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AP World History Unit 4

PERIOD 4: GLOBAL INTERACTIONS (1450-1750)

Name: _________________________________________________ Date: __________________________

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TABLE OF CONENTS

Period 4 Map 3

Period 4 Timeline 4

Gunpowder Empires (Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals) 5

Motives for European Exploration 11

Restructuring Europe 15

Age of Inquiry 17

Renaissance 17

Protestant Reformation 18

Catholic Counter-Reformation 21

Scientific Revolution 22

Navigational Technology 26

Exploration Maps 27

Portuguese Exploration in Southeast Asia 30

Inca Empire 35

Aztec Empire 40

Effects of European Exploration in the Americas 47

The Columbian Exchange and Ensuing Commercial Revolution 57

Impacts of the Columbian Exchange 58

In America 58

In Africa 62

In Asia 65

Tokugawa Japan 67

Ming and Qing China 70

Absolutism in Europe 75

The Enlightenment 78

Czarist Russia 79

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EUROPEAN INTERACTION WITH THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE

BYZANTINE EMPIRE: By the 1400s, the once mighty Byzantine Empire had been in decline for nearly two centuries. In the

14oos, it faced a growing threat from the Ottomans, a nomadic Turkish-speaking group that had migrated from central Asia into Asia Minor. In 1453, Ottoman armies surrounded the Byzantine capital

of Constantinople. During a two-month siege, Ottoman cannons pounded Constantinople’s defensive walls, eventually allowing the attackers to break through and capture the city. The ottomans changed the city’s name to Istanbul and made this ancient Christian city the capital of their Muslim empire. By the 1500s the Ottomans had built the largest, most powerful empire in the Middle East and Europe. At is peak, the Ottoman Empire reached across three continents, from southeastern Europe through the Middle East and North Africa. Ottoman success was attributed to new military technology. In addition to the cannons that smashed Constantinople’s defenses, the Ottoman army equipped its foot soldiers with muskets. This strategy increased the soldiers’ battlefield effectiveness and reduced the importance of mounted soldiers. The new military technology allowed Ottoman leaders to

conquer new lands efficiently. Janissaries were an elite fighting force within the Ottoman Empire. As the empire expanded, soldiers were often forcibly recruited into the Ottoman army. They were forced to renounce their religion (in most cases Christianity), and adopt Muslim traditions.

1. Who conquered the Byzantine Empire? What capital city was conquered? What was it renamed?

2. What is a Janissary?

VENICIAN MERCHANTS: (Crash Course)

1. When Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks, what did they rename the city?

2. How did the city-state of Venice in Italy benefit from a trade relationship with the Ottomans?

3. What role did the Ottomans play in Eurasian trade during the Early Modern Era?

4. It can be argued that Ottoman and Venetian trade success ultimately led to their demise. Why

might this be?

5. In what ways was the Ottoman Empire different than the Mongol Empire?

6. Describe the Ottoman Empire under Suleiman the Magnificent.

RELIGIOUS TOLERATION IN THE MUSLIM GUNPOWDER EMPIRES

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Millet System in the Ottoman Empire

The millet system has been an important administrative apparatus to serve this end throughout Ottoman history. As a well known historian points out 'the Millet system emerged gradually as an answer to the efforts of the Ottoman administration to take into account the organization and culture of the various religious-ethnic groups it ruled. The system provided, on the one hand, a degree of religious, cultural and ethnic continuity within these communities, while on the other hand it permitted their incorporation into the Ottoman administrative, economic and political system.' (Karpat, 1982)

Broadly speaking, the term 'millet' in the context of Ottoman history means a religiously defined people. The Millet system had a socio-cultural and communal framework based, firstly, on religion and, secondly, on ethnicity which in turn reflected linguistic differences of the millets consisted essentially of people who belonged to the same faith.

Modern historians further elucidate the nature of this system: “….division of society into communities along religious lines formed the millet (nation) system, with each individual or group belonging to one millet or another according to religious affiliation....Each millet established and maintained its own institutions to care for the functions not carried out by the ruling class and state, such as education, religion, justice and social security. The separate schools, hospitals and hotels, along with hospices for the poor and the aged,

have remained to modern times long after the millet courts and legal status were ended by the nation states established in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.”

The millet system has allowed the development and maintenance of ethnic identity on the part of minority subjects within the Ottoman Empire. Greek Orthodox Christians were established as the first major millet and the Greek Orthodox patriarchate was recognised within the millet system. The patriarch was allowed to apply Orthodox law in secular and religious matters to the followers of Orthodox Church in Istanbul.

Similarly, the policy of toleration and multi-culturalism consolidated by the millet system allowed the Jews to form their own ethnic community and to establish independent religious institutions in Istanbul. It has been noted that the autonomy given to the minorities within the Ottoman territories attracted large numbers of displaced Jewish communities who then, were among the victims of persecution in Spain, Poland, Austria and Bohemia. Dumont (1982, p. 221–2) points out that 'while in Russia, Rumania, and most of the Balkan states, Jewish communities suffered from constant persecution (pogroms, anti-Jewish laws, and other vexations), Jews, established on Turkish territory enjoyed an altogether remarkable atmosphere of tolerance and justice.'

What was the purpose of the millet system, and was that purpose fulfilled? Explain.

Sikhism in the Mughal Empire

By the fifteenth century, many of the Muslims living in India were observing caste distinctions, visiting Hindu temples, and adapting many Hindu customs and conventions associated with marriage and other events. The stage was set for the emergence of a faith that merged the principles common to Islam and Hinduism.

Like the Reformation in Europe, this Indian movement, known in history as Sikhism, was basically a protest against religious dogma, ritual, and intolerance. Its believers taught that personal ethics were the kernel of religion and that the form and place of worship were of little consequence. They also taught that Hinduism and Islam had the same basic values; only the terminology was different. They evolved a form of religious poetry with a vocabulary that borrowed liberally from the sacred texts of both Hindus and Muslims. These teachings had a spontaneity that appealed to the masses. The founder of the Sikh faith was Guru Nanak (1469-1539).

Guru Nanak was more concerned with spreading religious tolerance than with founding a new community. His teaching, however, fired the imagination of Punjab peasants, and even during his lifetime, a large group of followers gathered around him. At first, they were just known as his disciples (“shish” in

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Sanskrit). Sometime later, these disciples became a homogeneous people whose faith was based exclusively on the teachings of Nanak. The Shish became the “Sikhs.”

Guru Nanak was content to be a teacher. He laid no claims to divinity. He did not claim his writing to be prophecy nor his words to be a sacred message. His teaching was against insincerity and humbug, and his life was patterned after what he taught.

Guru Nanak ignored religious and caste distinctions and took as his associates a Muslim musician and a low-caste Hindu. He personally went to the Hindu places of pilgrimage and demonstrated to worshippers the absurdity of these rituals. Likewise, he went on a pilgrimage to Muslim shrines and reprimanded religious leaders who transgressed the injunctions of the Qur’an. He was acclaimed by both communities, and on his death both clamored for his body— the Muslims wanting to bury him and the Hindus wanting to cremate him. Even today, he is regarded as a symbol of harmony between Hindus and Muslims.

In fifty years of travel and teaching, Guru Nanak had attracted followers who primarily dissented from both Hinduism and Islam. It was left to his successors to mold this group into a community with its own

language, literature, institutions, and traditions.

What was Guru Nanak’s purpose for developing Sikhism?

How did Guru Nanak redirect this purpose? What was the ultimate impact of Sikhism on the Mughal

Empire under his guidance?

In what ways are Sikhism and the millet system different approaches to achieving religious toleration?

Explain.

Which system do you feel is more effective in helping an empire to consolidate and maintain power?

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THE RISE OF MUSLIM GUNPOWDER EMPIRES

Ottoman:

Safavid:

Mughal:

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GUNPOWDER SHOWDOWN

The Ottomans & Suleiman The Safavids & Shah Abbas The Mughals and Akbar

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MUSLIM GUNPOWDER EMPIRES COMPARED

Society and Gender Roles: Ottoman and Safavid Comparisons

Both dynasties had much in common. They initially were dominated by warrior aristocracies who shared power with the monarch. The warriors gradually left the rulers' courts for residence on rural estates where they exploited the peasantry. When central power weakened, the result was flight from the land and rebellion. Both empires encouraged the growth of handicraft production and trade. Imperial workshops produced numerous products, and public works employed many artisans. Policies encouraging international trade were followed, although the Safavids were less market-oriented than the Ottomans. Women endured the social disadvantages common to Islamic regimes. The earlier independence within nomadic society was lost. Women were subordinate to fathers and husbands and had few outlets, especially among the elite, for expression outside of the household.

In Depth: The Gunpowder Empires and the Shifting Balance of Global History

Each of the three great Muslim dynasties gained power with the support of nomadic warriors. But past conditions had changed. Firearms were now a decisive factor in warfare. Global history had entered a new phase. States utilized technology to reorganize their land and naval forces, and the changes influenced both social and political development. Once dominant warrior aristocracies crumbled before governments able to afford expensive weapons. The Chinese scholar-gentry and Japanese shoguns had some success in limiting their impact, but nomads no longer were able to dominate sedentary peoples. Nomadic dynasties similarly declined when confronted by smaller, technologically-superior rivals. The efficient utilization of firearms by European nations was a major factor in their rise to world power.

The Rise of Europe and the Eclipse of Islam as the Pivot of the World Order

The early modern Muslim empires had sufficient internal reasons for destruction, but their demise was made more certain by a common ignoring of the rising European threat. Little effort was made to incorporate European technological advances. The failure to meet the European challenge weakened the economic base of their empires as revenues and profits were drained off by foreigners. Importation of

European bullion brought damaging inflation. Muslim leaders and scholars ignored these trends and caused serious difficulties for the world of Islam in the future.

WHO DESERVES THE TITLE?!

1. Which leader displayed the greatest amount of religious toleration? Do you think that would that help or hurt his empire? Explain.

