Period 4: Global Interactions, c. 1450 to c. 1750 Key Concept 4. 1. Globalizing Networks of Communication and Exchange The interconnection of the Eastern and Western hemispheres made possible by transoceanic voyaging marked a key transformation of his period. Technological innovations helped to make transoceanic connections possible. Changing patterns of long distance trade included the global circulation of some commodities and the formation of new regional markets and financial centers. Increased transregional and global trade networks facilitated the spread of religion and other elements of culture as well as the migration of large numbers of people. Germs carried to the Americas ravaged the indigenous peoples, while the global exchange of crops and animals altered agriculture, diets, and populations around the planet. I. In the context of the new global circulation of goods, there was an intensification of all existing regional trade networks that brought prosperity and economic disruption to the merchants and governments in the trading regions of the Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, Sahara, and overland Eurasia. II. European technological developments in cartography and navigation built on previous knowledge developed in the classical, Islamic, and Asian worlds, and included the production of new tools, innovations in ship designs, and an improved understanding of global wind and currents patterns — all of which made transoceanic travel and trade possible.
Example of New Tools and Ships Portolan maps and Caravel Ships were used by the Portuguese and Spanish explorers in the 15 th and 16 th centuries. Portolan maps had lines radiating out from compass points.
Key Concept 4. 1. III. Remarkable new transoceanic maritime reconnaissance occurred in this period. A. Official Chinese maritime activity expanded into the Indian Ocean region with the naval voyages led by Ming Admiral Zheng He, which enhanced Chinese prestige. B. Portuguese development of a school for navigation led to increased travel to and trade with West Africa, and resulted in the construction of a global trading post empire. C. Spanish sponsorship of the first Columbian and subsequent voyages across the Atlantic and Pacific dramatically increased European interest in transoceanic travel and trade. D. Northern Atlantic crossings for fishing and settlements continued and spurred European searches for multiple routes to Asia. E. In Oceania and Polynesia, established exchange and communication networks were not dramatically affected because of infrequent European reconnaissance in the Pacific Ocean. IV. The new global circulation of goods was facilitated by royal chartered European monopoly companies that took silver from Spanish colonies in the Americas to purchase Asian goods for the Atlantic markets, but regional markets continued to flourish in Afro Eurasia by using established commercial practices and new transoceanic shipping services developed by European merchants.
Key Concept 4. 1. A. European merchants’ role in Asian trade was characterized mostly by transporting goods from one Asian country to another market in Asia or the Indian Ocean region. B. Commercialization and the creation of a global economy were intimately connected to new global circulation of silver from the Americas. C. Influenced by mercantilism, joint stock companies were new methods used by European rulers to control their domestic and colonial economies and by European merchants to compete against one another in global trade. D. The Atlantic system involved the movement of goods, wealth, and free and unfree laborers, and the mixing of African, American, and European cultures and peoples. V. The new connections between the Eastern and Western hemispheres resulted in the Columbian Exchange. A. European colonization of the Americas led to the spread of diseases — including smallpox, measles, and influenza — that were endemic in the Eastern Hemisphere among Amerindian populations and the unintentional transfer of vermin, including mosquitoes and rats. B. American foods became staple crops in various parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Cash crops were grown primarily on plantations with coerced labor and were exported mostly to Europe and the Middle East in this period.
American Crop: Maize For western civilization, the story of corn began in 1492 when Columbus's men discovered this new grain in Cuba. An American native, it was exported to Europe rather than being imported, as were other major grains. Like most early history, there is some uncertainty as to when corn first went to Europe. Some say it went back with Columbus to Spain, while others report that it was not returned to Spain until the second visit of Columbus. The word "corn" has many different meanings depending on what country you are in. Corn in the United States is also called maize or Indian corn. In some countries, corn means the leading crop grown in a certain district. Corn in England means wheat; in Scotland Ireland, it refers to oats. Corn mentioned in the Bible probably refers to wheat or barley. At first, corn was only a garden curiosity in Europe, but it soon began to be recognized as a valuable food crop. Within a few years, it spread throughout France, Italy, and all of southeastern Europe and northern Africa. By 1575, it was making its way into western China. . . Although corn is indigenous to the western hemisphere, its exact birthplace is far less certain. Archeological evidence of corn's early presence in the western hemisphere was identified from corn pollen grain considered to be 80, 000 years old obtained from drill cores 200 feet below Mexico City. Another archeological study of the bat caves in New Mexico revealed corncobs that were 5, 600 years old by radiocarbon determination. . . The original wild form has long been extinct.
