Philosophies Developed during the Zhou Dynasty
 During the Zhou Dynasty, a period of warfare and increasing decentralization
occurred known as the “Age of Warring States”
 In this time period of warring lords and chaos, philosophers developed new ways of
thinking about society and personal relationships
 Confucius developed a philosophy based on five primary relationships [emperor
and subject, father and son, husband and wife, elder brother and younger brother
and friend and friend]
 In Confucianism, an individual must know his role in society and act accordingly;
the superior must set a good example and provide for the inferior while the inferior
must obey
 In Daoism, an individual is encouraged to live naturally and close to nature
 In both Confucianism and Daoism, new belief systems emerged from political
disorder; these belief systems did not worship a deity and remained primarily
regional beliefs
Reasons for the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West
 Germanic invaders – called Barbarians by the Romans – invaded
 These widespread and intensified barbarian invasions weakened the Empire in the
West and ultimately led to the collapse of empire in the West
 In addition, corrupt emperors and an ineffective way of selecting an emperor did
not help or that emperors ruled for life, even bad emperors
 Certainly, high taxes did not help either
 Yet invaders ultimately ended Roman rule in the West
Social Structure of Han China and of Classical India
 In Classical India, there was the caste system: Priests, Warriors, Merchants,
Farmers and Untouchables or Outcastes
 In Han China, there were scholar-gentry, peasants, and merchants
 Clearly, the difference is found in the elite
 In the top position in Classical India was the Brahmin or Priest
 In Han China, the scholar-gentry were the elite
 The scholar-gentry were men who had passed the examination for government
service and were rewarded with government service, land, and privilege
 Yes, the Chinese placed bureaucrats rather than priests at the top of the social
hierarchy
Japanese Feudalism and Feudalism in Western Europe
 Both systems were largely decentralized where lords had private armies and
soldiers and kings or shoguns depended on these lords to ensure their power and
rule
 Japanese and European feudalism were also similar in that both ended as their
respective regions developed centralized governments
 But there were differences too
 European feudalism was contractual
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In European feudalism, there was a contract between a lord and his vassal that
clearly spelled out the obligations of each party
Japanese feudalism, however, was based on the personal relationship between lord
and vassal but not a contract
In Japanese feudalism, loyalty was paramount
Judaism
 Monotheism – a belief in a single, omnipotent deity
 Ethical and Moral Religion [The Ten Commandments] ... certain behaviors are
required of a Godly people
 A covenant or agreement exists between God and his People such as to worship one
God and obey His Commandments
 By obeying God’s Commandments, the Hebrews are blessed
 By disobeying God’s Commandments, the Hebrews are punished
 Judaism is the longest, lasting monotheistic faith in the world
Southeast Asia Prior to 1000 C.E.
 Southeast Asia is located between India and China
 Southeast Asia was part of the Indian Ocean trade network
 Cultural diffusion from India and China influenced Southeast Asia
 Even after 1000 C.E., the French referred to their colony in Southeast Asia as
“Indochina”
 Present-day nations in the region include Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar
[Burma], Philippines, Indonesia, and Thailand
Meritocracy
 A meritocracy is a system in which the talented are chosen and moved ahead on the
basis of their achievement
 It is a system where leadership is selected on the basis of intellectual criteria and
ability
 Clearly, the examination system in China was a meritocracy
 Open to all men, the Chinese examination system selected men for government
service based on intelligence and ability
 The examination was difficult to pass but if the candidate passed the examination –
regardless of his background – he was rewarded with government service and
became a member of the elite scholar-gentry
 A characteristic of a meritocracy is the increasing use of civil service exams to fill
government positions
Buddhism and Its Acceptance and Rejection of Hindu Beliefs
 Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of Buddhism, was raised a Hindu
 While Siddhartha rejected many Hindu concepts and created a new belief system,
he did accept several Hindu doctrines
 Upon achieving Enlightenment and becoming the Buddha, Siddhartha formulated
the Four Noble Truths on the causation and cessation of suffering
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He accepted the Hindu doctrine of karma – that all deeds have consequences – and
samsara or reincarnation
He rejected the Hindu caste system or the idea that a person is born into a social
class and remains in that class throughout his lifetime
In Buddhism, there is no caste system
The Proper Chronological Order of the French Revolution
 The French Revolution begins with the formation of a National Assembly
 After the representatives of the Third Estate walked out of the meeting of the
Estates General and took the Oath of the Tennis Court, they formed a new
government – a representative government known as the National Assembly; of