2. Which leader do you believe handled religious and ethnic conflicts most effectively? Why?

3. Which leader established the most effective military? How was he able to do that?

4. Based on the legitimacy of each leader, as well as the actions he took once in power, which leader truly deserves the title, “magnificent?” Why?

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MOTIVES FOR EXPLORATION

Directions: Read the texts and examine the images below that explain the reasons why Europeans

wanted to explore the world in the late 1400s. Answer the questions that accompany each section, the complete the synthesis task at the end.

Cause #1| Interest in the East

After the Crusades… Though Western Europe was isolated from trade with Asia during most of the Middle Ages, the Crusades and books by travelers like Marco Polo kept Europeans interested in the lands east of the Mediterranean Sea. Stories about the riches of China and India, and the limited availability of goods like silk and spices from those areas fueled European desire for adventure and profit.

1. Why were Europeans interested in exploring Asia?

A page from a medieval printing of The Adventures of Marco Polo depicting a Mongol battle against the King of Mein.

Cause #2| Ottoman Influence and Pricey Spices

Access to Trade in the Middle Ages through Christian Allies In the Middle Ages, Europeans had access to spices and other goods from Asia because they could easily

trade with the Byzantine Empire, a Christian empire that controlled the city of Constantinople which was a

crossroads for trade.

2. In the Middle Ages, why was the relationship with the Byzantine Empire important for Western Europeans?

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Ottoman Control in the Eastern Mediterranean Then, in 1453, the Ottoman Empire conquered Constantinople and continued to expand in the 1500s under

the rule of Suleiman on the Magnificent. It became increasingly more difficult to trade through the Ottoman

Empire because of European Crusades that created distrust between the Muslim Ottomans and the Christian

Europeans. Italian city-states like Genoa, Milan, Florence, and Venice had a good trading relationship with the Ottomans and became wealthy from what they imported from the Middle East, but other European

countries wanted access to the trade as well.

3. What effect did the expansion of the Ottoman Empire have on trade between Western Europe and Asia?

Increasingly Expensive Trade Europeans wanted more goods from Asia,

especially gold and spices like pepper,

cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and turmeric, but by the time the spices

travelled from southeast Asia to Europe

they were incredibly expensive. To get spices to Europe, they travelled from

southeast Asia in caravans along the Silk

Roads or on ships in the Indian Ocean to the Middle East where they were then

shipped across the Mediterranean Sea to

European markets. It was rare for one trader to buy the spices in southeast Asia

and take them all the way to Europe.

Instead, the spices were bought and sold many

times from their origin to their final

destination. To make a profit, every

merchant that bought the spices from another raised the price so, buying pepper in Malaysia was cheapest,

India was a little more expensive, buying it in the Middle East was more expensive still, then the price went up

in Constantinople, it was bumped up higher in Venice, and so on and so forth all the way through Europe.

Spices in places as far away as Portugal, Spain, or England were so expensive that only the wealthiest Europeans could afford them.

4. Why were spices so expensive in Western Europe?

5. If you lived in Western Europe and wanted spices for less money, what would you do?

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Cause #3| Mercantilism: An Absolute Monarch’s Policy for Economic Power

At the end of the 15th century, absolute monarchs ruled in almost every country in Europe. The monarchs

of Spain, France, Portugal, England, the Holy Roman Empire, and other areas centralized the power in their

countries by raising large armies, controlling the people of their countries through harsh laws and military

force, and tied their rule to God through the theory of divine right.

Absolute monarchs and the officials working in their governments followed an economic policy that we

now call mercantilism. Mercantilists believed that a country was strongest if it had a lot of gold and silver,

so monarchs did everything they could to get it. There were two methods for filling their treasuries with gold

and silver:

1. Maintain a Favorable Balance of Trade

When thinking about mercantilism, imagine a whole country as one business and the absolute

monarch is the CEO. If the country sells (exports) more than it buys (imports), it will have more money (gold and silver). For absolute monarchs, a “favorable” balance of trade one with a lot

more exports than imports.

2. Establish Colonies, Import their Raw Materials, and Sell Good Manufactured

Absolute monarch saw establishing colonies as a great way to bring in silver and gold through

mining and through trade. When explorers were sent out to Africa, Asia, or the Americas, the

kings and/or queens that sent them hoped they would find new sources of gold and silver.

Monarchs also hoped to find people they could trade with. They wanted to buy raw materials

(fur, crops, lumber) at a low price from the inhabitants they encountered, then bring those

goods back to the mother country where the raw materials would be turned into

manufactured goods like clothing and sold back to the colonies at a higher price.

By following the policy of mercantilism monarchs hoped to get more gold and silver that they could then

use to pay for larger and more modern armies that they could use to conquer more area and continue to secure more silver and gold.

7. If you were an absolute monarch who followed the theory of mercantilism, what steps would you take to

make your kingdom wealthier and more powerful (list at least two)?

8. Why did the theory of mercantilism motivate European monarchs to sponsor explorers?

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Take to the Seas!

Cause #4| Religious Zeal [enthusiasm; passion] One Spanish soldier who helped

conquer the Americas wrote that he

joined the exploration to “serve God

and His Majesty [the King of Spain], to

give light to those who were in

darkness, and to grow rich, as all men

desire to do.” For that soldier and for

many Europeans, spreading Christianity

was an important reason for going too far away lands.

Portugal and Spain were the first

European countries to send ships out on trading expeditions. Both countries

were located on the Iberian Peninsula,

the region of Europe that is closest to North Africa, only separated by the

Strait of Gibraltar. In the 700s, Muslim forces invaded from North Africa and settled in parts of both Portugal

and Spain. For almost 800 years there were battles between Christian (Roman Catholic) forces and Muslims

over the land. The Christian monarchs and Popes declared Crusades to rally forces against Muslims. In the

1200s, the momentum swung in favor of the Christian armies and in 1492 the Muslim government that controlled Granada signed a treaty with Ferdinand and Isabella, the King and Queen of Spain, finally ending

what the Christians called the Reconquista, the reconquering of the Iberian Peninsula.

After 800 years of fighting religious wars, the Portuguese and Spanish turned their devotion to the Catholic

Church to those they encountered through exploration. Explorers were sponsored (funded) by the Catholic

Kings and Queens of their countries. They viewed voyages to the coast of Africa and eventually to the Indian

Ocean and the Americas as opportunities to convert people to their faith. They believed that their religion

was the only true religion and that it would benefit them and the soon-to-be converts if they spread the

lessons of the Bible. Many ships had priests on board for the sailors and to teach the people they encountered about Christianity.

6. Why was “religious zeal” one of the causes for European exploration?

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Task: You and your group, as a skilled mariners, must appeal to the king and queen to fund a journey

across the seas in search of a new route to the rich spice trade of the Indian Ocean. You will use

information from the following documents to develop a 1-3 minute presentation to your king and queens, explaining to them why your voyage is necessary and worthy of funding. In your

presentation, you must:

• Provide two reasons that exploration is necessary for the success of the kingdom

• Your planned route or methods for travel

• One way in which the king and queen will directly benefit from your expedition

• Include a visual aid

Make way for new monarchies in Europe:

Use the chart below to record information gathered while listening to voices of post-feudal Europe:

What happened? Structure of Government Hierarchical

Relationships Role of the Church

William the Conqueror Unifies England:

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Joan of Arc Leads France to Liberation from

England!:

Queen Isabella Ties

Down a Man and a Kingdom!:

THE DEMISE OF THE POLITICAL AUTHORITY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

German States

The Ottomans laid siege to Vienna in 1529, expanding their influence far into the Holy Roman Empire.

Though the Ottomans were never able to expand farther west into Europe after this victory, the Holy

Roman Empire suffered a major territorial loss, from which they would not recover.

Power Shifts from Church to State

Spain France

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REFLECT| Would you consider these early monarchies to be secular authorities? Why or why not?

Welcome to the Renaissance: A rediscovered past and a productive present

• A new secular desire for historical texts emerges as monarchs begin to surpass the power of the

Church and a new middle class emerges as a result of increased trade

• The afterlife was once European Christian’s reason for living, but a new emphasis is placed on life on Earth through Renaissance Humanism:

Which factor do you think was most important in ending feudalism in Europe?

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Beyond the decline of feudalism, what other factors do you think were necessary to plant the seeds for the Renaissance? Are there any commonalities amongst the causes for the decline of feudalism and the birth of the Renaissance? Why or why not?

THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION 1300-1570

Corruption in the Catholic Church

Political corruption

Ethical Corruption

What are you going do about it?

Martin Luther

Henry VIII John Calvin

You and what army?

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The Rise of New Monarchies

The Printing Press

Understanding the conflict:

Martin Luther: Excerpts from a Letter to the Archbishop of Mainz, 1517.

To the Most Reverend Father in Christ and Most Illustrious Lord, Albrecht of Magdeburg and Mainz. The grace of God be with you in all its fullness and power! Spare me, Most Reverend Father in Christ

and Most Illustrious Prince, that I, the dregs of humanity, have so much boldness that I have dared to think of a letter to the height of your Sublimity. The Lord Jesus is my witness that, conscious of my

smallness and baseness, I have long deferred what I am now shameless enough to do, moved

thereto most of all by the duty of fidelity which I acknowledge that I owe to your most Reverend Fatherhood in Christ. Meanwhile, therefore, may your Highness deign to cast an eye upon one speck

of dust, and for the sake of your pontifical clemency to heed my prayer. Papal indulgences for the

building of St Peter’s are circulating under your most distinguished name, and as regards them, I do not bring accusation against the outcries of the preachers, which I have not heard, so much as I

grieve over the wholly false impressions which the people have conceived from them; to wit, the unhappy souls believe that if they have purchased letters of indulgence they are sure of their

salvation; again, that so soon as they cast their contributions into the money-box, souls fly out of purgatory; furthermore, that these graces [i.e., the graces conferred in the indulgences] are so great

that there is no sin too great to be absolved, even, as they say–though the thing is impossible–if one had violated the Mother of God; again, that a man is free, through these indulgences, from all penalty and guilt. ...