American Crop: Maize Corn is perhaps the most completely domesticated of all field crops. Its perpetuation for centuries has depended wholly on the care of man. It could not have existed as a wild plant in its present form. Corn was the most important cultivated plant in ancient times in America. Early North American expeditions show that the corn‑growing area ex tended from southern North Dakota and both sides of the lower St. Lawrence Valley southward to northern Argentina and Chile. It extended west ward to the middle of Kansas and Nebraska, and an important lobe of the Mexican area extended northward to Arizona, New Mexico and southern Colorado. It was also an important crop in the high valleys of the Andes in South America. The great variability of the corn plant led to the selection of numerous widely adapted varieties which hardly resembled one another. The plant may have ranged from no more than a couple of feet tall to over 20 feet. It was not like the uniform sized plant that most people know today. For the Aztecs, Mayas, Incas and various Pueblo dwellers of the southwestern United States, corn growing took precedence over all other activities. . . Origin, History, and Uses of Corn (Zea mays) Lance Gibson and Garren Benson, Iowa State University, Department of Agronomy, Revised January 2002.
American Crop: Maize
Cash Crop: Sugar! White Gold, as British colonists called it, was the engine of the slave trade that brought millions of Africans to the Americas beginning in the early 16 th century. The history of every nation in the Caribbean, much of South America and parts of the Southern United States was forever shaped by sugar cane plantations started as cash crops by European superpowers. Profit from the sugar trade was so significant that it may have even helped America achieve independence from Great Britain. Today more sugar is produced in Brazil than anywhere else in the world even though, ironically, the crop never grew wild in the Americas. Sugar cane — native to Southeast Asia — first made its way to the New World with Christopher Columbus during his 1492 voyage to the Dominican Republic, where it grew well in the tropical environment. Noting sugar cane's potential as income for the new settlements in the Americas — Europeans were already hooked on sugar coming from the Eastern colonies — Spanish colonizers snipped seeds from Columbus' fields in the Dominican Republic and planted them throughout their burgeoning Caribbean colonies. By the mid 16 th century the Portuguese had brought some to Brazil and, soon after, the sweet cane made its way to British, Dutch and French colonies such as Barbados and Haiti. It wasn't long, however, before the early settlers realized they were lacking sufficient manpower to plant, harvest and process the backbreaking crop. The first slave ships arrived in 1505 and continued unabated for more than 300 years. Most came from western Africa, where Portuguese colonies had already established trading outposts for ivory, pepper and other goods. To most of the European merchants, the people they put on cargo ships across the Atlantic — a horrendous voyage known as the Middle Passage — were merely an extension of the trading system already in place. Sugar slavery was the key component in what historians call The Trade Triangle, a network whereby slaves were sent to work on New World plantations, the product of their labor was sent to a European capital to be sold and other goods were brought to Africa to purchase more slaves. By the middle of the 19 th century, more than 10 million Africans had been forcibly removed to the New World and distributed among the sugar plantations of Brazil and the Caribbean.
Cash Crop: Sugar! Continued… During those three centuries, sugar was by far the most important of the overseas commodities that accounted for a third of Europe's entire economy. As technologies got more efficient and diversified, adding molasses and rum to the plantation byproducts, sugar barons from St. Kitts to Jamaica became enormously wealthy. The importance of those sugar rich colonies, especially those belonging to Britain and France, had enormous consequences for the map of the Americas during the 1700 s. Britain lost its 13 American colonies to independence in part because its military was busy protecting its sugar islands, many historians have argued. As opposed to the slaves working plantations in the U. S. South, Africans on Caribbean sugar plantations (and the islands themselves) outnumbered their European owners by a wide margin. The British planters lived in constant fear of revolt and demanded soldiers for protection. Several decisive battles of the Revolutionary War would have turned out differently had Britain thrown its full might behind the war, experts believe. Sizable garrisons were also stationed in the West Indies to guard the few sugar holdings Britain had left at the end of the Seven Years' War in 1763. In carving up the Americas after the fighting stopped, King George III had decided to cede a few of his Caribbean sugar islands to France in order to secure a sizable chunk of North America. In swapping sweet and profitable Guadeloupe for the barren, sugar free wasteland of Canada, plus most of the land east of the Mississippi River, many Englishmen thought the King got a raw deal. http: //www. livescience. com/4949 -sugar-changed-world. html
Cash Crop: Sugar! Continued…
Domesticated Animal: Cattle The Europeans who first settled in America at the end of the 15 th century had brought longhorn cattle with them. By the early 19 th century cattle ranches were common in Mexico. At that time Mexico included what was to become Texas. The longhorn cattle were kept on an open range, looked after by cowboys called vaqueros. In 1836, Texas became independent, the Mexicans left, leaving their cattle behind. Texan farmers claimed the cattle and set up their own ranches. Beef was not popular so the animals were used for their skins and tallow. In the 1850 s, beef began to be more popular and its price rose making some ranchers quite wealthy. http: //www. historyonthenet. com/American_West/cattle_industry. htm A Mexican cattle ranch
