Period 4 Chapter Modules

Overview

Before 1500, there was considerable cross-cultural interaction between Europe and Asia and, to a lesser extent, with sub-Saharan Africa. With the voyages of discovery of the fifteenth century, these contacts accelerated and became global in reach. Russian adventurers built an empire that stretched across Eurasia, and they began to explore in the Pacific Ocean basin. Meanwhile, the Chinese and the Ottomans ventured into and explored the Indian Ocean basin. The impact of European contact on the previously isolated societies of the Americas and the Pacific islands was profound and devastating. This chapter considers the motives and methods of European trade and exploration between the fifteenth and the eighteenth centuries. Some common themes of this era include the following:

• Mixed motives. European explorers acted from a complex mix of greed, daring, and missionary zeal. Christian princes, such as Prince Henry of Portugal, and Ferdinand and Isabel of Spain, underwrote voyages to expand Christianity. Equally compelling were the profits to be made in the spice trade, especially if Arab intermediaries could be eliminated.
• New technologies used in navigation. From Arab traders, the Portuguese borrowed the astrolabe and the cross staff and used these tools to determine their north/south position. Other new technologies included the magnetic compass, more flexible combinations of sails, improved shipbuilding, cannons, and more accurate navigational charts.
• Adventure. Curiosity and a sense of adventure also drew Europeans out into the world. Between 1500 and 1800, European mariners charted the oceans, seas, and coasts of the entire globe. Important geographic questions were resolved: the circumference of the earth, the quest for a northwest passage across North America, and the patterns of winds and currents.
• The Columbian exchange. Contact with European diseases was a demographic catastrophe for the populations of the Americas and the Pacific islands, who usually suffered 80 percent to 90 percent mortality within the first generation. The cross-cultural exchange was more beneficial for Europeans, who gained significant new food crops.

Overview

This chapter presents the dramatic transformation of Europe between 1500 and 1800 from a sub-region of Eurasia to a dynamic global powerhouse. Internal changes enabled the nations of western Europe, in particular, to assume preeminence. This transformation occurred simultaneously and on multiple levels. The chapter also considers state-building and social and economic change in Russia under Peter I and Catherine II.

• Religious transformation: The Protestant Reformation, launched by Martin Luther in 1517 in Germany, successfully challenged the monopoly of the Roman Catholic church on western Christendom. The printing press, recently introduced to Europe from China, advanced the ideas and texts of the Reformation throughout Europe.
• Political transformation: Powerful nation-states evolved with the resources and institutions to advance national interests abroad. At the same time, two models for political order emerged, represented by the absolutist monarchies of France and Spain and the constitutional monarchies of England and the Netherlands.
• Economic transformation: The emergence of capitalism is evident in changes to the structures of banking, finance, and manufacturing. Adam Smith advocated a free market economy, with prices and wages determined through competition.
• Intellectual transformation: New technologies and new scientific discoveries of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries fueled debate about the nature of the universe and called into question the authority of the church in such matters. This discussion eventually led to the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century, an intellectual movement that raised important questions about the nature of humanity, religion, and political authority.

Overview

For thousands of years, sub-Saharan Africa was a remote and isolated region, cut off from much of the outside world by vast oceans and the Sahara desert. In the eighth century, Muslim caravans reached west Africa, and in the tenth century Arab merchant ships began trading with the Swahili city-states of east Africa. These contacts were, for the most part, mutually beneficial to both African rulers and Muslim merchants. Traders sought gold, ivory, exotic foods such as kola nuts, and slaves. Africans, in turn, gained horses, salt, and other manufactured goods, and were also introduced to the religion, law, and culture of Islam. Several African societies, such as the Songhay, the Kongo, and the Ndongo, shifted from band-level units to larger, more formal kingdoms.