course, France was at this point a Constitutional Monarchy as the King still ruled
although his power was limited by the National Assembly
 After a bit of time, France was attacked by enemies of the Revolution and there was
fear that within France, there were counterrevolutionaries plotting against the
Revolutionary Government in addition to foreign armies massing on France’s
borders
 Thus, the Revolution entered the second phase or the Reign of Terror – a period
when the guillotine was used to behead suspected counterrevolutionaries
 After the French tired of the bloodshed from the Reign of Terror, a new
government formed yet again known as the Directory
 But the Directory failed to solve the problems confronting France
 Finally, Napoleon came to power and ruled as a dictator and an emperor and so, the
French Revolution came to end when Napoleon came to power – although he did
keep many of the ideas of the Revolution like equal rights for men
A Development Partially Resulted from Knowledge of Greek Science [1000 to 1450]
 Islamic medical books in Baghdad
 It is important to remember that the Byzantines and the Muslims preserved Greek
and Roman learning
 As a result of this preservation, new scientific ideas built upon earlier Greek ideas
regarding rationalism and using the intelligent mind to understand the universe
Muslims in Northern India
 From Islam’s earliest days, there were Muslims in India – primarily through trade
 As the years passed, Muslims armies began to conquer parts of the Indian
subcontinent
 Before the Mughals – establishing an empire with a Muslim minority ruling a Hindu
majority in the 1500s – Muslims invaded Northern India
 Indeed over two hundred years, between the 1000s and 1200s, Muslims seized parts
of northern India
 The Delhi Sultanate is one example of Muslim conquests in this period
Dhimmis
 “People of the Book” in Islam – usually fellow monotheists
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Islamic law made a distinction between two categories of non-Muslim subjects –
pagans and dhimmis (“protected peoples,” or “peoples of the book”; i.e., those
peoples who based their religious beliefs on sacred texts, such as Christians, Jews,
and Zoroastrians)
The Muslim rulers tolerated the dhimmis and allowed them to practice their
religion
In return for protection and as a mark of their submission, the dhimmis were
required to pay a special poll tax known as the jizya
The jizya was a head or poll tax
In general, Jews and Christians were “People of the Book” in that they, too,
worshipped a single God and a single sacred text – the Bible
The Turks
 The Turks entered the Middle East in the eleventh century C.E. and came to
dominate most of Anatolia
 The Turks were originally from Central Asia and eventually converted to Islam
 They were skilled warriors on horseback
 The Turks were also the third carriers of Islam after the Arabs and the Persians
 The Turks established the Ottoman Empire, the empire that conquered
Constantinople in 1453
 The Turks ruled over Anatolia and a vast empire at its height under Suleiman the
Magnificent, an empire that ruled over parts of three continents – Europe, Asia, and
Africa
The Tokugawa Shogunate
 Japan’s Tokugawa (or Edo) period lasted from 1603 to 1867 until the Meiji
Restoration of 1868 toppled the long-reigning Tokugawa shoguns and propelled the
country into the modern era
 Tokugawa Ieyasu’s dynasty of shoguns presided over 250 years of peace and
prosperity in Japan, including the rise of a new merchant class and increasing
urbanization
 To guard against external influence, they also worked to close off Japanese society
from Westernizing influences, particularly Christianity
 The Tokugawa Shoguns had come to power after a devastating civil war in Japan
 The primary goal of the Tokugawa Shoguns was to ensure unity and peace
 Indeed, the years of the Tokugawa Shogunate are known as “The Great Peace”
 To prevent any disunity, the Tokugawa shoguns isolated Japan – this meant no
foreigners in [excluding the Chinese and Dutch who were allowed to trade at the
port of Nagasaki] and no Japanese out
 The Japanese were forbidden from going abroad for if they travelled abroad, they
would return with new ideas that could create division within Japan
 The Japanese were not allowed to leave and the foreigners were not allowed to enter
 Yet in this time of isolation, there was tremendous productivity
 And isolationism did not mean a rejection or earlier cultural borrowing; the
Japanese still practiced Buddhism and Confucianism
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Isolationism also did not mean economic depression as merchants became
increasingly wealthy from expanded internal trade opportunities and agriculture
became very productive thereby freeing many Japanese from farm work
Yet with the arrival of Commodore Perry, an American, the Japanese had fallen
dangerously behind, and the Tokugawa Shoguns were forced to end their policy of
isolationism by opening Japan to foreigners
With this change, the government also changed as the Japanese realized that to
compete in the world, modernization was required
The Byzantine Empire
 Formerly the Eastern Roman Empire
 Capital – Constantinople
 Location – Between Europe and Asia
 Conquered and collapsed in 1453 by Ottoman Turks
 Many traditions and practices which began in the Roman Empire endured in the
Byzantine Empire even after Rome fell in Western Europe.