Food Brought by African Slaves: Rice A rice variety that made many a colonial plantation owner rich was brought to the United States from West Africa, according to preliminary genetic research. The finding suggests that African slaves are responsible for nearly every facet of one of the first rice varieties grown in the U. S. , as well as one of the most lucrative crops in early American history. West Africans had been growing varieties of rice for several thousand years before the start of the slave trade with the colonies, Mc. Clung said. Ship masters wanting to deliver healthy slaves to the U. S. bought rice in Africa as provisions for the voyage, according to experts. Once in the colonies, slaves grew leftover rice in their own garden plots for food. In 1685 plantation owners in the Carolinas started experimenting with a rice variety that produced high yields and was easy to cook, Mc. Clung said. The slaves used their rice growing know how to convert the swampy Carolina lowlands to thriving rice plantations replete with canals, dikes, and levies, which facilitated periodic flooding of the fields, Mc. Clung noted. The so called Carolina Gold variety quickly became a high value export crop, primarily to Europe. . . http: //news. nationalgeographic. com/news/2007/11/071128 -rice-origins. html
Key Concept 4. 1. C. Afro Eurasian fruit trees, grains, sugar, and domesticated animals were brought by Europeans to the Americas, while other foods were brought by African slaves. D. Populations in Afro Eurasia benefited nutritionally from the increased diversity of American food crops. E. European colonization and the introduction of European agriculture and settlements practices in the Americas often affected the physical environment through deforestation and soil depletion. VI. The increase in interactions between newly connected hemispheres and intensification of connections within hemispheres expanded the spread and reform of existing religions and created syncretic belief systems and practices. A. As Islam spread to new settings in Afro Eurasia, believers adapted it to local cultural practices. The split between the Sunni and Shi’a traditions of Islam intensified, and Sufi practices became more widespread. B. The practice of Christianity continued to spread throughout the world and was increasingly diversified by the process of diffusion and the Reformation. C. Buddhism spread within Asia. D. Syncretic and new forms of religion developed. VII. As merchants’ profits increased and governments collected more taxes, funding for the visual and performing arts, even for popular audiences, increased. A. Innovations in visual and performing arts were seen all over the world. B. Literacy expanded and was accompanied by the proliferation of popular authors, literary forms, and works of literature in Afro-Eurasia.
Sikhism: A New Religion Sikhism emerged in 16 th century India in an environment heavily permeated with conflicts between the Hindu and Muslim religions. Its founding teacher, Guru Nanak Dev, was born in 1469 to a Hindu family. His most famous saying was, "There is no Hindu, there is no Muslim, so whose path shall I follow? I shall follow the path of God. " Today, there about 23 million Sikhs worldwide, making Sikhism the fifth largest religion in the world. Sacred Book: Adi Granth. Beliefs: Monotheistic. Sikhism forbids the representation of God in images and the worship of idols. Sikhism retains the general Hindu conception of the universe and the doctrine of samsara, or rebirth, based on karma. Human birth is the only chance to escape samsara and attain salvation. Especially after conflict with the Mughal empire in Sikh history, religion and politics have been closely associated in Sikhism. Establishment of a Sikh state is a matter of religious doctrine, and all services end with the chant, "Raj karey Ga Khalsa" (the Khalsa shall rule). Holidays: Guru Gobind Singh's Birthday January 5 Maghi January 14 Maghi commemorates the martyrdom of the "Forty Immortals, " forty followers of Guru Gobind Singh who had previously deserted him, fought bravely against overwhelming Mughal army forces and were martyred in Muktsar. Guru Gobind Singh blessed them as having achieved mukti (liberation) and cremated them at Muktsar. On Maghi, Sikhs visit gurdwaras and listen to kirtan (hymns). Naturally, the largest gathering is at Muktsar where an annual fair is held. http: //www. religionfacts. com/sikhism
Sikhism Continued… Practices: 1. Uncut hair, which is kept covered by a turban, or dastaar. The dastaar is worn by men and some women to cover their long hair. 2. The Kirpan is a ceremonial sword, symbolizing readiness to protect the weak, and defend against injustice and persecution. The kirpan is normally worn with a cloth shoulder strap called a gatra. The kirpan exemplifies the warrior character of a Sikh. 3. The Kara is a steel bracelet, symbolizing strength and integrity. 4. The Kangha is a small wooden comb, symbolizing cleanliness and order. The kangha is used to keep the hair clean and is normally tucked neatly in one's uncut hair. As a Sikh combs their hair daily, he or she should also comb their mind with the Guru's wisdom. 5. Kachhera are cotton boxer shorts, symbolizing self control and chastity; prohibition of adultery. http: //www. sikhismguide. org/fiveks. aspx
Sikhism Continued…
Sikhism Continued…
Renaissance Art and Shakespeare Why is Shakespeare considered a Classical playwright? How did Renaissance art differ from medieval art? How did it represent the philosophy of Humanism? If you can answer those questions then move on!
