow Yuan dynasty (Mongols)
 Promote initial exploration - Zheng He;
eventually recalled to deal with internal
problems
 Neo-Confucianism
 Silk Road begins to decline b/c of maritime
trade
 Cultural contributions: porcelain; paintings
 At end of dynasty, very inept rulers; prone to
rebellions and outside attacks
Qing China
 Overthrown Ming Dynasty in 1644 (last until
1911)
 Led by Manchus (from Manchuria) – viewed
as outsiders by rest of China
 Pre-1750: very strong empire; promote
Mandate of Heaven; forbid intermarriage
between Manchus and Chinese
 Golden Age of Chinese civilization - good,
long-serving rulers; promotion of
Confucianism, education and military might
 React favorably to Catholic missionaries;
increase trade with Europeans and open ports
for trade
Safavid Persia
1501-1736
 Shi’a Islam
 Founded by Ismail
 Lack of religious tolerance – goes to war with
Ottomans to convert them; Safavids lose
 Capital: Isfahan - great city planning; mosques
 Difficult to expand due to being surrounded by
other empires - Arab empires, Ottomans,
Mughals
Age of Exploration
 Portugal - exploration and colonization – Prince
Henry the Navigator; important in early slave trade;
first to set up trading centers in Africa’s coast
(factories)/ trade directly with India and China;
Brazil
 Spain - Isabella and Ferdinand; exploration and
colonization; expelled Muslims and Jews from Spain
(Inquisition); control most of Latin America and
southern North America; crucial in beginning of
slave trade
 Treaty of Tordesillas – divides South America
between Spain and Portugal
Age of Exploration
 England
 Power from trade and
colonization
 British East India Company
 Mercantilism
 Strong naval force - defeat
Spanish Armada
 Colonies on Eastern seaboard
of N.America
 Strong limited government
(monarchy) with Parliament
 Queen Elizabeth I
 France
 Power through trade
and colonization
(Northern parts of
North America)
 Traders; Trappers
 Louis XIV - absolute
monarch; Palace of
Versailles
Social and Gender Change in
Early Modern Europe
 Major cities develop - Paris, London, Amsterdam
 Rise of small middle class (much bigger in
Industrial Revolution)
 Rising gap between rich and poor
 Later marriage ages; decline in arranged
marriage
 Some women become educated
 Renaissance and Reformation change views of
European society
Early Modern Russia
 Post-Classical Mongol control of Russia hurts most of
the region, except for Moscow, which benefits from
the tax collection; feudalism increases; behind in
trade and technological development
 Romanov Family dominates
 Expansion east – use of Cossacks
 Peter the Great - Westernization; St. Petersburg;
warm water port
 Catherine the Great; appeal to upper classes
(boyars); likes idea of Westernization, but doesn’t
implement it as well as Peter
 Both treat peasants terribly
Exploration and Colonization of the
Americas - Consequences
 Decimation of indigenous peoples - Aztecs,
Incas, Native Americans (90%)
 Spread of Disease - smallpox, tuberculosis
 Columbian Exchange: animals and crops
 Rise in coercive labor – Encomiendas; Slave
labor
 European access to raw materials (silver,
sugar, cotton, tobacco)
Coercive or Forced Labor Systems
Type of labor
system
Location
Slave Trade
(Trans-Saharan
and East Africa)
East Africa
Plantation
System (Atlantic
Slave Trade)
Caribbean;
North and South
America
Janissaries
Serfdom
Demographic
Impact
Treatment of
Slaves
Status of Slaves
Mostly women
and lower-class
women
Part of property
Middle Passage;
silver mining;
agricultural and
domestic work
Not much social mobility in
early modern period
Ottoman Empire;
young boys from
Eastern Europe
Military Service;
forced
conversion to
Islam
Some social mobility
Eastern Europe
Russia
Japan
Becomes very
similar to slavery
Some mobility
15-25 million
slaves to the
Americas
Early Modern Demographic
Changes
 Rise in population in Europe
 Decrease in population in Americas
 15th century: 67 million living in North, Central
and south America
 1700: 13 million in all of western hemisphere
 Africa: slave trade hurt, but not decimate
African demographics
 By 1700: doubled population in 1000 CE
 Western Africa only area really impacted by ST
 Asia: between 1000 and 1700 CE - population
almost doubles
Major European Cultural and
Intellectual Developments
 Renaissance (15th
and 16th centuries)
 Starts in Italy
(humanism; less
focus on church;
Machiavelli; secular
paintings;
architecture)
 Spreads to Northern
Europe (still focused
on religion)
 Reformation
 1517: Martin Luther
posts 95 Theses
 Question of authority of
Catholic Church
 Religion should be
personal; not corrupt
 Speaks out against
Indulgences
 Many religious wars
(Thirty Years War)
 Counter-Reformation
(Catholic Church’s
attempt to stop
conversion)
 Scientific Revolution
 World could be
explained through
natural, rather than
religious, laws
 Sun center of the
universe (heliocentric
theory - Copernicus,
Galileo)
 Scientific Method
 Diffuses throughout
Europe and Americas
 Enlightenment
 Social Contract Theorypeople have a say in
government (John Locke)
 Natural Rights - life,
liberty and property
(John Locke)
 Right to revolution and
overthrow of government
 Freedom of speech,
press, and religion
(Voltaire)
 Challenges idea of divine
right of kings
 Diffuses through Europe
and American colonies