Unit 5

Learning Goals For each of the civilizations below you will describe

how they grew into a world power and their interactions with the European continent

China

Japan

Arabia

India

Americas

China China is the longest lasting empire on our planet. It still

exists today.

Chinese civilizations have been built upon the concept of the “Mandate of Heaven.”

The emperor is in charge of China because heaven has willed it to be so.

The emperor will stay in charge as long as they rule fairly and effectively, evidence of which being peace and prosperity throughout China.

If the mandate exists, the citizens of China must not rebel.

If the mandate is lost, it is the duty of citizens to rebel.

Chinese Dynasties The mandate of heaven began under the Zhou dynasty in

1046 BC and helped keep them in power for 800 years

After the Han dynasty in China fell in 220 AD, China had no clear dynasty for many years

The dynasty concept was often used by foreign occupiers or smaller local rulers to back up oppressive actions in China

The Tang (Tong) dynasty was the next to obtain the mandate for multiple centuries, from 618 to 907 AD

The Tang restored a civil service examination to see where citizens should be employed

They also built a stable economy by giving land to peasants instead of big landowners

Chinese Dynasties During this time, China was building trade routes and

ports along the Silk Road

China began processing steel for swords, invented gunpowder (by accident), and even invented a medieval flame-thrower

From 1160 to 1206, a Mongolian herder began to unify his people under the promise of conquest. His name was Genghis Khan

Their numbers were few, but the actual amount of land Khan and his followers conquered was the largest in history

The Mongol dynasty would take over China

Chinese Dynasties Under Kublai Khan, Genghis Khan’s grandson, China expanded

it’s territory into Vietnam and southern Asia

The Chinese tradition was to remain isolated from all other foreign nations. Confucianism said that trade and exploration was a sign that your

own homeland was weak

Khan wasn’t Chinese, and welcomed other national visitors to China’s borders for the first time in history

Marco Polo was an Italian merchant who spent 24 years living among Khan in the brand new city of Beijing

When he returned to Italy in 1292, he brought tales of extraordinary cities of gold, canals, paper money, and bathing rituals

Europe began to grow interested in China and their vast wealth

Chinese Dynasties The Ming dynasty followed the Mongols and lasted until

1644 in China

The biggest change in China during the Ming was their willingness to leave their homes and explore

Emperor Yong Le built a massive palace in the new capital of Beijing called the “Forbidden City.”

Yong Le also ordered a local official named Zheng He to make a series of voyages and explore the world

Zheng made seven voyages with 28,000 men and 62 ships

He brought back items to China they had never seen before

Palms, Spices, Giraffes, all which earned a huge profit

Chinese Dynasties The Chinese hosts and the exploring visitors (the

Portuguese, Jesuits, etc) impressed each other

China had incredible architecture, efficient printing process and paper making, and appreciated the teachings of Confucius

Europeans had large elaborate ships, complicated clocks and sextants.

Locals did not like the influence of other cultures in China.

The Ming quickly lost the mandate following these meetings. New diseases and internal struggles regarding exploration brought them down

Chinese Art and Literature China was one of the first civilizations to appreciate the

art of landscaping

Large areas of land covered with flowers showed earth’s perfection

Reflection pools in gardens showed the sky’s perfection

Paintings and stories left large spaces blank

The empty canvases reflected the Chinese belief that no one can know the whole truth.

Japan In the early 600’s AD (around the time Mohammad

received his vision), Shotoku Taishi began to centralize Japanese government and citizens under one ruler

The ruler, titled an “emperor,” was believed to be a divine figure.

This belief would continue until the 1940’s

Although the position of an emperor stayed, the government began to dissolve in 794 and local aristocrats began ruling over their smaller areas

To help collect debts and protect their families, they hired military servants called Samurai soldiers

Japan The Samurai were similar to Knights in England

Samurai prided themselves on military performance

Weapons of choice were swords and bow and arrows, and they rode on horseback in battle

They were fiercely loyal to a ruler, not a country. But their loyalty was also dependent on payment.

If their ruler was killed under their protection, the samurai became a ronin, a disgraced and leadership position.

Japan The same time that the Portuguese were making contact

with China, they were also making contact with Japan

The Japanese at first were fascinated by tobacco, eyeglasses, clocks, etc.

They also found the guns and ammunitions bought by the Japanese useful in dealing with enemies

They did not, however, welcome Christian missionaries, who tended to destroy Japanese shrines

By 1750, the capital city of Japan, Edo, was one of the richest and largest cities in the world

The Ottomans The Arabs lived right in the center of numerous trade

routes

Gold, Ivory and slaves from Africa

Silk, porcelain and paper from China

Spices from India

Nearly every trade route crossed a desert, and Arabs were skilled at desert living

The Ottomans In present-day northwest Turkey, a group of Turks began

to grow in power and claim important rivers and straits.