Key Concept 4. 2 New Forms of Social Organization and Modes of Production Although the world’s productive systems continued to be heavily centered on agricultural production throughout this period, major changes occurred in agricultural labor, the systems and locations of manufacturing, gender and social structures, and environmental processes. A surge in agricultural productivity resulted from new methods in crop and field rotation and the introduction of new crops. Economic growth also depended on new forms of manufacturing and new commercial patterns, especially in long distance trade. Political and economic centers within regions shifted, and merchants’ social status tended to rise in various states. Demographic growth — even in areas such as the Americas, where disease had ravaged the population — was restored by the eighteenth century and surged in many regions, especially with the introduction of American food crops throughout the Eastern Hemisphere. The Columbian Exchange led to new ways of humans interacting with their environments. New forms of coerced and semi coerced labor emerged in Europe, Africa, and the Americas, and affected ethnic and racial classifications and gender roles. I. Traditional peasant agriculture increased and changed, plantations expanded, and demand for labor increased. These changes both fed and responded to growing global demand for raw materials and finished products. A. Peasant labor intensified in many regions.
Frontier Peasant Settlements in Siberia …The American West and Russia's Far East both were just across a mountain barrier from their country's original area of settlement. Both hinterlands were immense, sparsely populated regions that tempted the adventurous and restless. In the 19 th century, the United States enticed settlers to its western territories via the Homestead Act. The Czars similarly offered Russian peasants the inducement of free land on the Siberian frontier. "Fewer than two hundred thousand natives scattered in tiny settlements and nomadic stopping places across Siberia's five and a third million square miles were all that barred their advance, " notes Dr. Lincoln, a professor at Northern Illinois University. Both Siberia and the American West were first explored by "mountain men" fur traders. Indeed, Dr. Lincoln notes, the Siberian fur trade literally made Russia's fortune. Until merchant adventurers, such as the famed Stroganov family, began shipping back Siberian pelts, Russia was a poor nation on the fringe of European affairs. But in the 17 th century, a fur hat was the mark of a European gentleman, and the Siberian sable an animal the ancient Greeks called the "golden fleece" gave Russia its first export commodity. "This small animal that was scarcely larger than a house cat became the magnet that pulled the Russians across the entire Eurasian continent before 1650, " Dr. Lincoln notes. Life on Siberia's frontier was as raw and rough as in Dodge City or Tombstone. "They were without the fear of God and without feelings of shame, " reported one witness to the Siberian pioneers' lifestyle. When they'd exhausted Siberia's animal stock, Russian fur traders hopped across the narrow straits separating Asia from North America. For a brief moment, the Russians tested the possibility of expanding south to the Hawaiian Islands, thinking them a fertile place from which to draw food stocks badly needed by Siberia's population…
Frontier Peasant Settlements in Siberia Only when they'd finished exploiting Alaska's fur trading possibilities did the Czars sell off their North American territories to the United States. Siberia was also Russia's Australia, a remote colony to which criminals and troublemakers could be exiled. Virtually all the players to be in the Bolshevik Revolution served an exiled apprenticeship in Siberia. Lenin and his wife (and co conspirator) were married in Siberia. With brutal irony, once they came to power, the Bolsheviks used Siberia as a place to warehouse their opponents on a scale that dwarfed the earlier Czarist prisons… http: //articles. baltimoresun. com/1994 -0201/features/1994032183_1_siberia-goldenfleece-fur Siberian Bear Hunter
Chattel Slavery Chattel is movable property. A slave is a person without freedom, who is treated as property. As a result of the European Age of Exploration, West Africans were transported as chattel slaves to the Americas. Their journey (if they survived) was called the Middle Passage. They played an integral part of Triangular Trade. Muslim Arabs bought and sold chattel slaves in Eastern Africa and Southeast Asia.