Works of piety and love are infinitely better than indulgences, and yet these are not preached with

such ceremony or zeal; nay, for the sake of preaching the indulgences they are kept quiet, though it

is the first and the sole duty of all bishops that the people should learn the Gospel and the love of Christ, for Christ never taught that indulgences should be preached. How great then is the horror, how great the peril of a bishop, if he permits the Gospel to be kept quiet, and nothing but the noise

of indulgences to be spread among his people! ... These faithful offices of my insignificance I beg that your Most Illustrious Grace may deign to accept

in the spirit of a Prince and a Bishop, i.e., with the greatest clemency, as I offer them out of a faithful

heart, altogether devoted to you, Most Reverend Father, since I too am a part of your flock. May the Lord Jesus have your Most Reverend Fatherhood eternally in His keeping. Amen.

From Wittenberg on the Vigil of All Saints, MDXVII.

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Why is Martin Luther upset with Church Administration?

Do you think that Martin Luther is justified in his complaint?

Does Luther offer any solutions to the Church’s problem? If so, what are they, and if not, why not?

Excerpt of Pope Leo X’s Bull, issued on June 15, 1520.

Arise, O Lord, and judge your own cause. Remember your reproaches to those who are filled with

foolishness all through the day. Listen to our prayers, for foxes have arisen seeking to destroy the vineyard whose winepress you alone have trod ... For we can scarcely express, from distress and grief of mind, what has reached our ears for some time

by the report of reliable men and general rumor; alas, we have even seen with our eyes and read the many diverse errors. Some of these have already been condemned by councils and the

constitutions of our predecessors, and expressly contain even the heresy of the Greeks and Bohemians. Other errors are either heretical, false, scandalous, or offensive to pious ears, as seductive

of simple minds, originating with false exponents of the faith who in their proud curiosity yearn for the

world’s glory, and contrary to the Apostle’s teaching, wish to be wiser than they should be. With the advice and consent of these our venerable brothers, with mature deliberation on each and

every one of the above theses, and by the authority of almighty God, the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and our own authority, we condemn, reprobate, and reject completely each of these theses or

errors as either heretical, scandalous, false, offensive to pious ears or seductive of simple minds, and against Catholic truth. By listing them, we decree and declare that all the faithful of both sexes must regard them as condemned, reprobated, and rejected ... We restrain all in the virtue of holy

obedience and under the penalty of an automatic major excommunication ...

Moreover, because the preceding errors and many others are contained in the books or writings of Martin Luther, we likewise condemn, reprobate, and reject completely the books and all the writings

and sermons of the said Martin, whether in Latin or any other language, containing the said errors or any one of them; and we wish them to be regarded as utterly condemned, reprobated, and

rejected. We forbid each and every one of the faithful of either sex, in virtue of holy obedience and under the above penalties to be incurred automatically, to read, assert, preach, praise, print, publish, or defend them. They will incur these penalties if they presume to uphold them in any way, personally

or through another or others, directly or indirectly, tacitly or explicitly, publicly or occultly. Therefore let Martin himself and all those adhering to him, and those who shelter and support him,

through the merciful heart of our God and the sprinkling of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ by which and through whom the redemption of the human race and the upbuilding of holy mother

Church was accomplished, know that from our heart we exhort and beseech that he cease to disturb the peace, unity, and truth of the Church for which the Savior prayed so earnestly to the Father. Let him abstain from his pernicious errors that he may come back to us. If they really will obey,

Sublimity: Awe-inspiring

Pontifical: Having to do

with the pope

Clemency: Mercy

Indulgence: A pardon for

sin sold by the Church

Piety: Sincere devotion to

God and to religious

obligations

Deign: Deem worthy

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and certify to us by legal documents that they have obeyed, they will find in us the affection of a father’s love, the opening of the font of the effects of paternal charity, and opening of the font of

mercy and clemency. We enjoin, however, on Martin that in the meantime he cease from all preaching or the office of

preacher. How does the pope respond to Luther’s beliefs?

What can be said about the “holiness” the actions Pope Leo pledges to take against Luther and his followers? Explain.

THE COUNTER REFORMATION

Council of Trent:

The goals of the Counter-Reformation were 1)

2)

Three important actions taken by the Church during the Counter-Reformation were:

1. Ignatius Loyola and the Jesuits

How did the Loyola and Jesuits strengthen the Church and prevent people from

converting to Protestantism?

2. Inquisition

Bull: Official document

issued by the pope

Heretical: Contrary to

Church teachings

Reprobate: Strongly

disapprove

Excommunication:

Expulsion from the Church

Occultly: In secret

Pernicious: Wicked

Clemency: Mercy

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A Church court was organized by the Roman Catholic Church to try people accused of heresy. It started in 12th-century France to combat those who challenged the Catholic Church. (36:00-40:00)

List examples of the Inquisition’s punishments for

heresy:

How did the Inquisition strengthen the Church and

prevent people from converting to Protestantism?

3. The Index of Forbidden Books

The first "Index of Forbidden Books" was drawn up by order of Pope Paul IV and published in 1559. Any book that challenged the Catholic Church was banned. With the invention of the Gutenberg printing press in Europe in 1440, it became easier to write books, copy them and disseminate them to many

people. The Catholic Church feared that the printing press could give people more power to read anti-Church ideas and to spread their anti-Church beliefs.

Some historians argue that the Index of Forbidden Books is an example of censorship. Using your

background knowledge about censorship, explain whether the Index of Forbidden Books is an example of

censorship.

Recapping the Protestant Reformation:

Catholic Teachings Protestant Alternatives

Pope and Church Councils have political authority over those who practice

Catholicism

According to Luther:

Buying indulgences can help followers get to heaven

According to Luther:

According to Calvin:

Pope and Church Councils are the sole interpreters of the Holy

Bible

According to Luther:

Scientific Revolution (1550-1750)

What Caused the Scientific Revolution in Europe?

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• Printing Press (1440)

• Increased Education

• Protestant Reformation

Using the documents, BRIEFLY describe the achievements of the following individuals:

Nationality Findings Impact

Al-

Khwarizmi

Galileo

and Copernicus

Rene Descartes

Isaac Newton

Before the Revolution:

“A New Theory of Motion” from Jean Buridan’s fourteenth-century “Questions On Aristotle” The question is what moves a thing that has been thrown after it has left the hand of the thrower. Is it moved by air, or if not, by what is it moved? Aristotle has not solved this problem well. He suggests that the thing thrown leaves the place where it was quickly, and would leave emptiness behind. But nature, which does not allow a vacuum, quickly sends air in behind to fill up emptiness. The air that has moved in fast this way, comes up against the end of the thing thrown, and pushes it along further. This is repeated continually. But it seems to me this explanation is without value because of many experiences that contradict it.

For instance, a lance having a pointed back end as sharp as the front would be moved, after having been thrown, just as fast as it would be with a blunt back end. But surely the air following would push a pointed end less well, because the air would be easily divided by the sharpness. Again, a ship pulled along fast in the river even against the current cannot be stopped quickly, but rather continues to move for a long time after the pulling stops. Instead, we can and should say that the mover in moving anything impresses in that thing a certain impetus or motive force, which acts in the direction that the mover was moving the thing. The faster the mover moves the thing, the stronger the impetus he impresses in it. This theory explains why the motion of a heavy body downwards is continually accelerated. At the beginning, only gravity was moving it; but moving impressed in it an impetus, which, added to the gravity, made the movement faster, in turn making the impetus stronger and so on. Also, the Bible does not state that each heavenly body is moved by an intelligence [or angel—the two words were used interchangeably.]. So it could be said that it does not appear necessary to hypothesize intelligences of this kind to account for the movement of planets and fixed stars, as many do. It could instead be said that God, when he created the world, moved each heavenly body as He pleased, and in doing so impressed in them impetuses that moved them without him, or anything else, having to move them any longer. But this I do not say assertively, only tentatively, so that I might seek from the theological masters that they teach me in these matters.

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“Answers to Questions About Nature” from Adelard of Bath’s twelfth- century natural history

I have learnt one thing from my Arab masters, with reason as guide, but you another: you follow the halter of authority. As brute animals are led by a halter, but do not know where or why they are led, so the authority of written words leads not a few of you into danger, since you are held captive by brutish blind faith. These days listeners do not demand arguments based on judgment. They do not understand that reason has been given to each single individual in order to decide between true and false with reason as the prime judge. However, I do not unconditionally state that authority should be rejected. Rather, reason should be sought first, and an authority, if one is at hand, be added later. Authority alone cannot win

credibility for a philosopher. . . . If you wish to hear anything more from me, give and receive reason. . . .

Question: Why is seawater bitter and salty? Answer: The heat of the sun and the planets causes the saltiness. Since the true Ocean flows through the hot central zone of the earth, and the planets move through the same zone, so because of the great heat of the stars [he uses “planet” and “star” interchangeably] the sea itself becomes hot. As a result it becomes salty. This is confirmed by the fact that on seashores near that Ocean seawater dried on the rocks becomes salt without any artifice. To get salt from seas further away, distant from heat, the seawater must be heated again by boiling. But even some fresh water can be turned into salt if it is boiled down.

Question: Are stars animate or inanimate? Answer: Whoever thinks they are inanimate is himself without a soul in my opinion. If this [earthly] region which is churned about with hail, bristling with clouds, and murky with darkness can sustain reason and judgment, how much more is the ethereal plane [the Heavens, which is] purged of all uncleanness, obedient to mind and reason? Again, if of all created things nothing can be better than the mind, should the place [the perfect Heavens] which is most suitable for it be deprived of it? As for stars’ form, it is clear that the form of the stars, which is full and round [the circle being considered the most perfect shape] is of all forms the most appropriate to the soul. . . .

Nothing, then, among creatures is more rational than [stars].