 The Hagia Sophia, which was built as a church under the Byzantine Empire,
continues today as a mosque.
 One of its emperors, Justinian, systemized Roman law [the Code of Justinian] in
such a manner that it became the basis for law in most of Western Europe
 Orthodox Christianity was the religion of the Empire
 Caesaropapism was its political theory – the Emperor was the head of the state and
the Church
Janissaries
 Janissary also spelled Janizary or in Turkish, Yeniçeri,
 Members of an elite corps in the standing army of the Ottoman Empire from the
late 14th century to 1826
 Highly respected for their military prowess in the 15th and 16th centuries, the
Janissaries became a powerful political force within the Ottoman state
 The Janissary corps was originally staffed by Christian youths from the Balkan
provinces who were converted to Islām on being drafted into the Ottoman service
 Subject to strict rules, including celibacy, they were organized into three unequal
divisions (cemaat, bölükhalkı, segban) and commanded by an ağā
 The Janissaries frequently engineered palace coups in the 17th and 18th centuries,
and in the early 19th century they resisted the adoption of European reforms by the
army
 Their end came in June 1826 in the so-called Auspicious Incident
 On learning of the formation of new, westernized troops, the Janissaries revolted
 Sultan Mahmud II declared war on the rebels and, on their refusal to surrender,
had cannon fire directed on their barracks
 Most of the Janissaries were killed, and those who were taken prisoner were
executed
 Yet they will always be remembered as Christian boys taken from conquered
territories and raised as Special Forces
Manchu Leaders in China by the early 1800s
 The Qing or Manchu Dynasty was the last dynasty of China
 The Manchus, although foreigners, claimed the Mandate of Heaven and ruled
China from the 1644 to 1911
 The Manchus adopted the examination system and Confucianism yet required
Chinese men to wear the queue or a braid
 The queue was a sign of Manchu domination over the Han Chinese
 In the beginning of their reign, the Manchu were strong and capable rulers but
over time, China began to decline in global power as Europe grew in power
 With the infusion of opium into the Chinese market, the Manchu faced increasing
problems
 After defeat in the Opium Wars, the Manchus faced rebellions and resistance
 But even before the Opium Wars, the dynasty was beginning to decline due to
corrupt rulers and an economy that was not expanding fast enough to meet the
needs of China’s growing population
 Thus, by the early 1800s, the Manchus met with popular discontent and
widespread reaction against corruption and economic malaise
The Impact of the Haitian Rebellion
 Haiti was the first nation in Latin America to declare independence from a
European colonial power
 Haiti’s independence movement was also the world’s first successful slave rebellion
that led to independence and the end of a minority planter-class that dominated a
society of largely African slaves
 After independence, the Haitian government often aided other Latin American
nationalists seeking to overthrow European colonial control
 Indeed, the great liberator of South America, Simón Bolívar received aid from Haiti
 The Haitian Rebellion inspired rebellions elsewhere in Latin America and caused
France to abandon its main colonies in the New World
 It is important to remember that after the French loss of Haiti, Napoleon offered the
Louisiana Territory to U.S. President Thomas Jefferson
Classical Persia
 In 549 BCE, the Persians, led by Cyrus the Great of the Achaemenid family,
overthrew the Median court of Western Iran
 Cyrus thus founded the first Persian Empire
 The Achaemenid kings are known to have been very pious Zoroastrians, trying to
rule justly and in accordance with the Zoroastrian law of asha (truth and
righteousness)
 The Avesta is the holy book of Zoroastrianism
 Zoroastrians believe there is one God called Ahura Mazda (Wise Lord) and He
created the world
 They believe that the world is a cosmic battleground between good and evil and that
people are free to choose to follow good or evil
 Those who follow good are rewarded with Heaven and evildoers punished in Hell
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Cyrus the Great was relatively tolerant
While he himself ruled according to Zoroastrian beliefs, he made no attempt to
impose Zoroastrianism on the people of his subject territories
The Jews most famously benefited from this; Cyrus permitted them to return to
Jerusalem from exile in Babylon, and rebuild their temple
Darius the Great, another significant emperor, was also famously pious and showed
the same general tolerance for other faiths as his predecessor Cyrus
Under Darius the empire was stabilized, with roads for communication and a
system of governors (satraps) established
Darius initiated two major building projects: the construction of royal buildings at
Susa and the creation of the new dynastic center of Persepolis
A culturally diverse empire
However, in 498 B.C.E., the eastern Greek Ionian cities, supported in part by
Athens, revolted
It took the Persians four years to crush the rebellion, although an attack against
mainland Greece was repulsed at Marathon in 490 B.C.E.
