APWH REVIEW
Boundary 3
1450-1750
Why is B. 3 important?
• 1. For the first time in history the western
hemisphere is in contact with the eastern
hemisphere. This is due to technological
innovations, strengthened political
organization, and economic prosperity
which altered world trade patterns.
• 2. Sea-based trade is going to gain
control and prestige over land-based
systems.
• 3. European nations emerge as a world
power.
• 4. Nomadic power dwindled as sea-based
trade became more important. They
continued to cause some problems with
the land-based empires.
• 5. Labor systems are changed with the
acquisition of colonies in the Americas.
The mita, encomienda, and African slave
labor are all used. In addition indentured
servitude will be used in N. America by the
British.
• 6. “Gunpowder Empires” emerge in the
Middle East and Asia. These empires
used new weapons and technology to gain
strength, but will have problems with
communication, defense, and financial
stressors so their power will decline by the
end of this boundary. (Safavid Empire,
Mughal Empire, Ottoman Empire)
Exploration
• In the end of boundary 2 (~1400) Ming
Emperor Yongle sent Zheng He and his
treasure ships (junks) to regain hegemony
over surrounding areas.
• Yongle wanted to convince other
civilizations that China had regained their
power and they also wanted to reinstitute
tribute.
• ~1450 European monarchs wanted to
establish trade routes that benefited
themselves, and wanted to spread
Christianity.
• Portugal and Spain were the first
European nations to explore seriously.
Portugal already dominated the Indian
Ocean Trade but wanted to expand, while
Spain wanted a piece of the maritime
trade pie.
• Portugal and Spain, upon finding the Americas,
split up the land with the Pope’s permission in
the Treaty of Tordesillas.
• In the 1500’s Portuguese power will decline
while Spain will continue to take more land in the
Americas. Hernan Cortes will have a huge
effect when he conquers the Aztec capital of
Tenochtitlan in 1519. In the 1520’s Francisco
Pizarro defeated the Inca.
• The French and English took control of North
America, did not clash over land until the 1700’s.
Consequences of the Americas
• Great Circuit: connects N. America, S.
America, Europe, and Africa. This is a
significant change.
• Columbian Exchange: the exchange of
foods, animals, and disease along the
Great Circuit between the four continents.
• These goods had tremendous results on
diet and health, but disease had
devastating results on populations.
How did this Maritime Revolution
Happen?
• Guns and gunpowder: adapted from
Chinese invented explosives, these two
items intimidated Native Americans
• Ships technology: deep drafts and round
hulls allowed for sailing on the Atlantic
• Compass: technology taken from the
Arabs, needed for accurate location
• Astrolabe: technology taken from the
Arabs needed for accurate location
• Cartography: art of mapmaking is taken
more seriously and accurately.
• Mercator Projection: relatively accurate
map for lands around the equator
• Chart: p. 94: Compare and Contrast
Colonial Political and Social Structures of
Spain and England
The Gunpowder Empires
• This is a time of growth for Islamic
civilization and a prosperity for Muslim
Empires.
• Each of the three Muslim Empires
(Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal) were
founded by Turkic nomads, but there was
political division and military clashes
between them.
• They all had courts modeled on earlier
Islamic dynasties.
Similar problems
• Inadequate transportation and communication
systems to support such a large land-based
empire.
• Military leadership operated independent from
the government while the bureaucracies were
weak and unable to control the warrior elite
population.
• European countries that were smaller in size
(territory and population) could mobilize easier
and the Muslim Empires focused too much on
one another and left Europe to new discoveries
and reform.
Patronage in the Islamic Empires
• The emperors in the Islamic Empires competed
to attract the best scholars, literary writers,
artists, and architects to their courts.
• Suleyman the Magnificent built a religious
complex in the Ottoman Empire.
• The Safavid Empire, Isfahan, was very beautiful
architecturally.
• In the Mughal Empire, Emperor Shah Jahan,
dedicated the white marble mosque and tomb,
the Taj Majal, to the memory of his wife
Weakened Ming Dynasty
• Changes in the climate brought uncontrollable
weather which led to drought and famine.
• The 1500’s saw the reemergence of the
Mongols who bestowed the leader of Tibet the
title dalai lama for supporting him.
• Korea, a tributary state of China, was attacked
by Japan and needed to be supported militarily.
• Sea trade is becoming more important and
pirates began stalking Chinese and Japanese
ships. This also brings an end to the Silk Road
and the economic security it once brought.
• The emperors in the Forbidden City were
completely cut off from the unhappy
population.
