Unit 1: The Emergence of the Modern
Neolithic Revolution- another word for the development of agriculture (“new stone age”). It was dominated by agriculture
There were two: Europe, Asia and Africa (wheat and rice)
One in the Americas (maize or corn)
Agricultural societies tend to be cyclical:
Reliance on seasonal production
Depletion and replenishment of soil
Cycles of plenty, which lead to collapse through overpopulation,
The Mexica or Aztec Calendar Stone (1427), excavated in Mexico City in 1790. Time moves in a circle (like the heavens) for pre-modern people
Silk roads:
Buddhism: The first religion to use printing to expand. Went from India into China, Japan and Southeast Asia.
Ca. 100 BCE-1450 CE)
Monks spread Mahayana Buddhism along the overland Silk Road
Teravada Buddhism expanded along maritime trade routes (the Maritime Silk Road) to the southeast into Southeast Asia
Islam (Purple): Expanded into North Africa, the Middle East, India, central Russia and Southeast Asia
Islam began with the “recitations” (Qu’ran) by the angel Gabriel to the prophet Mohammed in 610 in a cave near the city of Mecca
Writings in classical Arabic that were a kind of third testament to the “People of the Book” (Jews, Christians and Moslems)
lam spread rapidly in the southern half of the old Roman Empire and then into Persia and along the Silk Road into Afghanistan and India.
Christianity (Yellow): Expanded into northern Europe and western Russia.
Hinduism remained largely in southern India until the 19th century
Printed image from the Chinese translation of the Diamond Sutra, the oldest dated example of a printed book. It was made by Buddhist missionaries 868 AD
The Mongol Empire (1206-1368)
The Mongol Empire unified under Ghengis Khan in 1206 it continued after his death (1227) to expand into China, Islamic territories, and Europe
mixture of religions, including Nestorian Christianity and Buddhism. The Mongols End Abbasid rule and the Islamic caliphate. Increasingly converted to Islam and began to use Persian in Arabic script to rule
By the late 13th century the empire,THE LARGEST IN HISTORY, breaking apart due to civil wars
Finally destroyed by he Black Plague (1330’s-1350)
And the Ming Rebellion in 1368 in China
Deposed the Yuan Dynasty- replaced by an indigenous Chinese dynasty
Janet Abu Lughod
The world system of the thirteenth century is a wide variety of cultural systems coexisted and cooperated and that societies organized very differently from those in the West dominated the system.
Janet Abu Lughod describes the Islamic World System as working through Regional circuits
The World system failed after the fall of Rome and the loss of (Chinese) Han unity only to be restructured eventually through the rise of the Islamic world
The Black Plague
Theroy 1- The plague came out of Burma or China in the 1330's and reached Europe by way of the silk road in 1347
Theory 2: plague came out of the Black Sea region in 1347 and largely effected only Europe and North Africa until 1352
Islamic Beliefs and the 5 pillars
Monotheism: A statement of belief in one God called the Shahadah
Payer five times per day or Salat
Fasting during the month of Ramadan called Sawm
Charity or Zakat
Pilgrimage or the Hajj to the holy city of Mecca
Abraham Cresques (1325-1387)
The Abbasids were the last empire to approach a true Islamic caliphate—a union of political and religious power modeled on Byzantine caesaropapism.
Conquered by the Mongols in 1258
Focus on Domus (domestic)- domestication of animals and plants
From Palma, Majorca, island part of the Kingdom of Aragon
Son of Sefardic Rabbi
Made a rectangular map that was a mixture of portolan sea chart and didactic medieval mappamundi (circular christian map)
He did illuminated manuscripts of Fahri Bible including the menorah and the map of Jericho (he translated things)
Musa I, or Mansa Musa, was the tenth Mansa, which translates to "sultan", "conqueror" or "emperor", of the wealthy West African Islamic Mali Empire. He was the richest man in history. (1280-1337)
Ibn Khaldun was most directly affected by the Black Plague
Janet Abu Lughod's description of the Islamic World system corresponds with the period of the mongol empire
Ibn Khaldun thought history was branch of study was the key to human advancement
pre-modern period
Questioning authority was not a thing.
Showed the wealthy Mansa Musa of Mali
Included lines for navigation in the Mediterranean
Encompassed the whole known world like a traditional medieval mappa mundi
Revealed Asia as a wealthy, urban and a desired destination for trade
The black plauge could be said to have ended the first Islamic World System
wrote: "History is a discipline widely cultivated among nations and races. It is eagerly sought after. The men in the street, the ordinary people, aspire to know it. Kings and leaders vie for it".
Gunpowder Empires in the 15th and 16th century
Zheng He (1371-ca.1433) Ming Dynasty(1368-1644)
traveled the furthest
The Ming Dynasty expeditions under Zheng He were designed primarily to Demonstrate the economic might of the Ming
They used paper currency in the Ming dynasty.
Parents died in the plague
Worried about the disruptions caused by plague, including the growing problem of Berber tribesmen disrupting the Saharan trade routes for gold
Ming Dynasty established with a peasant revolt against the weakened Mongols (1368)
Grand Canal rebuilt (1411-1415)
Crisis in the north (from ca. 1442-9) and building of the Great Wall (1460’s)
Giraffe from Malindi brought back to Nanjing and thought to be a mythical qilin
Portuguese “Empire” or Trading Posts
Cantino planisphere (1502): Smuggled to Ferrara in Italy from Portugal by Alberto Cantino
The Ottoman Empire (1359-1922) and the Fall of Constantinople(1453)
Edward Gibbon (Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1789): key historical turning point.