The Royal Road was a road of a distance of more than 1,500 miles
The Royal Road connected the empire
Royal messengers, who, according to the Greek historian Herodotus, were stopped
by “neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night,” traversed the entire road
in nine days, thanks to a system of relays
The Christian Community in Tokugawa Japan
 To maintain political stability, Tokugawa Ieyasu issued the Christian Expulsion
Edict prohibiting all Christian activity among Japanese
 Christians were brutally persecuted and driven into secrecy
 It was made a capital offense for a Japanese to be a Christian, and daimyos were
forbidden to have Christians in their employ
 Military assaults were made against Christian strongholds
 Captured European and Japanese Christians were executed, and some Christians
survived to pursue their Christianity in secret
 Dutch traders, managed to hold on to a small trading post on the island of Deshima,
next to Nagasaki, and to the south in the Ryukyu Islands, south of Kyushu
 The Dutch accomplished this by agreeing to give up all show of Christianity and by
agreeing to restrictions regarding trading and place
 And the Dutch enjoyed seeing their trading rivals, the Spaniards and Portuguese,
expelled
Creole Elites in Latin America
 In colonial Latin America, the social hierarchy consisted of peninsulares, creoles,
mestizos, and Indians and Africans
 Peninsulares were individuals born in Spain – on the Iberian Peninsula;
peninsulares were given the most prestigious and powerful jobs in colonial Latin
America and were often wealthy landowners
 Creoles were born in the Americas of European ancestry
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Creoles were the children of peninsulares
Although creoles were often wealthy landowners, they were not employed in the top
positions of colonial government
As a result of their lower status, creoles became agitators for independence and
often led the independence movements in Latin America
Creoles, however, were cautious revolutionaries
While creoles wanted independence, they did not want to radically change the class
hierarchy
Yes, creoles wanted to replace peninsulares but they did not want to elevate the
lowest classes
Creoles were cautious revolutionaries because the fear that slaves and other
oppressed groups would target local elites as part of a general social upheaval
certainly did not appeal to them
Creoles wanted independence but not land redistribution
Creoles did not want to empower the lowest classes
Johannes Gutenberg
 Little is known about the life of Johann Gutenberg, including his year of birth
 The few known facts about Gutenberg’s life originate from a handful of legal and
financial papers
 These papers reveal that he was born Johann Gensfleisch zum Gutenberg in Mainz,
Germany and moved to Strasbourg sometime before 1434
 Legal records show that he and a partner produced metal hand mirrors used by
pilgrims visiting holy sites
 His metal-working skills must have been useful to him as he developed a method of
making metal type for printing
 Sometime between 1444 and 1448, Gutenberg returned to Mainz, but there is little
information about his activities for the next ten years
 It is likely that he spent this time developing his new printing method, as some
scholars believe it took at least ten years for Gutenberg to take his ideas from
conception to invention
 Gutenberg’s Bible was completed around 1455
 A 1455 document known as the Helmsperger Instrument shows that Gutenberg's
wealthy business partner Johann Fust sued him for the return of a large sum of
money loaned by Fust
 These funds were most likely used in the development of Gutenberg’s printing
method and the production of the Bibles
 Gutenberg lost the lawsuit and had to turn over some of his printing equipment to
Fust, who later formed an important printing partnership with Peter Schoeffer,
Gutenberg's assistant
 Little is known about Gutenberg’s later years, except that he was financially
supported by the Archbishop of Mainz and may have lived comfortably until his
death in 1468
 Movable type or Gutenberg’s printing press greatly increased the production of