The Early Qing Dynasty
• The Manchu overthrew the Ming in 1644
and called the empire Qing (pure) because
they saw themselves as returning China to
glory.
• They were not truly viewed as Chinese,
however, because they were from the
North and were “outsiders” like the
Mongols.
• They adopted the mandate of heaven,
which they used as justification for taking
over the Ming.
• They kept their ethnic identity and forbid
marriage between Manchus and Chinese.
• They outlawed the Chinese from learning
Mandarin, and required Chinese men to
shave their heads and grow long queues
as the back of their heads as a sign of
submission.
• Until the late 1700’s, China is in a golden
age where two leaders have long,
prosperous reigns (Kangxi and Qianlong)
• Kangxi was a brilliant ruler who was a Confucian
scholar, poet, supporter of education, and a
conquering warrior.
• In the early Qing days, China was so prosperous
it cancelled taxes several times because the
government simply did not need the money.
• Contact with the West is going to increase
during the early Qing period.
• The Jesuits are going to be very aggressive
about going into China. Matteo Ricci impressed
the Chinese with his education, brilliance, and
respect for Chinese culture. They also showed
off their skills in science and technology.
• The Jesuits had little success converting the
people, and when the Pope denied ancestor
worship, Kangxi ordered an end to the Jesuit
ministries.
• The Europeans, in the mean time, had
become hooked on silk, tea, porcelain,
wallpaper, and other decorative items.
• The European elite boasted Kangxi as a
philosopher king, and he in turn created
the Canton system.
• All trade was supervised and the Chinese
were very wary of the Europeans.
Cultural and Intellectual Life in
China
• The Ming and early Qing emperors looked to Chinese
traditions to strengthen cultural and intellectual life.
• New-Confucianism becomes very strong and numerous
Confucian schools are founded by emperors to reinforce
beliefs.
• The civil service exams were maintained, and Chinese
literature, philosophy, and histories are written during this
time.
• The printing press makes popular novels available to
literate businessmen and books are now being put in the
hands of more than just the scholars.
Tokugawa Japan
• Until the early 1600’s,the Japanese daimyos
(regional lords) operated independently from the
shoguns.
• In the early 1600’s the daimyos became united
under the very powerful Tokugawa family.
• The Tokugawa Shogunate was honored in
ceremony and a capital was placed at Edo.
Daimyos were forced to attend council at Edo
every other year which gave them less time to
work on their armies back home. This ensured
safety to the Shogunate.
• The Japanese are wary of Christian
missionaries due to their observation of
the Spanish conquest of the Philippines.
• They were also worried that some
daimyos might conspire with the
Europeans to overthrow the T.S.
• In the 1630’s Japan was closed to foreign
trade and forbid all Japanese from going
abroad and expelled all Europeans form
Japan.
• They carefully controlled trade with other
Asians. The policies were very strict, but
hard to control at great distances.
The Russian Empire
• By the 1600’s, while China is in a golden age,
Russia has expanded almost to its present
borders.
• They shared problems with China, including
attacks by nomads.
• Peter the Great looked westward for guidance in
strengthening a growing empire.
• Russia’s early days had been shaped by the
Byzantine Empire, but the tsar power faded
when Byzantium fell at the hands of the
Ottomans in 1453.
• Before Peter, Russia had almost no
contact with Western Europe and it lacked
the warm water ports to participate in seabased trade.
• The feudalistic structure meant czars had
a hard time controlling boyars (Russian
nobility) who often plotted against them.
• The tsars practiced absolutism which was
backed by a divine right to rule granted by
the Russian Orthodox Church.
• Peter the Great was intrigued by Europeans at a
young age and turned his country more western
by imitating western ways through a variety of
reforms.
• 1. He built an army by offering better pay and
drafted serfs to serve as professional soldiers.
• 2. He organized roads and communication
systems through the development of
infrastructure.
• 3. Gained territory along the Baltic Sea from the
Swedish, and tried unsuccessfully to gain
territory along the Black Sea from the Ottomans.
• 4. He created a system for the
government to more effectively tax the
citizens. Peter replaced the boyars as tax
collectors and hired merit based
employees which eventually did away with
the titles of nobility.
• 5. He moved the capital and his court
from Moscow to St. Petersburg which had
European architecture.
• Catherine the Great will further strengthen
the Russian Empire during her reign.
African Kingdoms
• Songhay was the largest and most organized
empire in Africa (NW.) It was earlier controlled
by Mali, and brought trade to Timbuktu and
Jenne.