Manchus “elites” in China The Manchu people from north east China ruled the last imperial Qing dynasty. Manchu history was short stretching back only to the start of the 17 th century, and the numbers were tiny compared to the Han Chinese. After subjugating Korea and Mongolia the Manchus set their eyes on conquering China. When the Manchus conquered China to form the Qing dynasty in 1644 China's territory was extended beyond the Great Wall into Manchuria. Disputes with the expansionist Russian Empire led to sieges and skirmishes along the poorly defined northern border. The Treaty of Nerchinsk in 1689 formally defined the northern border. The Manchus defeated the Mongol leader Galgan in 1696, bringing the whole of Mongolia into the Chinese Empire. The Qing rulers in the early years kept themselves apart from the Han Chinese who served them. Laws prohibited marriage between Manchu and Chinese, although this was ignored later on. An efficient military 'banner' system kept rebellions in check while the Chinese were banned from keeping weapons. Chinese administrative systems remained the same as in Ming China although many of the eunuchs were replaced by Han Chinese. Close contacts with Europe continued with the Christian Jesuits who impressed the court with their knowledge of science and astronomy in particular.
Manchu Elites Continued… The pivotal time in the fortunes of the Qing dynasty was about 1800, the Emperors in the later half did not have the strength of leadership of their predecessors, natural disasters started to question their 'mandate of heaven'. The reason for the gradual degradation of their ability to rule is widely debated; but population pressure must be the fundamental ones. There was always so many unemployed that prices were driven too low for factories to compete. All viable land had been exploited for agriculture, there was no where left to plant new crops. it should be remembered that many people rather than horses were still pulling the plow. At this time girl infanticide became widespread as boys were stronger and were needed to carry on the family line. The Qing response was to make laws more conservative with harsh penalties, women were respected for modesty and celibacy. Hatred of 'foreign' Manchu rule led to many rebellions. All Chinese men were forced to plait their hair into a queue 辫子 biànzi dangling from the back of their heads, a continuous reminder of the rule by Manchu foreigners. Initially this was used to quickly distinguish who had surrendered and who still resisted Manchu rule. The Taiping Rebellion (1850 1864) was the largest and most bloody Civil War in human history.
Manchu Elites
The Creation of Mulattoes and Mestizos
Key Concept 4. 2 B. Slavery in Africa continued both the traditional incorporation of slaves into households and the export of slaves to the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. C. The growth of the plantation economy increased the demand for slaves in the Americas. D. Colonial economies in the Americas depended on a range of coerced labor. II. As new social and political elites changed, they also restructured new ethnic, racial, and gender hierarchies. A. Both imperial conquests and widening global economic opportunities contributed to the formation of new political and economic elites. B. The power of existing political and economic elites fluctuated as they confronted new challenges to their ability to affect the policies of the increasingly powerful monarchs and leaders. C. Some notable gender and family restructuring occurred, including the demographic changes in Africa that resulted from the slave trades. D. The massive demographic changes in the Americas resulted in new ethnic and racial classifications.
Key Concept 4. 3. State Consolidation and Imperial Expansion Empires expanded and conquered new peoples around the world, but they often had difficulties incorporating culturally, ethnically, and religiously diverse subjects, and administrating widely dispersed territories. Agents of the European powers moved into existing trade networks around the world. In Africa and the greater Indian Ocean, nascent European empires consisted mainly of interconnected trading posts and enclaves. In the Americas, European empires moved more quickly to settlement and territorial control, responding to local demographic and commercial conditions. Moreover, the creation of European empires in the Americas quickly fostered a new Atlantic trade system that included the trans Atlantic slave trade. Around the world, empires and states of varying sizes pursued strategies of centralization, including more efficient taxation systems that placed strains on peasant producers, sometimes prompting local rebellions. Rulers used public displays of art and architecture to legitimize state power. African states shared certain characteristics with larger Eurasian empires. Changes in African and global trading patterns strengthened some West and Central African states — especially on the coast; this led to the rise of new states and contributed to the decline of states on both the coast and in the interior. I. Rulers used a variety of methods to legitimize and consolidate their power. A. Rulers used the arts to display political power and to legitimize their rule. B. Rulers continued to use religious ideas to legitimize their rule; i. e. Aztec human sacrifice. Ouch!