books
Dharma and Karma
 These concepts are Hindu and Buddhist concepts
 Both Hindus and Buddhists believe in Karma or that all actions have consequences
 Hindus speak of dharma as the rules of the caste
 Buddhists speak of dharma as the teachings of the Buddha
 Both Hindus and Buddhists are familiar with karma and dharma
The Mongols and Moscow
 When the city of Kiev resisted the Mongols, it was destroyed
 Moscow, however, cooperated and the princes of Moscow became the primary
collectors of Russian tribute for the Mongol Empire
 The Mongols ruled Russia for 240 years during the 13th to 15th centuries
 One of the greatest effects of Mongol rule in Russia was the rise of Moscow as not
only the preeminent city in Russia but also the central power of a large and
expanding empire
 Badly plundered and partially burned in the early Mongol assaults, the city was
gradually rebuilt and its ruling princes steadily swallowed up nearby towns and
surrounding villages
 After 1328, Moscow also profited from its status as the tribute collector for the
Mongol khans
 Its princes not only used their position to fill their own coffers, they annexed further
towns as punishment for falling behind on the payment of their tribute’
 A result of the Mongol invasion, Moscow used its position as collector of tribute for
the Mongols and the seat of Russian Orthodoxy to emerge as the political leader of
Russia
 As Moscow grew in strength, the power of the Golden Horde declined
 Mongol religious toleration benefited both the Orthodox church and Moscow
 The Metropolitan, or head of the Orthodox church, was made the representative of
all the clergy in Russia, which did much to enhance the church’s standing
 The choice of Moscow as the seat of the Orthodox leaders brought new sources of
wealth to its princes and buttressed Muscovite claims to be Russia’s leading city
 In 1380, those claims received an additional boost when the princes of Moscow
shifted from being tribute collectors to being the defenders of Russia
 In alliance with other Russian vassals, they raised an army that defeated the forces
of the Golden Horde at the battle of Kulikovo
The Inquisition
 The Inquisition was a permanent institution in the Catholic Church charged with
the eradication of heresies
 Unlike many other religions, the Catholic Church has a hierarchical structure with
a central bureaucracy
 In early years, there were several competing sects that called themselves Christian
 But after the Emperor Constantine I made Christianity the state religion of the
Roman Empire, doctrinal arguments were settled by Church Councils, beginning
with the Council of Nicaea in 325
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Those whose beliefs or practices deviated sufficiently from the orthodoxy of the
councils now became the objects of efforts to bring them into the fold
Resistance often led to persecution
The Holy Inquisition was created to track down and punish heretics and religious
nonconformists
Heretics are individuals who do not believe or practice according to official religious
teachings
The Inquisition was a Catholic court that punished heretics
The Spread of Islam along Trade Routes in West Africa
 Islam entered West Africa along the Trans-Saharan trade routes
 North African nomads carried not only salt but religion in their quest for West
African gold
 Many West Africans voluntarily converted to Islam
 A mosque in Mali is evidence of the spread of Islam along trade routes
 Islam in West Africa is an example of diffusion
The West African Kingdom of Mali
 The Mali Empire was the second of three West African empires to emerge in the
vast savanna grasslands located between the Sahara Desert to the north and the
coastal rain forest in the south
 The Mali Empire was strategically located between the West African gold mines and
the agriculturally rich Niger River floodplain
 Mali’s rise begins when the political leaders of Ghana could not reestablish that
empire’s former glory following its conquest and occupation by the Almoravids in
1076
 Consequently a number of small states vied to control the salt and gold trade that
accounted for Ghana’s wealth and power.