Mehmed II and the janissaries(removing nobles from court)--subalterns
Byzantine Empire (est. 330) and city walls of Constantinople
53-day siege, already conquered rest of empire.
Kemal Reis and the Battle of Zonchio (1499)
Kemal Reis was successful In defeating the Venetian navy
, first significant use of cannons on ships
Admiral 1495, new flagship the Göke has 700 soldiers, cannons, sail and galley power
Piri Reis and the Three Seas Strategies
Piri Reis (ca. 1470-1553), nephew of Kemal Reis
Took part in Battle of Zonchio and Ottoman Conquest of Egypt (1516-1517)
Makes world map (1513)
Kitāb-ı Ba rīye ḥ(“Book of the Sea”) presented to Suleiman the Magnificent (1520-1566), 290 maps.
Three Seas--Mediterranean, Red Sea and Persian Gulf (NOT the Atlantic or Indian Oceans
The Safavid Empire
The Safavid Empire adopted gunpowder and Shi'a Islam in response to attacks by the ottomans
Sunni Tribalism (bey) vs. Sufi Religious Brotherhood (wali)
Safaviyya—Kurds, Azerbaijanis, Greeks, Persians as Sufis in Ardabil Shrin
Adoption of gunpowder and bureaucratic methods—teach to Mughals (1526-1857)
Anglo-Persian Alliance (1622)—the Rise of British Power
Mughal Empire (1526-1857)
The Mughal empire conquered India but began in what is now Afghanistan
Babur (1483-1530)—Failure to Conquer Samarquand
Battle of Panipat (1526)
Akbar (r. 1556-1605)—cultural unity
The Spanish Empire (1492-1808)
Christopher Columbus (b. ca. 1451, Genoa; d. 1506). First voyage (1492) after conquest of Grenada by Ferdinand and Isabelle
Pope Alexander VI’s bull Inter caetera (1493) and the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494
Arrested after 3rd voyage and denied governorship in 1500, 4th and last voyage in 1502)
Burbank and Cooper
The piece of eight is symbolic of The America's role in the global silver cycle
Suggested that their strength derived primarily from Composite institutions
The most important date related to the concept of gunpowder empires was: 1453
Burbank and Cooper argue that the class hierarchy and composite monarchy of the Spanish Empire led to rule by magnates
Gunpowder empires challenged feudal systems of military aristocracies by Creating standing armies supported by a strong tax base
The most likely reason for the emergence of the Gunpowder Empires was the effort to Dominate trade routes across Asia once ruled by the Mongols
Cultural Exchanges in the 15th and 16th centuries
European Renaissance
The Revival of Learning
technology: The Gutenberg Bible (Johannes Gutenberg, Mainz, ca. 1455) in moveable metal type
Language: The Polyglot Bible (Spain: 1502-1517) in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic
Texts: The Aldine Press (Venice, 1495-1597), printed editions of Greek and Roman classic
The Courtly Writer:Christine de Pizan (1399-1429)
La Malinche was most influential in her role as a Translator
From Venice. Moves to Paris with father to be at court of French king
Writes 30 books (manuscript) when father and husband die
Character of “Lady Reason” teaches the achievements of past women and chases away self-doubt. Wrote the book of the ladies (1405)
Imperial Crisis:The Holy Roman Empire of Charles V (1519-1556)
Which of the following did NOT occur during the rule of Charles V of Spain as Holy Roman Emperor:
The defeat of the Florentine Republic
Charles V's rule as Holy Roman Emperor saw the beginning of
Mining in the Americas and the global silver cycle
Charles V's Gun
Machiavelli and the Florentine Republic
The Short-Lived Florentine Republic
The Age of the Medici: The Medici family, rich from trade and banking, dominated Florence for much of the 15th and 16th centuries
The Florentine Republic (1494-1512): Established as a result of the Medici’s failure to stop a French invasion of Italy in 1494.
Machiavelli, The Prince (1513)Principality: “a wise prince must devise ways by which his citizens are always and in all circumstances dependent on him and his authority” (ch. 9)
Machivelli, Discourses on Livy (1514-1519)Republicanism: “the multitude is wiser and more constant than a prince
Martin Luther (1483-1546)
“the multitude is wiser and more constant than a prince” is an example of: Niccolo Machiavelli's "civic humanism" or republican ideology
Martin Luther's belief in faith alone was derived from his:
Translation practices into the vernacular
Charles V had him declared a “notorious heretic” and outlaw in 1521.
That for some women, the Renaissance brought an awareness of new possibilities
Nicolaus Copernicus(1473-1543)
Published in Latin as a “theory"
Challenges model of Ptolemy inherited from the Romans and Greeks
Saves Aristotle’s idea that planets travel in circle
Dedicated to the Pope but associated with Lutheranism because of Protestant German princes
Copernicus developed a better model or "theory" of the universe than the old geocentric one
We still do not fully understand Aztec culture and religion
Some priests in the Catholic Church objected to the practices of the early conquistadors in the Americas
Benin Bronze Plaques and the Slave Trade
Oba (King) Esigie (ca. 1504-1550)•
Trade in copper and bronze manillas and guns esp. from 1550’s—Portuguese, English, Dutch
This image suggests that the early slave trade in the sixteenth century Created greater economic and social divisions along the coast of West Africa
Nunn and Qian write that... suggests The Columbian Exchange transformed human labor, ecological environments and human diets