After the Revolution:

“Science Leads to God” from Colin Maclaurin’s 1775 book on Newton’s Discoveries

A strong curiosity has prompted men in all times to study nature; every useful art has some connections with this science...But natural philosophy [science] is subservient to purposes of a higher kind, and is chiefly to be valued as it lays a sure foundation for natural religion and moral philosophy;

by leading us, in a satisfactory manner, to the knowledge of the Author and Governor of the universe...

Acceptance of Proven Truth from Cardinal Bellarmine’s 1616 letter to a defender of Copernicus’s

theory

If there were a real proof that the Sun is in the center of the universe, that the Earth is in the third

heaven [the third from the center of the eight or nine crystalline spheres or “heavens” into which the planets and stars were thought to be fixed] and that the Sun does not go round the Earth but the

Earth round the Sun, then we should have to proceed with great circumspection [care] in explaining passages of Scripture which appear to teach the contrary, and rather admit that we did not understand them than declare an opinion to be false which is proved to be true.

But, as for myself, I shall not believe that there are such proofs until they are shown to me. Nor is it proof that, if the Sun [was] supported at the center of the universe and the Earth in the third heaven,

everything works out the same as if it were the other way around. In case of doubt we ought not to abandon the interpretation of the sacred text [Bible] as given by the holy Fathers.

“Insect Experiments” from Francisco Redi’s 1668 book on the Generation of Insects

25

It is not only the popular belief, but it is also stated authoritatively by both ancients and moderns that the rotting of a dead body, or any sort of decayed matter, can give being to worms just by itself.

Desiring to trace the truth of the case, I made the following experiment. I ordered three snakes to be killed . . . [and] placed them in an open box to decay. Not long

afterwards I saw that they were covered with worms . . . .intent on devouring the meat. . . . When the meat was all consumed, the worms eagerly sought an exit, but I had closed every opening. Nineteen

days later, some of the worms ceased all movements . . . and appeared to shrink and gradually assume a shape like an egg. . . . I placed these . . . . separately in glass vessels, well covered with paper, and at the end of eight days . . . from each came forth a fly. . . .

I continued similar experiments with the raw and cooked flesh of the ox, deer, buffalo, lion, tiger, dog, lamb, kid, rabbit; and sometimes with the flesh of ducks, geese, hens, swallows, etc. Finally I

experimented with different kinds of fish. . . . In every case, flies were hatched. Almost always, I saw that the decaying flesh and the cracks in the boxes where it lay were covered not alone with worms, but with the eggs from which, as I have said, the worms were hatched. . . .

Having considered these things, I began to believe that all worms originated from the droppings of flies, and not from the decay of the meat. I was still more confirmed in this belief by having found

that, before the meat grew wormy, flies had hovered over it, of the same kind that later bred in it. Belief would be vain without the confirmation of experiment.

Therefore, I put a snake, some fish, some eels . . . and a slice of veal in four large, wide-mouthed flasks. Having well closed and sealed them, I then filled the same number of flasks in the same way, only leaving these open. It was not long before the meat and the fish, in these second vessels,

became wormy and flies were seen entering and leaving at will. Outside the closed flasks, on the paper cover, there was now and then a deposit, or a maggot that

eagerly sought some crack through which to enter and feed. But in them I did not see a worm. Meanwhile, the different things inside the flasks had become putrid and stinking. . . .

I thought I had proved that the flesh of dead animals could not generate worms unless the eggs of live ones were deposited therein.

Before After

Has this changed or remained the same

during the period of 1550-1750? Explain.

Role of the Church in

the study of science

How are

questions answered?

26

What is known or

assumed about the

physical world?

Based on the documents and on what you know about modern science, what evidence could you give

for, and against, the claim that some basic features of later scientific thinking were already present in the Middle Ages? What pre-scientific or non-scientific ways of thought carried over into the sixteenth- eighteenth centuries? What is important about these continuities? What would you consider the most significant changes in science during the Scientific Revolution? Why might these changes have occurred?

MARINERS’ MARKET Your Task: As a member of the growing merchant class, markets in Europe have become more and

more competitive for you. Now’s the time to sell your stuff! After reading about your assigned necessity to exploration, do your best to sell it to future Iberian mariners ( ).

In your groups, convince us that your product is the true key to a successful exploration.

Complete your assigned section in the chart below, then prepare a 1-3 minute presentation/ advertisement to share with future explorers about your product. Your presentation must include:

• Description of product (and any definitions included in chart below)

• Significance of product to exploration

• Influence of earlier civilizations on your product (or lack thereof)

This information should be presented through the use of a poster, skit, public announcement, or other creative platform. Keep in mind that you will have 25 minutes to read about your product AND

prepare your presentation, so keep it simple!

Description Significance to Exploration Influence of earlier civilizations

27

Sh

ips

Lateen Sail:

Rudders:

Caravels:

W

ind

s

Monsoons:

Ma

ps

Cartography:

Na

vig

atio

n

Astrolabe:

Magnetic Compass:

Gu

ns

28

29

THE AMERICAS

30

AFROEURASIA

31

PORTUGUESE EXPLORATION

The Journal of the First Voyage of Vasco da Gama to India, 1497-1499 was written by one of the members of da Gama’s crew on the

first trip from Portugal, around the Cape of Good Hope on the southern end of Africa and to India. Though we know the names of da Gama’s crew, historians are not certain which sailor wrote the journal. The document describes the voyage to India and contact with

different peoples on the coasts of Africa and India. It discusses diseases, plants and animals, hostages, titles and professions, weapons of war, food, precious stones, navigational challenges, and much else. The book also includes a description of some of the kingdoms in Asia, a list of spices and other merchandise and their prices, and a vocabulary of the Calicut language. Vasco da Gama’s voyage

around the Cape of Good Hope to India was an event of enormous historical significance. Apart from being one of the great acts of European seamanship, it laid the basis for the Portuguese Empire, which lasted for centuries, and it established new contacts between

Europe and the civilizations of Asia, marking an early milestone in the process that later came to be called “globalization.”

Pre-Reading Questions

1a. Who wrote or recorded this

document?

1b. What is the perspective of the

speaker?

1c. Based on the speaker’s perspective, what predictions can

you make about what you might

read in this document below?

1d. When was this document written

or recorded?

1e. Where was it written or recorded?

1f. Why was this document written?

1g. Is this a reliable account? Why or

why not? What should the reader keep in mind while reading it?

32

EXCERPT FROM JOURNAL OF THE FIRST VOYAGE OF VASCO DA GAMA TO INDIA, 1497−1499

[Arrival in Calicut.] That night [May 20] we anchored two leagues [about seven miles] from the city of

Calicut[...] [and s

On the following day [May 21] these same boats came again alongside, when the captain-major [Vasco da

Gama] sent one of the convicts [men who were convicted of a crime in Portugal but were allowed to serve on da Gama’s crew] to Calicut, and those with whom he went took him to two Moors from Tunis [likely Muslim

exiles from Spain], who could speak Castilian and Genoese. The first greeting that he received was in these

words: “May the Devil take thee! What brought you hither?” They asked what he sought so far away from home, and he told them that we came in search of Christians and of spices.

...After this conversation they took him [da Gama] to their lodgings and gave him wheaten bread and honey.

When he had eaten he returned to the ships, accompanied by one of the Moors, who was, no sooner on

board, than he said these words: “A lucky venture, a lucky venture! Plenty of rubies, plenty of emeralds! You owe great thanks to God, for having brought you to a country holding such riches!” We were greatly

astonished to hear his talk, for we never expected to hear our language spoken so far away from Portugal. …

[Presents for the King.]On Tuesday [May 29] the captain got ready the following things to be sent to the king

[that ruled Calicut]: ...our scarlet hoods, six hats, four strings of coral, a case containing six wash-hand basins, a case of sugar, two casks of oil, and two of honey. And as it is the custom not to send anything to the king

without the knowledge of the Moor, his factor, and of the bale [governor], the captain informed them of his intention. They came, and when they saw the present they laughed at it, saying that it was not a thing to offer

to a king, that the poorest merchant from Mecca, or any other part of India, gave more, and that if he

wanted to make a present it should be in gold, as the king would not accept such things. When the captain heard this he grew sad, and said that he had brought no gold, that, moreover, he was no merchant, but an

ambassador; that he gave of that which he had, which was his own [private gift] and not the king’s; that if the

King of Portugal ordered him to return he would intrust him with far richer presents...When the captain saw that they were determined not to forward his present, he said, that as they would not allow him to send his present

to the palace he would go to speak to the king, and would then return to the ships. They approved of this...

[May 30.] On Wednesday morning the Moors returned, and took the captain to the palace, and us others

with him. The palace was crowded with armed men. Our captain was kept waiting with his conductors for fully four long hours, outside a door, which was only opened when the king sent word to admit him...The king then

said that he had told him that he came from a very rich kingdom, and yet had brought him nothing...To this

the captain rejoined that he had brought nothing, because the object of his voyage was merely to make discoveries, but that when other ships came he would then see what they brought him...

The king then asked what it was he had come to discover: stones or men? If he came to discover men, as he

said, why had he brought nothing? ... The king then asked what kind of merchandise was to be found in his country. The captain said there was much corn, cloth, iron, bronze, and many other things. The king asked

whether he had any merchandise with him. The captain replied that he had a little of each sort, as samples,

and that if permitted to return to the ships he would order it to be landed, and that meantime four or five men would remain at the lodgings assigned them. The king said no! He might take all his people with him, securely

moor his ships, land his merchandise, and sell it to the best advantage. Having taken leave of the king the

captain returned to his lodgings, and we with him. No attempt was made to depart that night.

1. Based on this journal excerpt, who

was part of da Gama’s crew?

2. According to this document, why did da Gama and his crew come to

Calicut, India?

3. Why did “the Moor” describe the Portuguese voyage as “a lucky

venture?”

4. What gifts did da Gama want to give the king?

5. How did “the Moor, his factor, and

the bale” react to the gifts? Why did they react in that way?

6. According to this account, what questions did the king ask da Gama?

7. What do these questions suggest

about the king’s motivations for meeting with the Portuguese?