 In 1235, Sundiata Keita, the leader of one of these states, Kangaba, defeated its
principal rival, the neighboring kingdom of Susu, and began consolidating power in
the region
 Sundiata’s conquest in 1235 is considered the founding of the Malian Empire
 Under Sundiata’s successors Mali extended its control west to the Atlantic, south
into the rain forest region, including the Wangara gold fields, and east beyond the
great bend of the Niger River
 At its height in 1350 the Mali Empire was a confederation of three states, Mali,
Memo and Wagadou and twelve garrisoned provinces
 The emperor or mansa ruled over 400 cities, towns and villages of various ethnicities
and controlled a population of approximately 20 million people from the capitol at
Niani
 The Malian Army numbered 100,000 men including 10,000 cavalry
 During this time only the Mongol Empire (China) exceed Mali in size
 The mansa reserved the exclusive right to dispense justice and to tax both local and
international trade
 That trade was centered in three major cities, Timbuktu, Djenne and Gao
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Between 1324 and 1325 Mansa Musa, the most famous of the Malian Emperors,
made an elaborate pilgrimage to Mecca in Arabia, bringing thousands of followers
and hundreds of camels carrying gold
Through the highly publicized pilgrimage and indirectly through an elaborate trade
that sent gold to the capitals of Europe and Asia, Mali and its ruler became famous
throughout the known world
Mali’s power however was eventually weakened by palace intrigue that prevented
an orderly succession of imperial power and by the desire of smaller states to break
free of its rule to reap the benefits of the salt and gold trade
The first people to achieve independence from Mali were the Wolof who resided in
what is now Senegal
In 1430 the nomadic Tuareg seized Timbuktu; this conquest had enormous
commercial and psychological consequents: a relatively small but united group had
occupied the richest city in the Empire and one of the major sources of imperial
wealth
The greatest challenge, however, came from a rebellion in Gao that led to rise of
Songhai
The once vassal state to Mali conquered Mema, one of the Empire’s oldest
possessions in 1465
Three years later they took Timbuktu from the Tuareg
Beginning in 1502, Songhai forces under Askia Muhammad took control of virtually
all of Mali’s eastern possession including the sites for commercial exchange as well
as the gold and copper mines at the southern and northern borders
In 1545 a Songhai army routed the Malians and their emperor from their capital,
Niani
The Gunpowder Empires of the Islamic World
 Safavid Persia, Ottoman Turkey, and Mughal India
 Scholars often use the term “gunpowder empire” to describe each of these three
empires, focusing attention on their military exploits, which were, indeed,
impressive
 Each made use of newly-developed firearms, especially cannon and small arms, to
create their empires
 And to equip their armies, each state developed a highly centralized administration
that could mobilize the financial, manpower and natural resources necessary to
purchase gunpowder arms and then supervise the deployment of those arms and the
training of soldiers to use the weapons
 But all three empires were also centers of impressive cultural (artistic, literary and
architectural) achievements
 In addition, each was also all based on Islam in one form or another
 In the Safavid Empire, for example, it was Shah Ismail I who really established the
Shiite faith as the dominant religion of Iran/Persia
Epidemics in Sixteenth-Century Mesoamerica
 Smallpox devastated the Native American Indians of Mesoamerica
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The largest decline in percentage of global population in history occurred as a result
of epidemics in sixteenth-century Mesoamerica
The Native American Indians lacked immunities to smallpox and other diseases due
to a lack of domesticated animals in the Americas
Within just a few generations, the continents of the Americas were virtually emptied
of their native inhabitants – some academics estimate that approximately 20 million
people may have died in the years following the European invasion – up to 95% of
the population of the Americas
No medieval force, no matter how bloodthirsty, could have achieved such enormous
levels of genocide
Instead, Europeans were aided by a deadly secret weapon they weren’t even aware
they were carrying: smallpox
For thousands of years, the people of Eurasia lived in close proximity to the largest
variety of domesticated mammals in the world – eating, drinking, and breathing in
the germs these animals bore
Over time, animal infections crossed species, evolving into new strains which
became deadly to man
Diseases like smallpox, influenza and measles were in fact the deadly inheritance of
the Eurasian farming tradition – the product of thousands of years spent farming
livestock
Yet the people of the New World had no history of prior exposure to these germs
They farmed only one large mammal – the llama – and even this was geographically
isolated
The llama was never kept indoors, it wasn’t milked and only occasionally eaten – so
the people of the New World were not troubled by cross-species viral infection
When the Europeans arrived, carrying germs which thrived in dense, semi-urban
populations, the indigenous people of the Americas were effectively doomed
They had never experienced smallpox, measles or flu before, and the viruses tore
through the continent, killing an estimated 90% of Native Americans
Smallpox in the Americas was the deadliest epidemic in world history; more people
in the Americas died from smallpox than any other epidemic in world history