They called themselves the Ottomans

By 1390, the Ottomans had claimed most of Turkey and nearby Bulgaria

The only obstacle to claiming the entire peninsula left was taking Constantinople

On April 6, 1453, the Ottoman attacked with cannons and trebuchets launching 1200 lb boulders throughout the city.

On May 29, almost 2 months later, the Ottoman soldiers finally entered the city and claimed it as their capital.

The Ottomans The Ottomans built their empire by naming local Muslim

officials, called Sultans, in charge

By 1600’s, the Ottoman Empire contained modern-day Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Greece, Albania, and Hungary

The Sultans power grew in the Ottoman until each controlled their own “kingdom”

Sultan’s would pass military control to their sons and grant political or advisory control to their wives and daughters.

Each family also appointed a Grand Vizier

Viziers ran meetings and communicated in citizens’ courts

Sultans behind the scenes gave Viziers orders to carry out

The Ottoman rulers were kind to non-Muslims, allowing them to worship their own gods.

The Islamic Spice Trade Muslim civilizations showed an interest in Southeast Asia

in order to profit from the spices that grew there.

The Holy Roman Empire and East Asian nations also began attempts to claim the nations

As a result, Indonesian and Philippine Islands evolved into a mix of four different kingdoms

Buddhist kings, Islamic sultans, Jesuit missionaries and local natives

Christianity never stuck, but the others managed to claim territories

Buddhism: modern-day Thailand, Burma, and Cambodia

Islam: Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines

The Islamic Spice Trade Buddhist and Muslim nations had a monopoly on the

spices of Southeast Asia

Pepper, salt, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg.

The islands of Indonesia made it difficult to find a water route into these nations

While Europeans searched the ocean for a route, the Muslims already were building trading posts in these countries.

As a result, the nations of Southeast Asia remained isolated from the European influence that was impacting much of the rest of Asia

India The Indian civilization built a civilization based on castes

and social structure. Brahmans: Priests, at the top of society

Kshatriyas: Warriors and Kings

Vaisyas: Commoners, merchants

Sudras: Peasants, artisans

Untouchables: Garbage dwellers

The caste system was based on reincarnation.

Humans are reborn into high or low castes based on their previous lives

Therefore, whichever caste you belong to, it’s your own fault

India The Moguls were a group of mountain dwellers in the

Himalayas that moved south into India in 1500.

They set up a capital in Delhi, India

One of the first permanent rulers of the Moguls was 14 year old Akbar, grandson of the general of the Moguls

When Akbar captured a kingdom, he allowed the locals to still worship in their own way

He required a taxes, but adjusted the amount peasants were required to pay during years of famine or drought

The moguls also took advantage of their geography and grew rich on trade

India The moguls were Muslim foreigners living in a Hindu-

dominated land.

Hindu-women had much more power than Muslim, so Moguls were forced to assimilate

Women provided political advice, received salaries, and could own land

However, child marriage remained common and men still claimed the right of “suttee”

When a wealthy man died, he had the right to order that his wife be killed with him so that no other man could have her

Central and South Americans Central and South America have been home to

civilizations since as early as 1200 BC

The Toltecs, Nascans, Chavins, Moches, Caralans

The three largest and most famous civilizations in these continents were the Maya, the Aztec, and the Inca

Some of these nations died before ever meeting a European and were only recently discovered

Maya The Maya lived in 300-900 AD in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico

They built massive city-states that may have contained up to 100,000 citizens per city

The Mayan people were three separate classes: The rulers, who were descended from gods

The priests, or scribes

The townspeople (Artisans, farmers, merchants, etc)

The Maya believed that all existence was a cycle of life and death, including the Earth.

The Maya had two calendars, a solar calendar of 365 days and a spiritual calendar of 260 days. These calendars were organized in cycles of creation and destruction

The calendars, when paired together, created a “life-span” of the earth

The previous life-cycle began in 3114 BC and ended on 12-23-2012

Aztec The Aztec civilization began in what is now Mexico City in

1325.

Although covering a large portion of present-day Mexico, the majority of the civilization was in their capitol city.

The Aztec rulers claimed territories surrounding the capitol, and appointed governors to rule in their place

By 1500, the population of Aztec peoples was nearly 4 million

The civilization was flourishing until the arrival of Spanish explorers

Inca Of the three well-known American civilizations, the Inca

are the only who dwelled in South America

From Ecuador to Southern Chile

The Inca built an enormous empire, complete with highways, hilltop palaces, structures for withstanding earthquakes, and high-altitude farming

Inca writing was called quipo, and was a system of tracking information using various knot combinations in strings

European Exploration Europeans had been successfully crossing the Atlantic

for hundreds of years before Christopher Columbus’ “discovery” of the New World

Vikings from Norway were patrolling the northern Atlantic since 700-800 AD

Discovered Iceland and Greenland

Leif Ericson, reached the northern edge of Newfoundland, Canada in a single-sail ship around 1000 AD

John Cabot, 450 years later, also reached Newfoundland and claimed the territory for England

European Exploration Ever since Marco Polo’s journey eastward, Europeans

had seen the benefits of exploration and trade

Access to new resources, such as spices and metals, brought enormous wealth

High Demand, Low Supply

New peoples who had never heard the word of God before drew missionary zealots

Lifelong glory and fame went to the leaders of explorations who returned safely to tell of their journeys

European Exploration It’s a myth that Europeans in the 15th century thought

the earth was flat.