33

PORTUGUESE EXPLORATION: A CASE STUDY

An Arab View of the Portuguese: Denouncing the Enemy

Religious polarization between Islam and Christianity grew in Southeast Asia after the 1540s. Conversion then became a major goal of the Portuguese there, and the Spanish Inquisition was

brought to the Islamic world. In the 1560s, the Catholic Reformation, a response to the Protestant Reformation, further reinforced the Christian emphasis. On the other side, activist Muslim preachers

from Southwest Asia became regular visitors in the region, and strict Sunni Islam became the state religion of many countries.

They tyrannized and corrupted the Muslims and committed all kinds of ignoble and infamous acts.

Their acts of violence were countless. ... They hindered the Muslims in their trade. ... They robbed them, burnt their cities and mosques, seized their ships and dishonored the Sacred Book [Qur’an] ... and incited the Muslims [to give up their religion]. ... They tortured the Muslims with fire, sold some and

enslaved others, and against others, practiced deeds of cruelty which indicated a lack of all humanitarian sentiment.

The Conquest of Melaka: A Malay (outside) View

Malacca’s fall to Portuguese attack was described by an anonymous Malay author, probably a

noble courtier in the mid-16th century. The author spells the name of the city “Malaka.”

Now the city of Malaka at that time [about 1500] flourished exceedingly and many foreigners resorted thither ... in the city alone there were a hundred and ninety thousand people [modern

scholars’ estimate is about 50,000, the same as the Portuguese capital of Lisbon]. After a time there came a ship of the Franks from Goa (in Songhai) trading to Malaka; and ... the

people of Malaka ... came crowding to see what the Franks looked like. And they were all astonished and said: “These are white Bengalis!” [Bengal is on the west coast of India]. Around each Frank there

would be a crowd of Malays. [When the Frankish] commander went back to Goa, ... he described to the [Portuguese] Viceroy the greatness of the city of Malaka, the prosperity of the port, and the number of the inhabitants. ... The

Viceroy was seized with desire to possess it, and he ordered a fleet to be made ready consisting of seven carracks, ten long galleys and thirteen foists [like galleys but smaller]. When the fleet was

ready, he ordered it to attack Malaka ... with cannon. And the people of Malaka were bewildered and filled with fear at the sound of the cannon, and they said: “What sound is this like thunder?” ... Presently the cannon balls began to arrive and struck the people of Malaka, so that some had their

heads shot away, some their arms, and some their legs. ... The next day the Franks landed two thousand men armed with matchlocks apart from a vast horde of sailors and sepoys [Indian auxiliary

troops]; and the men of Malaka ... went out to repel them. [The Viceroy] proceeded to Pertugal [Portugal] and presenting himself before the Rajah of Pertugal

asked for an armada. The Rajah of Pertugal gave him [nine ships. He then returned to Goa and fitted out thirty more vessels]. With this fleet he sailed for Malaka. ... And the Franks engaged the men of Malaka in battle, and they fired their cannon from their ships so that the cannon balls came like rain

... and the noise of their matchlocks was like that of ground-nuts popping in the frying-pan. ... When day dawned, the Franks landed and attacked. ... So vehement was their onslaught that the Malaka

line was broken, leaving the king on his elephant isolated. ... And Malaka fell.

Were the advanced military technologies of the Portuguese the decisive element in their domination

of native peoples in Asia? Why or why not?

The Conquest of Melaka: A Portuguese View

34

The Portuguese viceroy (leader) of India, Alfonso de Albuquerque was reported to have spoken to the crews of his ships before his second and successful attack on Malacca as follows.

Although there be many reasons ... in favor of our taking this city and building a fortress therein to

maintain possession of it, two only will I mention. The first is the great service which we shall perform to Our Lord in casting the Moors out of this country

and quenching the fire of this sect of Mafamede so that it may never burst out again hereafter; [and I hope doing so] will result in the Moors resigning India altogether to our rule. ... Our Lord for his service thought right to lead us hither, for when Malacca is taken the places on the Straits [through which the

Muslim merchants carried spices to India and on to the Mediterranean] must be shut up, and they will never more be able to introduce their spiceries into those places.

For after we were in possession of the pepper of Malabar [south-west India], never more did any reach Cairo [and from there, western Europe] except that which the Moors carried thither from

[Malacca]. And [their] forty or fifty ships, which sail hence every year laden with all sorts of spiceries bound for [north Africa], cannot be stopped [by us] without great expense and large fleets. ... If we take this trade of Malacca out of their hands, Cairo and Mecca are entirely ruined, and to Venice no

spiceries will be conveyed except that which her merchants go and buy in Portugal.

What rationalizations do the Portuguese give for their actions in the Indian Ocean?

With Ten Ships, we could take the whole of China

Tome Pires was apothecary to a prince of Portugal and royal agent for the supply of drugs sent to

India yearly. He sailed to India in 1511 and, after nearly a year there, to Malacca where he was accountant of the business office. After some travel in Indonesia as an official, he went with the fleet of seven ships sent by the King of Portugal in 1517 “to discover China.” He was to be the first

European ambassador there. Having landed in Canton, he waited more than two years in vain to present his credentials to the emperor.

He wrote the following account of the established sea-borne trade east of the Mediterranean in 1512-15, soon after the Portuguese began building an empire from East Africa to the Spice Islands,

trying to monopolize maritime trade throughout that area.

According to what the nations here in the East say ... China [is great in] riches, pomp, and state in both the land and people, and other tales which it would be easier to believe as true of our Portugal than of China.

The people of China are white, as white as we are. ... It certainly seems that China is an important, good, and very wealthy country, and the [Portuguese] Governor of Malacca would not need as

much force as they say in order to bring it under our rule, because the people are weak and easy to overcome. And the principal people who have been there affirm that with ten ships the Governor of India who took Malacca could take the whole of China along the sea-coast.

Based on these documents and your notes, how did Portugal shift from finding sea routes to

controlling them, and to building a maritime empire in Asia?

35

The Effects of the Portuguese on Indian Ocean Trade

[5:36] Once the Portuguese breached [entered] the Indian Ocean, they didn’t create, like, huge colonies, because there were already powerful empires in the region...Instead, they were able to capture & control a number of coastal cities, creating what historians call a “trading post empire.” They could do this thanks to their well-armed ships, which captured cities by firing cannons into city walls like IRL Angry Birds. But since the Portuguese didn’t have enough people or boats to run the Indian Ocean trade, they had to rely on extortion.

[6:03] So, Portuguese merchant ships would capture other ships and force them to purchase a permit to trade called a cartaz. And without a cartaz, a merchant couldn’t trade in any of the towns that Portugal controlled. To merchants, who’d plied [worked] the Indian Ocean for years in relative freedom, the Portuguese were just glorified pirates, extracting value from trade without adding to its efficiency or volume. So, the cartaz strategy sort of worked for a while, but the Portuguese never really took control of Indian Ocean trade. They were successful enough that their neighbors Spain, became interested in their own route to the Indies, and that brings us to Columbus.

1. Why did the Portuguese not create colonies in the Indian Ocean

region?

2. Why were the Portuguese able to conquer and control coastal

cities?

3. What was the “cartaz strategy?”

4. What effect did the Portuguese have on Indian Ocean Trade?

The Dutch and English follow Portugal into the Indian Ocean

The Portuguese found a direct route to the Indian Ocean Trade Complex before any other European country, but it did not take long for

other kings and queens to finance their own trading expeditions. The Dutch and English were the next countries to round the tip of Africa in

search of wealth. Each of these countries financed and organized their expeditions through joint-stock companies.

Why would it have been risky for one person to finance [pay for] the establishment of a whole colony?

In your own words, explain what a joint-stock company is.

What were the advantages of financing a colony through a joint-stock company over a one individual funding the whole things?

36

Primary Source Investigation

Directions: Read through the brief biography of Felipe Guáman Poma Ayala and examine his images below, then write down what you see in the images (just

your observations) and what you infer about the Inca Empire based on each drawing.

About the Author: Guáman Poma was an Incan man who was born in 1535, just after the Spanish conquered the Incan empire. He wrote a 1,189 page book entitled El Primer Nueva

Corónica y Buen Gobierno, or “The First New Chronicle and Good Government.” The book was intended for King Philip II of Spain to explain to him the history of Andean civilization

and to show the king how the Spanish colonists had damaged the Inca way of life. In addition to text, Guáman Poma illustrated the book with 398 original drawings depicting Inca life

and history, and Spanish cruelty. The images below come from El Primer Nueva Corónica y Buen Gobierno. Source: Adapted from “Felipe Guáman Poma de Ayala,” Encyclopaedia Britannica.

What do you see? What do you see? What do you see?

Based on this image, what can you infer about the

Inca Empire?

Based on this image, what can you infer about the Inca

Empire?

Based on this image, what can you infer about the Inca

Empire?

37

Adapting to the Environment

Although the rugged Andes Mountains create extreme weather conditions and make transportation difficult, they

have hidden advantages that Andean people learned to exploit. The difference in altitude between the peaks

[created] wide variations in temperature and rainfall at different altitudes. The varying topography of the

mountains creates a variety of ecological niches, which are zones stacked one on top of another where different

types of animals and plants can survive. So, instead of having to travel hundreds of miles to arrive in a different

climate, Andean people can walk as little as 60 miles to go from a tropical forest in the lowlands to the frozen

tundra of the highlands….Plants with different planting and harvesting times can be grown at different altitudes.

[Families farmed v]arious plots of land [at each altitude that] might be two or three days apart by foot.

This system, called a “vertical economy,” had many advantages in the harsh Andean climate. First, it gives a

community access to a wide variety of foods and other products. Second, it protects them against the impact of

harsh and unpredictable weather conditions—if frost or drought destroys the crop at one elevation, the

community can fall back on the harvest in another ecological niche. Andean farmers also plant several

(sometimes dozens) of varieties of one crop like potatoes in a single field so that at least some plants will survive

the season’s unpredictable temperature and rainfall. Source: Adapted from Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas, Carol P. Merriman. Dept. of Public Education

Peabody Museum of Natural History, Yale University.