Comparison - Ships of Zheng He and Columbus
 From 1405 until 1433, the Chinese imperial eunuch Zheng He led seven ocean
expeditions for the Ming emperor
 Over sixty of the three hundred seventeen ships on the first voyage were enormous
“Treasure Ships,” sailing vessels over 400 hundred feet long, 160 feet wide, with
several stories, nine masts and twelve sails, and luxurious staterooms complete with
balconies
 The likes of these ships had never before been seen in the world, and it would not be
until World War I that such an armada would be assembled again
 During the first expeditions, Zheng He traveled all the way from China to Southeast
Asia and then on to India, all the way to major trading sites on India's southwest
coast
 In his fourth voyage, he traveled to the Persian Gulf
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Zheng eventually went all the way to east coast of Africa
The European Caravel on the other hand was a significantly smaller vessel
A Caravel was a small, highly maneuverable sailing ship developed in the 15th
century by the Portuguese to explore along the West African coast and into the
Atlantic Ocean
The lateen sails gave the caravel its speed and the capacity for sailing to windward
Find images of both to visually recognize the ships and their differences
Trends in New Spain and Brazil That Were Similar during Colonization
 Colonies created to benefit the mother country
 Could only trade with the mother country
 Favored peninsulares or individuals born in Spain or Portugal – the Iberian
Peninsula
 Both European conquerors decimated Native American populations
 Enslaved Indians and Africans
 Depended on cash crops
Point of View in World History
 Students of history must take into account the “recorder” of history
 Students must consider the point of view of the individual recording the historical
event
 For example, a peasant might view the Communist victory in China in 1949
differently than a landowning aristocrat
 Historical records do not always include all points of view [i.e. conquerors often
write history from the perspective of the victors as opposed to the vanquished]
 Thus, the saying: “Until the lions have their historians, tales of hunting will always
glorify the hunter”
1450–1750 in the Americas
 In the period 1450–1750, cash crops such as sugar and tobacco were produced on
large plantations by slave labor
 Sugar and tobacco were significant commodities in the growing world market
 Cash crops farming radically altered the environment with the establishment of
plantations
 Cash crop farming also led to the exploitation of Africans and Native American
Indians
The Heian Period in Japan
 The Fujiwara Era in Japan
 When the emperor moved his government from Nara to Heian (Eighth Century
C.E.), the aristocracy took over most of the positions of the central government
 It was during the imperial court’s time in Heian that the Fujiwara clan emerged as
a powerful family in Japan
 The emperor began to lose his power as the Fujiwara clan increasingly made
governmental decisions
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The power and authority of the Fujiwara family rested not on military prowess but
on political strategy and on the family’s special relationship to the imperial family,
which it carefully cultivated and exploited
This relationship stemmed from the Fujiwara policy of maintaining attachment to
the imperial family through the marriage of Fujiwara daughters to emperors
It meant that the Fujiwara daughters were empresses, that their grandsons and
nephews were emperors, and that members of their family, including its lesser
branches, received all the patronage
Thus, the Fujiwara clan chieftain, whether he held office or not, could manipulate
the reins of government
When the emperor moved his government from Nara to Heian (Eighth Century
C.E.), the aristocracy took over most of the positions of the central government
During the Heian period, Japan experienced a golden age and Lady Murasaki wrote
the first novel, The Tale of the Genji
Japan’s Feudal Period
 A shogun was a hereditary military dictator of Japan from 1192 to 1867 C.E.
 A shogun was the most powerful lord in feudal Japan
 Legally the shogunate or shogun’s government [bakufu] was under the control of
the emperor, and the shogun’s authority was limited to control of the military forces
of the country
 But the increasingly feudal character of Japanese society created a situation in
which control of the military became tantamount to control of the country, and the
Emperor remained in his palace in Kyōto chiefly as a symbol of sovereignty behind
the shogun
 The emperor was a mere figurehead
 But the shogun ruled Japan
 In the feudal hierarchy of Japan, the shogun, daimyo [lords], samurai [knights], and
peasants each occupied different stations in society
600 to 1450 – Women in India and Europe
 Were workers in domestic industries and field workers
 Patriarchy or male dominance existed and women were expected to perform certain
roles in society and in family life
 Yet the could work in domestic industries or as field workers
Trade in Eurasia and the Americas in the Period 600 to 1450
 Trade in Eurasia moved along an east-west axis, while that in the Americas moved
along a north-south axis
 Thus, in Eurasia, diffusion of crops and livestock occurred more easily as a result of
a similar climate zone
 Diffusion was more difficult in the Americas due to differing climate zones
Patriarchy
 Men are accorded superior status
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Male dominance
Women are viewed as weak and inferior and must be protected by men
Women are lowly
Sons are favored
Pre-Islamic Arabia