Art as a Display of Political Power Louis XIV “The Sun King” 1638 - 1715
Key Concept 4. 3 C. States treated different ethnic and religious groups in ways that utilized their economic contributions while limiting their ability to challenge the authority of the state. D. Recruitment and use of bureaucratic elites, as well as the development of military professionals, became more common among rulers who wanted to maintain centralized control over their populations and resources. E. Rulers used tribute collection and tax farming to generate revenue for territorial expansion. II. Imperial expansion relied on the increased use of gunpowder, cannons, and armed trade to establish large empires in both hemispheres. A. Europeans established new trading post empires in Africa and Asia, which proved profitable for the rulers and merchants involved in new global trade networks, but these empires also affected the power of the states in interior West and Central Africa. B. Land empires expanded dramatically in size. Examples of land empires: • Manchus • Mughals • Ottomans • Russians
Key Concept 4. 3 Continued… C. European states established new maritime empires in the Americas. Examples of maritime empires: • Portuguese • Spanish • Dutch • French • British III. Competition over trade routes, state rivalries, and local resistance all provided significant challenges to state consolidation and expansion.
Janissaries in the Ottoman Empire Janissaries were a force of elite infantry loyal to the Ottoman emperor. The Janissaries were christian slaves, taken from their villages between the ages of seven and ten, and raised to be loyal soldiers of the emperor, whose personal property they were. The Janissaries were trained bowmen whose loyalty and lack of political connections within the Empire made them invaluable to the stronger sultans. Their loyalty was gained both through their strict training, which took up to ten years, and the prospect of great rewards for good service. Some two thirds of the Grand Viziers of the Ottoman Empire up at least until the sixteenth century had been Janissaries, as were many other officials of the empire. It was only when the line of Sultans began to weaken that the Janissaries became kingmakers. The first Janissaries were probably recruited by Orkhan, as a personal bodyguard. Their numbers grew, reaching ten thousand in the fifteenth century. Rickard, J. (10 October 2000), Janissaries (Ottoman Empire), http: //www. historyofwar. org/articles/weapons_janissaries. html
Chinese Exam System Imperial China was famous for its civil service examination system, which had its beginnings in the Sui dynasty (581 618 CE) but was fully developed during the Qing dynasty. The system continued to play a major role, not only in education and government, but also in society itself, throughout Qing times. The civil service examination system was squarely based upon the Confucian classics and upon recognized commentaries on those classics. . . Only those from wealthier families or showing exceptional promise and having wealthy sponsors who were impressed by their potential could continue their studies and compete in the examination system. The civil service examinations were conducted at every level of the Chinese administrative hierarchy. The lowest level of the Chinese imperial administration was the county seat, and in the county seat one took the preliminary examination, which, if passed, qualified one to take the examination at the second level, which was at the prefectoral (district) seat. The third level examinations were given in the provincial capitol, and the fourth and highest level of examinations were given in the imperial palace itself. In addition to his many other functions, the emperor was in fact the “grand tutor” of China. Theoretically, he was to proctor the palace exams, although in practice he sent someone to represent him in that capacity. Those who passed the imperial palace examinations at the highest level (jinshi) became the most important people in China’s educated class immediately upon achieving that goal, and went on to become important members of the Chinese bureaucracy. Those who only passed at the provincial level (juren) became part of an important provincial elite and held enormous power at that level. Many of these provincial degree holders could be called to government service, though this was not automatic. Those who only passed at the prefectoral level (xiucai) had the most common imperial degree in China.