Based on the image and text above, identify

two ways the Inca adapted to their

environment to meet their needs.

38

Watch a clip of the BBC documentary, “The Inca: Masters of the Clouds” (18:30-23:30) then examine

the graphic below and answer the question at the bottom of this box.

As you watch the video clip take notes on how the Inca modified their environment to meet their needs in the

column to the right.

Video Notes How the Inca modified their environment to

meet their needs?

Terrace Farming

In your own words, describe what terrace farming is and explain how using terrace farming benefited the Inca.

39

How did the Inca gain, consolidate, and maintain power in their empire?

Directions: Using information from Machu Picchu: Unveiling the Mystery of the Incas from the Peabody

Museum of Natural History at Yale University, fill the chart below with information that identify the topics

listed and answers this question regarding the topics:

Inca Religion (Notes)

Inca Hierarchy

Administering an Empire

40

Mita System

Quipu

Conquest in the Inca Empire (notes)

41

THE AZTEC EMPIRE

Directions: Watch The Aztecs: Engineering an

Empire (1:25- 3:34) and answer the question

below.

What does the story of the Aztec’s treatment of

the tribal princess tell you about Aztec culture?

What are you wondering about?

The Aztecs built their civilization on islands in Lake Texcoco.

Their capital was called Tenochtitlán.

+

What are the advantages of building your

civilization on an island in a lake?

-

What are the disadvantages of building your

civilization on an island in a lake?

42

Building Tenochtitlán

Directions: Watch The Aztecs: Engineering an Empire (3:10-10:27) and answer the questions below:

What challenges did the Aztecs face building their city

Tenochtitlan on the islands in Lake Texcoco?

How did the Aztecs adapt to the difficulties of building a city in Lake Texcoco?

What did they build? How did they build those structures?

How did the Aztecs move building

materials?

Chinampas

Directions: After watching from 19:25 to 21:21 in The Aztecs: Engineering an Empire, examining the document below on the left, and reading the document

below on the right, answer the questions at the end of this table.

… Chinampas added both living and agricultural space to the island. Houses could be built on chinampas after they

were firmly in place, and the plots were used to grow a great variety of products, from maize and beans to tomatoes

and flowers. The Mexica [Aztec] built chinampas all around Tenochtitlan, like their neighbors in the freshwater

lakes to the south. They were, however, constantly faced with the danger of flooding, which brought salty water

across the chinampas and ruined the land and crops. Lake Texcoco accumulated minerals from the river water

running into it, which caused the water to be brackish [mix of fresh and salt water]. In the mid-15th century, this

problem was solved; a dike was built, separating the western section of the lake where Tenochtitlan was located and

protecting the city from salty water and some flooding.…

1. What challenges did the Aztecs’ environment pose for farmers?

2. What were chinampas?

3. How did the Aztecs build them?

4. How did the Aztec benefit from the chinampas?

43

How did the Aztecs gain, consolidate, and maintain power in their empire?

TASK: Create a comic strip illustrating the Aztec’s rise to power in Mesoamerica in the 15th century.

Directions: Read through each of the following documents, answer the questions that accompany them, and prepare to answer the question: How did the

Aztecs gain, consolidate, and maintain power in their empire?

Document 1: Tenochtitlan, the Cactus Rock

Creating Allies With Neighboring Cities

In 1440 the fifth chief of the Aztecs came to rule Tenochtitlan. The

Mexica now dominated the whole of the Valley of Mexico, and had

allied themselves with the neighboring cities of Texcoco (Tesh-koh-

koh) and Tlacopan (Tlah-koh-pahn).

How did creating allies with neighboring cities help the Aztecs gain, consolidate,

and/or maintain power?

Marrying Pure Toltec Brides

Their chiefs had sought out princesses of pure Toltec descent as

their brides, so that they could inherit the divine right to rule, which

belonged to the descendants of Quetzalcoatl. The new ruler of the

Aztecs was given the title of Huey Tlatcani (Ooeh-tlah-toh-ah-ni) or

Great Speaker for the several tribes over whom he had dominion.

His name was Moctecuzoma Ilhuicamina (Mock-teh-Koo-zoh-mah

Eel-weeh-kah-mee-nah) , Noble Strong Arm, He Who Aims at the

Sky.

How did marrying pure Toltec brides help the Aztecs gain, consolidate, and/or

maintain power?

The Military

During his reign the Aztec armies continued their conquests and

were the first to reach the shores of the Mexican Gulf.

How did conquering land help the Aztecs gain, consolidate, and/or maintain power?

Rebuilding the Temple and Captive Sacrifices

In 1484 the Great Speaker Tizoc (Tee-zohk), He who offers his own

Blood to the Gods, laid the foundations for the rebuilding of the

ancient temple to Huitzilopochtli. He took prisoners and sacrificed

some to the god. [...] Tizoc died before the temple was completed.

[...] When the great temple was dedicated, he took 20,000 captives

and had them all sacrificed in four days by eight teams of priests.

Source: Silverio A. Barroqueiro, “The Aztecs: A Pre-Columbian

History” Yale-New Haven Teachers Institute.

How did rebuilding the temple and sacrificing captives help the Aztecs gain,

consolidate, and/or maintain power?

44

Document 2: Aztec Government Structure

Source: Based on information found on http://www.aztec-history.com/ancient-aztec-government.html

How did the Aztec government structure solidify the power of the empire?

45

Document 3: The Aztec Tax Structure According to Michael E. Smith, archaeologist at

Arizona State University

In an article entitled, “The Aztecs Paid Taxes, Not Tribute,” archaeologist, Michael E.

Smith writes:

States interact with their subjects in two ways: they exploit people and they provide

services. This has been true from the earliest states in Mesopotamia to the nation-

states of today. Taxation is one of the primary means by which states exploit their citizens or subjects, and taxes provide the revenue for the services offered by states.

According to Smith, inhabitants and the states they lived in paid regular taxes to the Triple

Alliance (Tenochtitlan, Texcoco, and Tlacopan) that made up the Aztec empire. They

made regular payments on specified dates according to the Aztec calendar. Some were

paid once a year, others twice, and others four times per year. The taxes were collected by

professional tax collectors and recorded in tax rolls.

The taxes were usually paid in cacao beans and cotton mantas (woven cloth), that the

Aztecs used for money. Other goods supplemented the cacao beans and mantas based on

the products produced in the region.

Source: Michael E. Smith, “The Aztecs Paid Taxes, Not Tribute,” from Mexicon, v. 35, 2014.

According to Michael E. Smith, what are the two purposes of taxes?

How were taxes paid in the Aztec Empire?

This page from the Codex Mendoza depicts what cities in the Aztec

empire owed the government in taxes. The towns are listed on the left

and the mantas and other goods they owe in taxes are drawn on the right.

46

The type of tax that a state, city, or town paid the Aztecs depended on their relationship with the government at shown in the chart below.

Aztec City States: Areas conquered and governed by the Aztecs

• Land Tax: Calpolli paid taxes in the form of cotton mantas, cacao beans, firework, and foodstuffs based on the amount of land they farmed. Farmers kept most of

their crop but had to send some of it to the king

• Rotational Labor: Calpolli members were required to work for the king or nobles. Women spun and wove textiles while men often supplied firewood, swept, and

carried water.

• Public Works Corvée: Calpolli gave the labor of their members up to assist with building projects directed by the Aztec government like building aqueducts or temples.

• Military Corvée: All young males had to serve in the military.

• Market Tax: Government officials waited in guard huts at the market and took a portion of the goods as tax for being allowed to sell goods in the market.

Conquest-States: States that were conquered by the Aztecs

• Allowed to be rule themselves as they had before in exchange for military loyalty and taxes

Unconquered States: States that were unconquered by the Aztecs

• received military support from the Aztecs in return for gifts

Source: Michael E. Smith, “The Aztecs Paid Taxes, Not Tribute,” from Mexicon, v. 35, 2014. http://www.academia.edu/6578625/_The_Aztecs_Paid_Taxes_Not_Tribute_2014

What is the difference between being an Aztec city-state and a conquered state?

How did their tax policy help the Aztecs gain, consolidate, and/or maintain power?

47

Document 4: Aztec Sun Sacrifices

[The Aztecs believed that] all the time the sun was thirsting from the great internal heat. So

he had to be nourished and cooled by offerings of the red cactus-fruit (which meant human

hearts and blood). Only a very few had to be sacrificed to keep the sun moving in the sky,

but the sacrifice must never be neglected or the human race would die from the fire caused

by a motionless sun.

Source: Silverio A. Barroqueiro, “The Aztecs: A Pre-Columbian History” Yale-New Haven

Teachers Institute. http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1999/2/99.02.01.x.html

According to this excerpt, why did the Aztecs make sacrifices

to the sun?

Source: http://www.wdl.org/en/item/6758/#q=aztec

The Custom of Sacrificing the Heart and Offering It to the Gods The Tovar Codex, attributed to the 16th-century Mexican Jesuit Juan de

Tovar, contains detailed information about the rites and ceremonies of

the Aztecs (also known as Mexica). The codex is illustrated with 51 full-

page paintings in watercolor.[...] This illustration, from the second

section, depicts a human sacrifice. An anonymous priest holding a spear

presides over the sacrifice of a man whose heart is removed by an

assistant. In the background, another assistant on the steps of a temple or

pyramid holds an incense burner. The offering of the victim's heart to the

gods satisfied the Aztec belief that the sun would rise again nourished by

the hearts of men. Thexochiyaoyotl (Flower Wars) were conducted to

capture prisoners for the sacrificial offerings needed for the gods.

According to the image and this excerpt, what can you infer about

how sacrifices helped the Aztecs to gain, consolidate and/or

maintain power?

48

Conquest in the Americas: A Case Study

Directions: Read the descriptions of the conquests of the Aztecs

and Inca below and answer the questions that follow.

