After 1000 CE …..

• CONVERGENCE (increasing contact)

–Spread of new religions

–New interregional (not national, no nations!) trading pattern – AfroEurasia

• Mongol khanates facilitated trade

MAJOR TRADE ROUTES

Major ComparisonMuslim Trade routes v. Silk Road routes

A Great Deal of Change

2 Themes

1. Religions

Embrace or reject

2. New Trading Systems

Including slaves as an item of trade

There would be tensions brought on by those 2 themes:

religion and tradeExample: growing materialism (due to increased trade) and its

impact on Islam, Christianity and Buddhism

Period shaped by cultural & commercial change

Supplemented by technological change

NOT systematic political change – no world pattern

Patterns of Gender Change

• Conditions of women deteriorate

–Ironic since religions change by recognizing equality of souls

–i.e., foot-binding in China, sati in India, seclusion & complete veiling of women in Middle East – although isolated

• 1 possible cause: use prosperity to make women ornamental, don’t need women’s work as much

–Earlier patriarchy – men controlled women to make sure they have sons as heirs

Postclassical period seen in 3 layers

• Zone 1 (1st world)

• Zone 2

• Zone 3

Zone 1: 1st World• Most developed = most manufacturing,

largest cities, richest upper class

• Trade amongst each other (silk, porcelain)

• Middle East, N. Africa, China, India, Byzantine

ZONE 1

Zone 2 • Japan, SE Asia, Subsaharan Africa (Swahili Belt, W. Africa), Russia, NE Europe, parts of W. Europe

• Located geographically around 1st zone

ZONE 1

ZONE 2

Participate actively in interregional trade system BUT…

zone 2 at a slight disadvantage (production systems not as advanced, 1st zone has more raw materials)

ZONE

2

• Imitate like crazy! Deliberately! Particularly cultural systems:– Writing, alphabet, artistic forms, technologies

(W.Europe)

– Touched by social forms – do end up deteriorating the condition of women

– Seek to imitate political forms

•Why? Not economically prosperous enough (tax base), literacy not as high

• Either don’t imitate fully or they fail at it

• Do develop their own forms in the end, ones that are successful for them

ZONE

2

Zone 3• No connection with

interregional trade network

• Central America, Andes

• Hugely disadvantaged by interregional trade network especially when it reaches them

ZONE 3

4 “big stories” that shape entire era

1. China and Europe - 2 Centers of Growth

2. The Long Reach of Islam3. The Age of Mongol

Dominance4. Empires of the Americas

China & Europe - 2 Centers of Growth

• China –Burst of technological innovation,

commercialization, urbanization

–Largest economy in the world (exported silk & porcelain, imported spices)

Western & Central Europe–New center of Christian civilization

–Expanding in agricultural production, population, commerce, military might

–New challenge to Muslim dominance in Mediterranean

–Drawn more tightly into commercial economy & cultural interchange of the hemisphere

The Long Reach of Islam

• Eurasia and Africa (W. Africa, E. African coast, Central Asia, India, SE Asia)

• Spread tied to migrations of Turkic conquerors & herders AND to growth of Muslim commercial enterprise all across the hemisphere

• Muslim merchants, scholars, long-distance travelers were principal mediators in interregional exchange of goods, ideas, technical innovations

The Age of Mongol Dominance

• Under Genghis (Chinggis) Khan,

largest land empire the world had ever seen– From Poland to Korea and Siberia to Indonesia

• Conquests terrifying but Mongol rule stabilizing– Century of fertile commercial & cultural interchange

across continent

• Eurasian unification - disastrous consequence in 14th century = Black Death & its impact on Europe, the Islamic world, & probably China

Empires of the Americas

• Empire-building reached an unprecedented scale

• Political styles of Aztec & Inca profoundly different– However both

demonstrated that human labor & creative endeavor could be organized on a colossal scale…

– DESPITE absence of iron technology or wheeled transport

Ok… 1450Where do things sit?