Chinese Exam System Continued… The holders of this degree took positions of leadership in their villages and towns and also became school teachers, maintaining the very educational system in which they themselves had achieved success. The civil service examination system was an important vehicle of social mobility in imperial China. Even a youth from the poorest family could theoretically join the ranks of the educated elite by succeeding in the examination system. This assurance of success in the examinations dependent only on one’s ability rather than one’s social position helped circulate the key ideas of Confucianism concerning proper behavior, rituals, relationships, etc. through all levels of Chinese society. The hope of social mobility through success in this system was the motivation for going to school in the first place, whether one was the son of a scholar or a farmer. But even for the farmer’s son who did not do well enough to take the exams even at the lowest level, going to school had the major payoff of working literacy, and this literacy was acquired through mastery of the same basic texts that others who went on to pass the examinations at the highest level also studied. This curricular uniformity had an extremely powerful effect on Chinese society, and the major impetus for this uniformity was the meritocracy promoted by the civil service examination system. http: //afe. easia. columbia. edu/cosmos/irc/classics. htm
Piracy in the Caribbean The great era of piracy in the Caribbean extends from around 1560 up until the 1720 s. The period during which pirates were most successful was from the 1640 s until the 1680 s. Piracy in the Caribbean came out of the interplay of larger national trends. The Caribbean was a centre of European trade and colonization from the late 15 th Century. In the Treaty of Tordesillas the non European world was divided between the Spanish and the Portuguese along a north south line 270 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. From the 1560 s the Spanish adopted a convoy system — a treasure fleet (flota) would sail annually from Seville (and later from Cádiz), carrying passengers, troops, and European goods to the colonies of the new world. This cargo was effectively make weight as the purpose was to transport a year's worth of silver and specie to Europe, that bullion arriving in a major port on the Silver Train. This made the returning fleet a tempting target, although pirates were more likely to shadow the fleet to attack stragglers than try and seize the main vessels. The classic route in the Caribbean was through the Lesser Antilles to the ports along the Spanish Main, then northwards into the Yucatan Channel to catch the westerlies back to Europe. The United Provinces and England were defiantly anti Spanish for much of the time from the 1560 s, while the French government was seeking to expand its colonial holdings (the French had the first non Spanish hold in the Caribbean at St. Augustine, although it was short lived). Aided by their governments English, French and Dutch traders and colonists ignored the treaty to invade Spanish territory: "No peace beyond the line. " The Spanish could not afford a sufficient military presence to control the area or enforce their trading laws. This led to constant smuggling and colonization in peacetime, and if a war was declared there was widespread piracy and privateering throughout the Caribbean. • The Caribbean continued to reflect European policy shifts. As England, France and Holland
Piracy in the Caribbean Continued… In the 1620 s and following the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War in 1618 the Spanish presence in the Caribbean began to decline at a faster rate, becoming more dependent on African slave labour and with a reduced military presence. Meanwhile, other nations began to become more established — Barbados, the first truly successful English colony, was established as was a colony on Providence Island, which soon became a haven for pirates. The end of widespread conflict in Europe left most of the nations in a dreadful state, especially Spain which had bankrupted the state. This was reflected in the Caribbean with both a constant influx of European refugees and the shrinking of Spanish power. While the major cities of the region were still Spanish the peripheries were being overrun by other nations' more aggressive expansion. The English had expanded beyond Barbados, with successful colonies on St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua, Montserrat, and Bermuda. The French were well established on Guadeloupe, Hispaniola and Martinique and they nominally held Tortuga, a noted pirate base from the 1640 s. The Dutch had remained an almost baseless trading presence in the area but following the Spanish decline they became established at Curaçao and St. Eustatius.
Piracy in the Caribbean Continued…
The 30 Years War The Thirty Years’ War (1618 48) began when Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II of Bohemia attempted to curtail the religious activities of his subjects, sparking rebellion among Protestants. The war came to involve the major powers of Europe, with Sweden, France, Spain and Austria all waging campaigns primarily on German soil. Known in part for the atrocities committed by mercenary soldiers, the war ended with a series of treaties that made up the Peace of Westphalia. The fallout reshaped the religious and political map of central Europe, setting the stage for the old centralized Roman Catholic empire to give way to a community of sovereign states. This conflict, which redrew the religious and political map of central Europe, began in the Holy Roman Empire, a vast complex of some one thousand separate, semiautonomous political units under the loose suzerainty of the Austrian Hapsburgs. Over the previous two centuries, a balance of power had emerged among the leading states, but during the sixteenth century, the Reformation and the Counter Reformation had divided Germany into hostile Protestant and Catholic camps, each prepared to seek foreign support to guarantee its integrity if need arose. Thus in 1618, when Ferdinand II, heir apparent to the throne of Bohemia, began to curtail certain religious privileges enjoyed by his subjects there, they immediately appealed for aid to the Protestants in the rest of the empire and to the leading foreign Protestant states: Great Britain, the Dutch Republic, and Denmark. Ferdinand, in turn, called upon the German Catholics (led by Bavaria), Spain, and the papacy. In the ensuing struggle, Ferdinand (elected Holy Roman Emperor in 1619) and his allies won a major victory at White Mountain (1620) outside Prague that allowed the extirpation of Protestantism in most of the Hapsburg lands. Encouraged by this success, Ferdinand turned in 1621 against Bohemia’s Protestant supporters in Germany. Despite aid from Britain, Denmark, and the Dutch Republic, they too lost, and by 1629 imperial armies commanded by Albrecht von Wallenstein overran most of Protestant Germany and much of Denmark. Ferdinand then issued the Edict of Restitution, reclaiming lands in the empire belonging to the Catholic Church that had been acquired and secularized by Protestant rulers.