The shadow of the earth on the moon proved it was round centuries earlier

They had no idea of circumference though

Portuguese explorers tended to sail east, where maps of Africa and Asia at least showed how far they would have to go.

Columbus, however, believed the route across the Atlantic would take him to Eastern Asia faster than around Africa

European Exploration Columbus would make four voyages to Central

America, landing on every major island Each time, believing he had landed in East Asia

Another explorer, Ferdinand Magellan, also managed to get royal funding for his expedition

Magellan died in the Philippines, but his armada (fleet of ships) returned back to Spain

Thus, Magellan is credited with being the first to circumnavigate the globe

With each journey, men like Columbus and Magellan brought back tales of exotic new lands, with exotic new people and exotic new resources

Conquistadors The desire to explore quickly shifted into a desire to

conquer and claim

In 1519, explorer Hernan Cortes landed on the eastern coast of Mexico

Cortes marched to Tenochticlan to meet the Aztec king, making allies with smaller villages along the way

Aztec King Montezuma welcomed Cortes and was marveled by the horses, cannons, and guns

Cortes at first made friends, then when he had learned of the terrain and the Aztec fighting abilities, attacked

Conquistadors The Conquistadors took Montezuma hostage and

began to plunder the wealth of the Aztec pyramids

The Aztec retaliated, but the Conquistadors brought an unexpected weapon: smallpox

Meanwhile, Cortes was increasing his army by conscripting soldiers from outer parts of Mexico

Within 30 years, the Spanish had claimed the territory of Mexico

Meanwhile, down in South America, Spanish Conquistador Francisco Pizarro was attempting to take the Incas in a similar method

Conquistadors Pizarro reached the Incan civilization with only 180

men, but also brought horses, firearms, and smallpox

When the emperor died of the disease, a brief civil war erupted among the Incans

The new emperor, Atahualpa, lost most of his army taking control of the Incan empire.

Pizarro took advantage and captured his palace.

Pizarro eventually captured all of the Incan territory and established a new capital city at Lima, Peru

Exploration Summary By the end of the 1600’s, multiple European nations

had set up claims all throughout the Americas

Portugal: Brazil

Spain: Central America, Peru, Ecuador

Netherlands: New York

France: Louisiana, Canada

England: Massachusetts, Virginia

Due to the ability to farm and grow crops such as sugar and tobacco, the Central and South America colonies were seen as far wealthier and important than North American colonies

Mercantilism Portugal and Spain began the concept of setting up

colonies Settlements with government control and can serve as a

center of trade

The colonies helped nations stay at the top of a new economic system called mercantilism Nations trade resources between themselves

High taxes, or tariffs, are placed on goods sold by foreign countries to encourage citizens to buy from their own land

The government will pay citizens who are willing to farm/process/develop certain products

Monopolies (being the only supplier of an important commodity) are the goal

Trade Routes One such commodity was sugar, a difficult crop that

grew in Central America

The hard labor required for growing this highly demanded crop sparked a renewed interest in an old custom: slavery

By this time, Europeans had become familiar with most trade routes across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans Trade routes are mapped wind patterns and currents that

could carry ships across the ocean in one direction or another

Two trade routes developed were the triangular trade and the middle passage

Trade Routes Triangle Trade

Traders would leave Europe and travel south, arriving at the coast of Africa

Kidnap slaves (or buy them from a trading post) and pick up supplies for the journey across the Atlantic

Travel northwest to plantations in Central America

Sell slaves to the colonies in return for rum, tobacco, or sugar products

Sail back northeast toward Europe

Sell the rum, sugar products, and make a fortune

Middle Passage

A single route back and forth between Africa and Central America

The Slaves Europeans viewed Africans as inferior mentally, but

physically perfect for slavery

Slaves were obtained by kidnapping Africans from their village and holding them in small jails near trading posts.

When traders arrived, they negotiated prices with slavetraders for gender, ages, and numbers of slaves

The slave trade allowed Europeans to profit enormously from cash crops, which in turn provided more money for more slaves

Social Classes On the plantations in Central America, the mixing of

cultures resulted in new class structures

Peninsulares

Native Spanish and Portuguese officials

Creoles

Descendents of Spanish and Portuguese, born in Latin America

Land and business owners, they resented Peninsulares because they were treated as second-class

Mestizos

Children of Europeans and Native Americans

Mulattos

Children of Europeans and Africans