Conquest of the Aztecs

In 1519, Hernan Cortes, a conquistador and the Chief Magistrate of Santiago, Cuba, a land already settled by the Spanish, landed on the coast of Mexico with 450 soldiers to

lead an expedition in hopes of riches. There were previous reports of a great empire and

gold in the area. On his way to the Aztec capital city of Tenochtitlan, Cortes fought and defeated other Mexican tribes, who then became the Spaniards’ allies. Many of the tribes

that Cortes came in contact with were ruled by the Aztecs and resented the power they

had over them. Those tribes saw working with the Spanish as an opportunity to defeat the

Aztecs and to gain power for themselves.

On November 8, 1519, Cortes, his men, and his native Mexican allies were welcomed into

Tenochtitlan by the Aztec ruler Moctezuma. Cortes took Moctezuma captive and held him prisoner in one of the Aztec palaces. Cortes demanded gold and other valuables as

ransom. The Aztecs denied the Spanish any supplies, and finding no use for him, the

Spanish killed Montezuma. After a difficult and bloody escape from Tenochtitlan, Cortes and his men regrouped in the area around the Aztec capital. Cortes visited tribes that

were conquered and controlled by the Aztecs to try and win allies. He was willing to promise them anything so he could take over Tenochtitlan.

Because of the harsh rule of the Aztecs, the Spanish gained the support of a large number of tribes.

During this time, the Aztecs also regrouped. They repaired their city from the damage the Spanish caused, but they also suffered from a smallpox

epidemic brought to the city by the Spanish that killed many in the capital. Cortes returned to Tenochtitlan to conquer it with new supplies from the Spanish in Cuba and an expanded group of warriors from allied tribes.

Cortes started his assault on the Aztec capital by cutting off the city’s freshwater supply and preventing any food from getting into the city in an

attempt to starve the inhabitants. Then, when it came time to attack, he sent troops on boats assembled on Lake Texcoco in which Tenochtitlan was

centered, and invaded the city through its causeways. It took eighty days for the Spanish to defeat the Aztecs. Two-hundred and forty thousand Aztecs are estimated to have died, and only 900 of Cortes’s troops survived. Though they did not benefit from the victory in the long run, the Spanish

success was largely due to the efforts of Cortes’ Indian allies who might have numbered as many as 200,000.

In search of wealth (GOLD), power (GLORY), and indigenous

people to convert to Christianity (GOD), companies of Spanish

conquistadors ventured into the American continent. The two

most well known expeditions, were those that led to the conquest of powerful empires that already existed in the Americas: the

Aztecs and Inca. The first, led by a conquistador named Hernando Cortes, defeated the Aztecs (1518-1520). The second

was led by Francisco Pizarro in 1532 during which he and his

fellow conquistadors conquered the Inca.

49

Conquest of the Inca

In 1532, after reports of gold, silver, and emeralds in Ecuador, Francisco Pizarro, Hernando de Soto, and 180 other

Spanish conquistadors mounted an expedition into South America hoping to find wealth and glory.

At one point in their journey, De Soto was sent to explore new lands and returned to Pizarro with men that were sent

by the Inca emperor Atahualpa to invite Pizarro and his men to meet with him. At the time, the Inca empire was divided and engaged in a civil war. Pizarro formed alliances with tribes who opposed the Inca. In addition, the entire

Inca empire was suffering from an epidemic of smallpox which decimated the population.

After two months of marching, Pizarro and his troops came to one of the Inca king’s retreats near Cajamarca to meet with him. De Soto met with the king but Atahualpa told the Spaniard to leave the Inca empire saying he would “be no

man’s tributary.” In response, Pizarro organized his troops, attacked Atahualpa's army and captured him in what

became known as the Battle of Cajamarca. Thousands of Inca died in the battle, but none of the Spanish soldiers did. Pizarro executed Atahualpa’s 12-man honor guard and held the king for ransom. Though the Inca filled one room with

gold and two with silver, Pizarro executed Atahualpa on August 29, 1533. A year later, Pizarro invaded Cuzco, the

capital of the Inca empire, with indigenous troops and with it sealed the conquest of the Inca.

REFLECT

3. Why do you think the Spanish were able to defeat the Aztecs and Inca?

Conquest of

the Aztecs

Conquest of

the Incas

50

Why were the Spanish able to conquer the Aztecs and Inca despite being outnumbered and in a foreign land? Despite

being outnumbered in unfamiliar areas, the Spanish troops led by Cortes in Mexico and Pizarro in Peru were able to easily

defeated the Aztecs and Inca. Why?

One scholar named Jared Diamond wrote a book called Guns, Germs, and Steel in which he argues that the reason for European

domination did not have to do with intelligence or race, but geography. He claims that the European access to large domesticated animals and the diseases they produced, the materials needed to make advanced weapons, and the collective knowledge of other societies in Europe, Asia, and Africa, made it possible for the Spanish to defeat the isolated native Americans.

Directions: As you watch excerpts of the video “Guns, Germs, and Steel,” explain each of the factors that Diamond believes led to the

conquest of the Americas in the spaces below.

Guns Steel Collective Learning Horses Germs

Why did the Spanish

have guns, but the

Inca did not?

What effect did

arquebuses on have

the Inca?

Why did Europeans have the

technology to create

effective swords, but the Inca

did not?

How did collections of books

like the one featured in the

video help the Spanish defeat

the Inca?

What innovations helped the

creation and spread of books in

Eurasia?

Why didn’t the Inca have writing

even though the Aztecs did?

Why were the Spanish

horses such an effective

weapon against the

Inca?

Why were Europeans

exposed to smallpox before

the 1600s, but the Inca were

not?

Why was smallpox so

devastating for the Native

Americans but not for the

Europeans?

What impact did smallpox

have on the Spanish

conquest of the Aztecs and

Inca?

51

Effects of Exploration in the Americas

“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”: After watching the clip, what do you

think is meant by this quote?

Directions: Utilizing the documents below, analyze the effects of Spanish Colonialism in the

Americas. Take left and right side notes for the documents below to group documents and

analyze authors’ points of view.

Document 1: Get them to become civilized

The following is an excerpt from the Spanish King and Queen’s 1501 “Instructions for the

government of the Indians.” This is one of a series of royal decrees to governors and other royal officials in the first decade or so of Spain’s claim to dominion over new-found territories in the

Americas. From the beginning, it was common for Spaniards to co-habit with Indian women,

though without marrying them. This resulted in the women becoming “culture-brokers,” mediating the exchange of ideas and information in both directions. By the mid-sixteenth

century, there were twenty-two bishoprics, a printing press, and two universities in Spanish

America.

For the salvation of the souls of the Indians ... it is necessary [for them] to be divided into towns in

which they may live together and not live separated one from another in the forests ... and in each of the towns. ... There is to be a church and a chaplain entrusted with indoctrinating and

teaching them Our Holy Catholic Faith.

Therefore ... We order that Our Governor in the Indies arrange immediately ... for towns to be established where the Indians can live together in the same manner as the people who live in

these Kingdoms of Ours ... [also not to allow] the Christians living in the Indies to take the wives or

sons or daughters of the Indians ... [or] to make [Indians] work for them as they have done until now, unless the Indians agree to do this of their own free will, being paid a just wage. ... [And]

not to allow the Indians to sell or exchange their possessions ... with the Christians for beads or other such things of little value, as has happened before ... and in everything the Indians are to

be treated well and looked after, so that they can ... build their houses, cultivate their fields and

raise cattle for their subsistence…

Also ... order the Indians to cease doing the things they have customarily done, such as bathing

themselves, painting their bodies, and purging themselves.

Also, We order Our Governor ... to induce some Christians to marry Indian women, and Christian women with Indian men, so that ... the Indians will be instructed in the things of Our Holy Catholic

Faith ... so that they become civilized men and women.

Source: Qtd. in John H. Parry and Robert G. Keith, New Iberian World: A Documentary History of the Discovery and Settlement of Latin America to the Early 17th Century, Vol. 2: The Caribbean (New York: Times Books, 1984), 260-2.

Document 2: Spreading Catholicism

Excerpt from Pope Alexander VI, Papal Bull Inter Caetera, May 4, 1493

Wherefore, as becomes Catholic kings and princes, after earnest consideration of all matters,

especially of the rise and spread of the Catholic faith, as was the fashion of you ancestors, kings

of renowned memory, you have purposed with the favor of divine clemency to bring under your sway the said mainlands and islands with their residents and inhabitants and to bring them to the

Catholic faith.

Excerpt from Letter from Christopher Columbus to Ferdinand and Isabella

52

In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. ... In consequence of the information which I had given your Highnesses respecting the countries of India and of a Prince, called Great Can, which in our

language signifies King of Kings, how, at many times he and his predecessors had sent to Rome

soliciting instructors who might teach him our holy faith, and the holy Father had never granted his request, whereby great numbers of people were lost, believing in idolatry and doctrines of

perdition. Your Highnesses, as Catholic Christians, and princes who love and promote the holy

Christian faith, and are enemies of the doctrine of Mahomet, and of all idolatry and heresy, determined to send me, Christopher Columbus, to the above-mentioned countries of India, to

see the said princes, people, and territories, and to learn their disposition and the proper method

of converting them to our holy faith; and furthermore directed that I should not proceed by land to the East, as is customary, but by a Westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no

certain evidence that any one has gone.

Document 3:As free men and not as slaves

The following is from a 1503 Decree by Queen Isabella on Indian Labor. From the early years of the Spanish West Indian settlement, it was accepted practice soon enshrined in law to allocate

a group of Indians as tributary laborers to an individual Spaniard. Slaves were not subject to this

system, since they were personal property. As the local pop-ulation shrank, Indians were brought in from other islands expressly to do forced labor for the Spanish. These were classed as unfree

dependents, though not legally slaves.

Laws that made enslaving Indians illegal were passed several times in the next half-century. They were mostly ignored. Large numbers of Indians were taken in various parts of the Americas,

enslaved, and carried elsewhere, including to Spain.