The 30 Years War Continued… Only Swedish military aid saved the Protestant cause. In 1630 an army led by King Gustavus Adolphus landed in Germany and, with a subsidy from the French government and assistance from many German Protestant states, routed the Imperialists at Breitenfeld (1631) and drove them from much of Germany. The Protestant revival continued until in 1634 a Spanish army intervened and at Nordlingen defeated the main Swedish field army and forced the Protestants out of southern Germany. This new Hapsburg success, however, provoked France which feared encirclement to declare war first on Spain (1635) and then on the emperor (1636). The war, which in the 1620 s had been fought principally by German states with foreign assistance, now became a struggle among the great powers (Sweden, France, Spain, and Austria) fought largely on German soil, and for twelve more years armies maneuvered while garrisons over five hundred in all carried out a “dirty war” designed both to support themselves and to destroy anything of possible use to the enemy. Atrocities abounded as troops struggled to locate and appropriate resources. Eventually, France’s victory over the Spaniards at Rocroi (1643) and Sweden’s defeat of the Imperialists at Jankau (1645) forced the Hapsburgs to make concessions that led, in 1648, to the Peace of Westphalia, which settled most of the outstanding issues.
The 30 Years War Continued… The cost, however, had proved enormous. Perhaps 20 percent of Germany’s total population perished during the war, with losses of up to 50 percent along a corridor running from Pomerania in the Baltic to the Black Forest. Villages suffered worse than towns, but many towns and cities also saw their populations, manufacture, and trade decline substantially. It constituted the worst catastrophe to afflict Germany until World War II. On the other hand, the conflict helped to end the age of religious wars. Although religious issues retained political importance after 1648 (for instance, in creating an alliance in the 1680 s against Louis XIV), they no longer dominated international alignments. Those German princes, mostly Calvinists, who fought against Ferdinand II in the 1620 s were strongly influenced by confessional considerations, and as long as they dominated the anti Hapsburg cause, so too did the issue of religion. But because they failed to secure a lasting settlement, the task of defending the “Protestant cause” gradually fell into the hands of Lutherans, who proved willing to ally (if necessary) with Catholic France and Orthodox Russia in order to create a coalition capable of defeating the Hapsburgs. After 1630 the role of religion in European politics receded. This was, perhaps, the greatest achievement of the Thirty Years’ War, for it thus eliminated a major destabilizing influence in European politics, which had both undermined the internal cohesion of many states and overturned the diplomatic balance of power created during the Renaissance. http: //www. history. com/topics/thirty-years-war
A Samurai Revoltthe powerful Satsuma clan The first test of the young Meiji government came with the revolt of based in the southern region of the island of Kyushu. This influential clan was headed by the Shimazu family, which had been founded by Shimazu Tadahisa, son of Minamoto Yoritomo, in the Kamakura period. It was one of the two powerful clans (the other was the Choshu) that made the restoration of power to the Emperor possible. After nine years of working close to the central government, the samurai of Satsuma had grown dissatisfied with the direction the government was taking. They organized a considerable army to fight against the untried troops of the central government. It was a momentous clash between traditional Japanese warfare, as waged by the sword wielding individual warriors, and the new peasant army, trained in western strategy and using western weapons. The rebellion was led by Saigo Takamori, a giant of a man with an engaging personality who, just a few years earlier, had been a leader in the government and who, as field marshall, had actually been responsible forming the government army that he now opposed… Saigo had advanced a plan for the conquest of Korea that included sending an envoy to that country to make impossible and insulting demands. This would result, he explained, in the Koreans executing the envoy and would thereby give Japan an excuse for declaring war. The envoy, he insisted, would be himself. Okubo and Kido (his Samurai allies) refused him, and Saigo went back to his home in Kyushu. There, he was prevailed upon to join the rebellious samurai and to lead them against the government army. The government acted swiftly to crush the rebellion. The fighting was brief but bloody. Saigo and his men fought well, but the government soldiers easily triumphed. When he was badly wounded, he committed suicide in the samurai tradition, rather than be captured. But. . . He became a hero to future Japanese soldiers and was pardoned posthumously by the Meiji Emperor, whom he had both supported and opposed.
Saigo Takamori
Periodization Do you agree with the AP name for Period 4? Why or why not? If not, what would you name it and why?
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