• The cities were beautiful and prosperous. Islam
was the religion supported by the elite.
• They did not have guns and were defeated by
Moroccan forces in 1591.
• The Swahili city-states were also captured by
the Portuguese in the 1500’s.
• The Kingdom of Kongo in central Africa and the
Atlantic Ocean was a centralized state in the
1300’s. The Portuguese traded with them in the
1400’s and converted the king to Christianity.
• The Portuguese traded textiles, weapons,
advisors, and craftsmen for gold, silver, ivory,
and slaves.
• The African slave trade existed before the Great
Circuit, but the number increased dramatically
as a result of the founding of the Americas.
Slaves were captured during conflict between
tribes.
The Slave Trade
• The Americas valued strong male slaves
to work the plantations.
• The Middle East and India valued women
for wealthy harems, or household duties.
Some males were desirable as well to
serve in the armies for the Gunpowder
Empires.
Trade in the Americas
• The Great Circuit involved 3 legs
• 1. Europe to Africa: hardware, guns,
Indian cotton
• 2. Africa to Americas: middle passage
carried slaves
• 3. Americas to Europe: plantation goods
Labor Systems in the Americas
• Early on the Spanish and Portuguese
used the Native Americans for slave labor
in the mita and the encomienda.
• In the Inca mita every male worked 1/7 of
his life working for the state at a few
months each year. The Spanish used this
with the silver mines, but found too many
Amerindians were dying.
• The encomienda was in use during the
16th century for agricultural work.
• From 1750 on most slaves went to the
Caribbean for sugar cane cultivation.
There was a strong demand for tea from
China and sugar from the Americas.
• In North America tobacco plantations will
require intense labor although the climate
is generally more suitable for maintaining
health and even population growth.
• As plantations spread south other crops,
such as cotton, kept the slave trade alive.
Major Shifts in Demographics
• 1. European population rising: due to
new foods and lack of plague
• 2. Population in Americas decreasing: due
to Amerindian death
• 3. No population decrease in Africa: some
areas reflected population losses, but
overall the population was on the rise
Cultural/Intellectual Developments
• Trade, as a result of the Crusades, made some
city-states very wealthy (Venice, Genoa,
Florence.)
• Wealthy families will become patrons for artists
during the Renaissance (Leonardo da Vinci and
Michelangelo.)
• The Renaissance is an attempt to revive the
values of the classical civilizations of the
Mediterranean (Greece and Rome.)
• There was an emphasis on the capabilities of
humans rather than God (humanism.)
• This interest also sparked a new interest in math
and science.
• Mathematical traditions had been preserved and
built upon by Muslim scholars.
• Copernicus will us Nasir al-Din’s calculations
and conclude a heliocentric model which was
not published until after his death.
• Galileo Galilei built on C.’s model while
Johannes Kepler calculated the movement of
planets in an elliptical orbit.
• In the late 17th, early 18th century, Isaac Newton
formulated a set of mathematical laws for the
force of gravity.
• The printing press, used first in 1454 inspired
writers and creative interests throughout Europe.
The Protestant Reformation
• The Catholic Church will be loosing power
during B.3
• Scientists and literary writers are beginning to
challenge the church, and the Pope’s political
power was compromised as centralization of
government gave more authority to kings.
• The Catholic Church was very rich by the early
1500’s and many kings resented the amount of
land that was owned by the Church.
• Martin Luther believed that Christians who
have faith form a strong bond with God.
• He believed that the church practice of
accepting indulgences directly
contradicted the notion that a true believer
naturally does good works. He did not like
the fact that the church was offering
promises of salvation for a price.
• Luther’s writings became widely accepted
in Germany where Protestantism took a
firm hold.
• John Calvin will start up Calvinism in
Scotland. Calvinism focuses on
predetermination/predestination.
• King Henry VIII of England will also
provide the Catholic Church with a blow
when he starts the Anglican Church in
defiance to The Pope.
• These religious movements lead Europe
Christian but deeply divided feeding into
more competition between the European
nations.
The Early Enlightenment
• During the 17th century, the Sci. Rev. began to be applied
to social and political areas of life: the Enlightenment.
• Enlightenment philosophers were inspired by the
scientists and the Reformation, and believed that there
were laws that governed social and political behavior.
• In England, the English Civil War resulted in the
decapitation of the king, political authority going to the
Parliament, and John Locke reconsidering the nature of
the government.
• He argued that the right to rule came from the consent of
the governed, not by God. If monarchs overstepped
their boundaries the people should rebel.