This political evolution was disrupted after the fifteenth century when Portuguese mariners reached the west coast of Africa. Direct European contact brought rapid and dramatic changes, which profoundly affected all sub-Saharan societies. Dimensions of that change include the following:

• Political upheaval. In the Kongo, for example, the Portuguese undermined the authority of the king and even assassinated uncooperative rulers.
• Outright conquest and settlement. Kongo, Ndongo, and south Africa became European settlements that had Africans as the servant class. The Swahili city-states were seized and forced to pay tribute.
• Intertribal warfare. Portuguese slave traders encouraged African slavers to make raids on their neighbors and to resist their own rulers. Coastal Dahomey profited from the slave trade, while inland peoples suffered.
• Economic exploitation. Indigenous economies were corrupted by the trade, exchanging slaves for manufactured goods such as guns and rum.
• Social disruption. Sixteen million able-bodied young Africans were enslaved between 1600 and 1800, two-thirds of them men. This disruption seriously impacted village and family life, especially in west Africa

Overview

In the early modern age, powerful dynasties emerged in both China and Japan, featuring centralized, autocratic governments and efficient bureaucracies. In China, the Ming dynasty drove out the Mongols in 1368 and rebuilt the infrastructure of the empire, including the Great Wall, the Grand Canal, and irrigation systems. Ming Emperor Hongwu built a large navy and sponsored expeditions to Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean (see Chapter 23). However, later Ming rulers reversed this policy, destroyed the fleet, and restricted foreign contact.

In the mid-seventeenth century, Manchurian tribesmen invaded China, overthrew a corrupt Ming state, and established the Qing dynasty with a Manchu ruling class. Also in the seventeenth century, the Tokugawa shoguns of Japan broke the power of the provincial lords (the daimyo) and created a centralized military government. Although Chinese and Japanese traditions are very different, there are some common elements in this period, including:

• A centralized bureaucracy. A hierarchy of Confucian-trained administrators ran the Qing Empire from the new capital at Nanjing. The Tokugawa shogunate required regular attendance by the daimyo at the capital city, Edo.
• Neo-Confucian values. Confucian teachings were appropriated by the state, stressing duty, order, and submission to authority. The patriarchal family was the basic social unit. Patriarchal values were grotesquely expressed in China in the practice of binding girls' feet.
• Agricultural economies with limited trade. Peasant farming fed the state, and crafts and luxury goods provided additional wealth. Both states severely restricted foreign trade to a few, carefully controlled port cities.
• Cultural insularity. For nearly two hundred years, Chinese and Japanese citizens did not travel abroad and had little knowledge of the outside world. By the eighteenth century, both dynasties had fallen behind the west in science and technology

Chapter 27: THE ISLAMIC EMPIRES

Three powerful Islamic empires emerged in India and southwest Asia after the fifteenth century. Beginning with the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453, Turkish warriors and charismatic leaders established first the Ottoman empire, then the Safavid dynasty in Persia (1502), and finally the Mughal dynasty in India (1526). Three distinct empires emerged with different cultures and traditions. Yet there are some striking similarities, including:

• Autocratic rule. All three empires began as military states in which all power and prestige centered on the person of the ruler. All three were plagued by problems of succession from one ruler to the next.
• Islamic faith. All three empires embraced Islam. Sizeable Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire and a large Hindu majority in India forced those rulers to craft policies of religious toleration. The Safavid dynasty followed the Shia sect of Islam, which brought them into conflict with their Sunni Ottoman neighbors.
• Inward-looking policies. Although all three Islamic states maintained power through the military, neither the Safavid nor the Mughal dynasties developed a navy or a merchant fleet. Military resources were concentrated on defending inland borders. The Ottoman did have a powerful navy at one time, but by the eighteenth century, Ottoman armaments were outmoded and usually of European manufacture.
• Agricultural economies. Agriculture was the basis of the Islamic empires, and the majority of the population was engaged in raising and processing food. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the Ottoman and Safavid populations grew slowly; the population in India grew more dramatically.
• Ambivalence toward foreign trade. All three empires existed along important historic trade routes and derived benefit from their locations. The Safavids actively encouraged foreign trade. However, none of the three states sent merchants abroad or encouraged new industries.
• Cultural conservatism. The Islamic empires did not seek out new ideas or technologies and proved hostile to innovation by the eighteenth century. Like leaders in the Qing and Tokugawa dynasties (Chapter 26), Islamic conservatives feared that new ideas would lead to political instability.