 Animism
 Polytheism
 Mostly nomadic Bedouins
 Prior to Muhammad’s revelations, the religion of the Bedouin was mostly animistic
and polytheistic
The Hindu Concept of Samsara
 Reincarnation
 A belief that one’s soul lives, dies, and is reborn many times, until it is pure enough
to escape the cycle of rebirth
Akbar the Great
 The most significant emperor of the Mughal Empire of the Indian subcontinent
 During the Mughal Empire, a Muslim minority ruled a Hindu majority
 During Akbar’s reign, the Mughal empire tripled in size and wealth
 Akbar had created a powerful army and instituted effective political and social
reforms
 By abolishing the sectarian tax on Hindus – the jizya – and appointing Hindus to
high civil and military posts, Akbar the Great was the first Muslim ruler to win the
trust and loyalty of his Hindu subjects
 He had Hindu literature translated, participated in Hindu festivals,
 Realizing that a stable empire depended on strong alliances with the Rajputs, fierce
Hindu warriors, he married a Rajput princess
 Akbar was truly an enlightened ruler, a philosopher-king who had a genuine
interest in all creeds and doctrines at a time when religious persecution was
prevalent throughout Europe and Asia
 Understanding that cooperation among all his subjects – Muslims, Hindus, Persians,
Central Asians and indigenous Indians – would be in his best interest, he even tried
to establish a new religion that encouraged universal tolerance
 Akbar was strong-willed, fearless and often cruel, but he was also just and
compassionate and had an inquiring mind
 He invited holy men, poets, architects and artisans to his court from all over the
Islamic world for study and discussion, and he created an astounding library of over
24,000 volumes written in Hindi, Persian, Greek, Latin, Arabic and Kashmiri,
staffed by scholars, translators, artists, calligraphers, scribes, bookbinders and
readers
 Manifesting the ancestral love of the arts on a monumental scale, Akbar filled the
landscape with walled cities of royal pleasure and comfort, designed to dazzle the
native rajas and advertise the glory of his reign
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In the lovely capital city of Agra, Akbar built his remarkable Red Fort beside the
Jamuna River
The Neolithic Revolution
 During the Neolithic Revolution, people learned to farm and domesticate animals
 As a result, people settled in villages
 Sedentary village communities were established
 A reliable food source was produced
 Population increased
 Class and gender divisions emerged
 Epidemic diseases occurred due to proximity to animals
Siddhartha Gautama
 An Indian prince
 Raised a Hindu
 Came to discover the existence of suffering
 Went in search of the causation and cessation of suffering
 Became enlightened or a Buddha
 Founder of Buddhism
 Formulated the Four Noble Truths
- Life has suffering
- Desire causes suffering
- Suffering can end
- Follow the Noble Eightfold Path [Right Speech, Right Meditation, etc.] or the path
to end suffering
 Nirvana: the end of suffering
 No caste system
 Monasticism for men and women: monks and nuns
 Two major sects today: Theravada and Mahayana
 Mahayana Buddhists believe in Bodhisattvas or beings who have attained
Enlightenment but remain on Earth to bring others to the end of suffering
Ottoman and Mughal Empires
 Both Islamic Empires
 Both ruled over culturally diverse and religiously diverse populations
 Both empires were established by skilled warriors on horseback who came
originally from Central Asia
 Both were Gunpowder Empires
Swahili
 A language and a culture
 A combination of Bantu and Arabic
 East African city-states
 Participated in Indian Ocean Trade
 An example of syncretism or cultural blending
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A language that came into existence after 1000 as the direct result of expanding
global trade patterns
The Scientific Revolution
 The 1600s and early 1700s in Europe were considered a period of scientific
revolution
 Isaac Newton developed a unified system of physics and mathematics
 The scientific method was revived and used widely
 Scientists discovered that living things are made of cells
 The telescope was invented
 Observation and experimentation became the basis for determining truths about the
natural world
 Rationalism or the use of reason was applied by scientists in their understanding of
the natural world
Africa
 The birthplace of humanity
 The first humans lived in Africa
 Mary Leakey was an important anthropologist who discovered evidence about early
humans in Africa
The Civilizations of Mexico and Central America
 The civilizations in Mexico and Central America before 1000 C.E. more
sophisticated than those in North America in that in the former, social structure was
more complex, astronomical knowledge was greater, and architectural skills were
more advanced
Zanzibar
 Experienced the greatest fusion of Arab, African, and Indian cultures in the
nineteenth century
 The Stone Town of Zanzibar is a fine example of the Swahili coastal trading towns
of East Africa
 It retains its urban fabric and townscape virtually intact and contains many fine
buildings that reflect its particular culture, which has brought together and
homogenized disparate elements of the cultures of Africa, the Arab region, India,
and Europe over more than a millennium
Trends Associated with Europe’s Industrial Revolution
 Machines to produce goods
 Faster production of goods and therefore lower prices for manufactured goods
 Urbanization or movement to cities
 Population growth
 A general increase in prosperity, especially after the 1840s
 The standard of living increased
 The rapid expansion of the middle class