• Mongols gone (Russians still concerned)

• China discontinues expeditions

• 1st world still 1st world as we defined it (some decline in Arab power)

• Chinese economy still very strong (strongest in world in manufacturing)

• Key elements in Americas showing deterioration – just coincidence

• Japanese feel they don’t have to be connected to outside world (sees China fall to Mongols), view shifts to more of themselves

Europe• Like Africa, Europe in 1400 was divided into

hundreds of political units that were often at war with one another. This is in contrast to China, which was a huge empire ruled by a single man.

• Europe’s system of fragmented sovereignty was the result of the breakup of the Roman empire in the 6th century as well as the spread of Islam in the 8th century.

• At this time, holding a piece of land, along with its agricultural produce, and having a castle to secure the land was a primary objective.

Warfare in Europe

• For many years swords, knives, lances, pikes, and long- and crossbows were used in Europe.

• All this changed when cannons fired by gunpowder were introduced in the 14th century.

• Gunpowder and cannons had been invented by the Chinese around 1000 A.D.

• The Mongols improved upon the technology, using it to bombard Chinese cities in the 13th century. They also used cannons against Europeans, who further improved the technology.

Notable Cannon Milestones1327- 1st evidence of a European cannon

1453- Cannons used to capture Constantinople

1453- France uses cannons to end 100 Years War

1492- Muslims driven from Granada by Spanish

1494- French kings invaded Brittan and then Italy

1500- Pisa develops new fortifications that can withstand cannon fire

Armed Trading in the Mediterranean

• Europeans needed a way to preserve their food.

• Salt was available but pepper and other Asian spices were in high demand.

• Europeans fought constantly over who had access to the Asia spice trade.

• The city-states of Genoa & Venice had competed for centuries. Each side built warships to protect their merchants and all sailors were fighters.

• Venice, by 1400, had secured a virtual monopoly.

Portuguese Explorations

• The Venetian monopoly meant that other European nations were cut off from the trade.

• Henry the Navigator led the Portuguese southward in the Atlantic. He had heard from Arabs that the southern tip of Africa could rounded, bypassing the Venetians.

• In 1415, he attacked Muslim positions on the western coast of Africa and sent out yearly expeditions until he reached the equator.

• He died in 1460 without reaching his goal.

Missed Opportunity?• At the same time that Henry the Navigator was

sailing down the west coast of Africa, Chinese sailors under the command of Zheng He had reached the east coast and had secured Chinese dominance of the Indian Ocean.

• Had the Chinese naval expeditions continued, they would have almost certainly rounded the tip of Africa and opened up a direct trade route with Europe themselves.

• The Portuguese would have been no match for the Chinese navy.

Cape of Good Hope

• In 1488, Bartholomeu Dias finally reached the tip of Africa for the Portuguese.

• When a Genoan sailor named Christopher Columbus approached Portugal with a new plan to reach Asia by sailing west, he was rejected.

• After news of Columbus’s “success” reached Portugal, they redoubled their efforts to open up a route to Asia past the Cape.

• Vasco da Gama sailed to Calicut, India in 1498.

Armed Trading in the Indian Ocean

• Upon da Gama’s return to Portugal, another expedition was sent out with the purpose of driving the Muslims from Calicut.

• The system of peaceful trade on the Indian Ocean was brought to a halt.

• By 1515, the Portuguese had taken Hormuz and Malacca and then moved into the South China Sea.

• While the Chinese banned Portugal from trading on the mainland, they gave them the island of Macao on the southwestern edge of the country.

Effect of Portuguese Dominance

• Since trade between China and Japan had been banned at this time, Portugal took advantage of this by taking sliver and gold from Japan and returning with Chinese silks.

• Asian rulers of coastal trading cities were forced to fortify their territories and equip their own navies. The ruler of Sumatra built a navy that could run Portuguese blockades and take their ships and arms. Imported Ottoman cannons were even used to threaten Malacca.

• W. Europe – –new assets –

assimilated a lot of borrowed technology (printing, gunpowder – warfare)

–Disadvantage in interregional trade – don’t control major trade routes – depend on Muslim intermediaries – don’t have much to trade

–Begin to compensate militarily

EUROPE

• Sub-Saharan Africa sitting just fine – no trading problems – political system works fine