Chapter 29: The Making of Industrial Society

Overview

The previous chapter describes the dramatic political changes that followed the American and French revolutions. Equally profound were the social and economic changes that accompanied what has sometimes been called the industrial revolution. Beginning in Great Britain about 1750, the processes of manufacturing were transformed. Britain held the lead in industrialization, but eventually the following changes reached western Europe and North America:

• New sources of energy. The coal-fired steam engine replaced traditional sources of power such as wood, wind, and water. Nations with abundant coal—Britain, Germany, the United States—could benefit from the new technology. Railroads and steamships, fired by the steam engine, created important links between raw materials, industry, and market.
• New labor-saving technologies. Phases in textile production once done by hand, such as spinning and weaving, were mechanized. Factories replaced cottage industry and became more efficient through the use of interchangeable parts and the assembly line.
• Increased standard of living. The factory system was tremendously productive. Efficiencies of scale and improved transportation links meant cheaper consumer goods for everyone. The accumulation of great wealth provided the capital for further industrialization.
• New patterns of work. The factory system transformed rural laborers into industrial workers with rigid timetables and strict discipline. Workers faced long hours of tedious and often dangerous work.
• New social patterns. Industrialization separated work from home life and created separate spheres for men and women. Women, especially middle-class women, were expected to take care of home and children. Men were expected to work and provide for the family.
• Urbanization. Industrial centers grew rapidly through the nineteenth century. Large cities struggled to provide such services as water delivery, sewage disposal, police and fire protection, and public education.

When you have finished studying this chapter, you should be able to do the following:

• Discuss the foundations and key features of industrialization.
• Explain the origins and features of the factory system.
• Compare and contrast regions and states that experienced early industrialization.
• Explain the development and features of industrial capitalism.
• Explain the social and demographic impact of industrialization.
• Explain the links between industrialization, urbanization, and global migration.
• Identify the impact of industrialization on society in the nineteenth century.
• Explain the origins and development of socialism.
• Explain the global spread of industrialization and identify key affected regions.

Chapter 30: The Americas in the Age of Independence

Overview

In 1800, the United States was a shaky new republic, and the rest of the Americas were controlled by European states. By 1900, the United States and Canada had claimed the entire North American continent, and most of Latin America had broken free from colonial rule. The states that emerged were vastly different from one another. Some of those differences had been apparent since the colonial era (see Chapter 24). Events of the nineteenth century further defined the societies that emerged in the Americas:

• Territorial expansion. A booming population and continual immigration impelled American and Canadian settlers to press on to the western lands. Railroad construction in the late nineteenth century facilitated that expansion.
• Conflicts with indigenous peoples. Across the Americas, expansion brought settlers into lands claimed by indigenous peoples. Conflicts between native Americans and military forces in the United States, Canada, Argentina, and Chile invariably ended badly for the natives. Survivors were usually forced onto marginal lands.
• Constitutional issues in North America. After 1800, the United States became increasingly divided, north and south, over slavery and related issues. The Civil War determined that the American "house" would no longer be "divided" and that the federal government would be more powerful than the state governments. Canada achieved independence within the framework of the British empire, but faced challenges in creating a government that respected both British and French citizens.
• Constitutional issues in Latin America. Independence left many unresolved questions. What system would best address the inequities between creole elites and the vast majority of landless peasants? How would order be maintained? How best to advance reforms? Often, the solution seemed to be a military dictator.
• Economic development in North America. Foreign capital, a stable government, free enterprise, and abundant cheap labor: all contributed to the dramatic economic expansion of the United States in the nineteenth century. Canadian economic expansion was less spectacular but steady, especially after completion of the Canadian Pacific Railroad in 1885.
• Economic colonialism in Latin America. With a few exceptions, the economies of Latin America did not develop or diversify. Instead, Latin America continued the colonial pattern of exporting raw materials to industrial powers. While wealthy elites profited, the peasants saw their standard of living decline.

When you have finished studying this chapter, you should be able to do the following:

• Explain the nineteenth-century expansion and development of the United States.
• Understand and identify the chief causes behind the U.S. Civil War.
• Compare and contrast the growth of the United States and Canada during the nineteenth century.
• Outline key aspects of nineteenth-century Latin American state formation.
• Understand and explain the forces behind mass migration to the Americas.
• Explain the reasons behind economic expansion in the United States.
• Compare and contrast foreign investment practices across the Americas.
• Compare and contrast the development of multicultural societies across the Americas.