In the 1520s, gold mines became exhausted, and the Indian population continued to shrink due to infectious diseases, ill-treatment, and repeated enforced moves to locations with different

climates and diets. The large-scale importation of African slaves began, and planting sugar

replaced digging for gold as the chief economic activity. Mining revived when in the 1540s the

silver mountain of Potosí and other enormous sources of silver were discovered.

I have now been informed that because of the excessive liberty allowed [the Indians of Hispaniola, today’s Dominican Republic and Haiti,] they run away from the Christians and ...

refuse to work, preferring to live as vagrants, and even less can they be found to be taught and

persuaded to convert to Our Holy Catholic Faith; and because of this, the Christians who live ...

[there] can find no one to work [for them].

[Therefore] I order you, Our Governor ... to compel the Indians to have dealings with the

Christian settlers ... to work on their buildings, to mine and collect gold and other metals, and to work on their farms ... ordering each cacique [chief] ... to come, with the number of Indians you

tell him, to the person or persons you name, so that they can do the work he assigns them, being

paid the wages you set, which they are to do and carry out as the free men they are and not as slaves; and you are to make sure that the said Indians are well-treated, and that those among

them that are Christian are better treated than the others.

Source: Qtd. in John. H. Parry and Robert G. Keith, New Iberian World: A Documentary History of the Discovery and Settlement of Latin America to the Early 17th Century, Vol. 2: The Caribbean (New York: Times Books, 1984), 263.

Document 4: Spanish warrant for legal aggression, and for blaming its victims

When the conquistadors encountered a Native American community they hoped to convert, a priest would read a requerimiento to them in Latin or Spanish, languages Indians did not

53

understand. Sometimes the declaration was read even when no Indians were present. The requerimiento was the only warning the natives had to convert or otherwise suffer. The following

is a Requerimiento written by the jurist Palacios Rubio of the Council of Castille in 1510.

And also they (other native Americans) received and obeyed the priests whom their Highnesses

sent to preach to them and to teach them our Holy Faith; and all these, of their own free will,

without any reward or condition, have become Christians, and are so, and their Highnesses have joyfully and benignantly received them, and also have commanded them to be treated

as their subjects and vassals; and you too are held and obliged to do the same. Wherefore, as

best we can, we ask and require you that you consider what we have said to you, and that you take the time that shall be necessary to understand and deliberate upon it, and that you

acknowledge the Church as the Ruler and Superior of the whole world, and the high priest

called Pope, and in his name the King and Queen Doña Juana our lords, in his place, as superiors and lords and kings of these islands and this Tierra-firme by virtue of the said donation,

and that you consent and give place that these religious fathers should declare and preach to

you the aforesaid.

If you do so, you will do well, and that which you are obliged to do to their Highnesses, and we in

their name shall receive you in all love and charity, and shall leave you, your wives, and your

children, and your lands, free without servitude, that you may do with them and with yourselves freely that which you like and think best, and they shall not compel you to turn Christians, unless

you yourselves, when informed of the truth, should wish to be converted to our Holy Catholic

Faith, as almost all the inhabitants of the rest of the islands have done. And, besides this, their

Highnesses award you many privileges and exemptions and will grant you many benefits.

Document 5:A new sea is added to the new land Balboa sights the Pacific Ocean

Of noble descent, Spanish explorer, planter, and governor Vasco Núñez de Balboa first traveled

to the New World in 1500. In his efforts to conquer territories in the New World, he also made friends with several local chiefs. One of them told him about a sea on the other side of the

mountains. He set out to find it with 190 Spaniards (among them Pizarro, who was later to

conquer Peru) and a thousand of the local people. When Balboa ceremonially took possession

of the Pacific, no Indians were present.

The excerpt below is from a History of the Indies by a Spaniard who followed in Balboa’s

footsteps, knew him personally, and took charge of his papers after his death.

On Tuesday the twenty-fifth of September of the year 1513, at ten o’clock in the morning,

Captain Vasco Núñez [de Balboa], having gone ahead of his company, climbed a hill with a bare summit, and from the top of this hill saw the South Sea [the Pacific Ocean]. ... Then he fell

upon his knees on the ground and gave great thanks to God. ... And he told all the people with

him to kneel also, to give the same thanks to God, and to beg Him fervently to allow them to see and discover the secrets and great riches of that sea and coast, for the greater glory and

increase of the Christian faith, for the conversion of the Indians ... and the fame and prosperity of

the royal throne of Castile [Spain].

Source: Qtd. in J. H. Parry, ed., The European Reconnaissance: Selected Documents (New York: Walker and Co., 1968), 233-5.

Document 6:They fought most valiantlyA Spanish view of Indians in Yucatán

Hernando Cortés commanded the biggest of the fleets sent from Spanish Cuba to the mainland

of present-day Mexico, with instructions to explore and trade. Ordered to return due to officials’

jealousies, he defied the governor and sailed for the Yucatán in 1519 with eleven ships, over 500

54

men, sixteen horses, thirteen muskets, and a few small cannon. His force there found what seemed to them, according to the account of Cortés’ secretary, “a rich land, filled with people

who were better dressed, more civilized, reasonable, and intelligent, with better homes and

farms” than any others they had so far seen in the “Indies.” Many welcomed Cortés as a potential ally in their own wars against rivals, and especially against the Aztecs, but others did

not receive the newcomers so happily.

Then they began to let fly arrows at us, and made signals with their drums, and like valiant men

surrounded us with their canoes, and they all attacked us with such a shower of arrows that they

kept us in the water in some parts up to our waists. ... [We] fell upon the Indians and forced them back, but ... they turned on us and met us face to face and fought most valiantly, making the

greatest efforts.

With our muskets and crossbows and good sword-play we put up a stout fight, and once they came to feel the edge of our swords they gradually fell back, but only to shoot at us [with

arrows] from greater safety. Our artilleryman ... killed many of them with his cannon. For since

they came in great bands and did not open out, he could fire at them as he pleased. ... Most of

[them were] killed by sword-thrusts, the rest by cannon, muskets, or crossbows.

We compelled them to retreat, but like brave warriors they kept on shooting arrows ... and never

turned their backs on us [until we had driven them into the town.]. ... There and then Cortés took

possession of that land for His Majesty.

First and last paragraphs from Bernal Díaz del Castillo, The True History of the Conquest of New Spain, A. P. Maudslay, trans., vol. 1 (London: Hakluyt Society, 1908), 111-2; second and third paragraphs, describing a different battle, from Díaz, qtd. in M. J. Seymour, The Transformation of the North Atlantic World, 1492-1763 (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004), 73-4.

Document 7: Marveling at the “god” and his followers An Aztec view of the Spanish

When Cortés landed near Vera Cruz in 1519, the Aztec ruler Montezuma’s interpretation of myth and portents led him to think Cortés was the god Quetzalcóatl. This was a light-skinned, bearded

deity who condemned human sacrifice, had vanished over the sea eastward near Vera Cruz,

and vowed to return—according to astrologers in the year 1 Reed, which came around only once every 52 years and coincided with 1519. So Montezuma, a former priest, sent messengers

to Cortés’ flagship with divine regalia and rich gifts, a list of which would take up over two

pages.

According to the History of New Spain written forty years later by the Franciscan missionary and

historian Sahagún, based on accounts by native informants, Cortés, on receiving the gifts, asked

the messengers if that was all they had brought. He had them bound with chains and fired a cannon, at which they fainted. Having revived them with food and wine, he asked them if they

had more gold, saying, “My men suffer from a disease of the heart which can only be assuaged by gold.” He then gave them iron swords and lances and challenged them to combat with the

Spaniards: “To test you—how strong you are, how powerful you are.” The messengers refused,

saying this was not within their mandate from Montezuma. On Cortés’ continued insistence on

combat, they fled.

Document 8: Marveling at the “barbarians” A Spanish view of the Aztecs

Cortés held talks that promised alliance with a local kingdom whose leaders saw a chance to

be rid of Aztec rule. He put down a revolt by some of his own followers who wanted to go home.

To make this impossible, he sank all his ships, claiming they were unseaworthy. Now it was a matter of “do or die.” He set out to conquer an Aztec empire vulnerable to defections, since it

55

depended on the food levies, tributes, and prisoners for sacrifice contributed by those the Aztecs had conquered. Aztecs fought their wars by accepted codes, preferably by one-on-one

duels and with the aim of capturing prisoners rather than killing enemy warriors. Captives were

highly honored before having their still-beating hearts torn out, and a fragment of their flesh ritually eaten. Cortés’ estimate that the “most horrid and abominable custom” of sacrifice

claimed “three or four thousand souls” a year is not out of line with modern scholars’

conclusions.

However, received with friendship in the Aztec capital, his initial attack there led to his disastrous

defeat and retreat. However, he returned, conquered the city’s defenders weakened by

epidemic disease, and razed the city, leaving only ruins. The rest of the empire eventually fell to

him.

The selection below is part of Cortés’ 1520 letter to the king of Spain.

These things [gifts to Cortés from Montezuma], apart from their intrinsic value, are so marvelous in

point of novelty and strangeness as to be beyond price. ... Of all the things created on land, as

well as in the sea, of which Montezuma had ever heard, he had very exact likenesses made of gold, silver, jewels, and featherwork, so perfectly that they seemed almost real. He gave me a

large number of these for Your Highness.

Besides these things, Montezuma presented me with a large quantity of articles of cloth, which, though fashioned of cotton and not of silk, could not be equaled by anything else in the world

for texture, richness of colors, and workmanship.

The great city of Tenochtitlán is as large as Seville or Córdoba. ... One of [its] squares is twice as large as that of Salamanca ... where there are daily more than sixty thousand souls buying and

selling. ... There is ... a very large building, like a Court of Justice, where there are always ten or

twelve persons sitting as judges, and delivering their decisions upon all cases which arise in the

markets.

This great city contains many mosques, or houses for idols. ... The chief of them all is so large that within its enclosure, which is surrounded by a high wall, a town of five hundred houses could

easily be built. ... There are as many as forty towers very tall and well-built, the largest with fifty

steps leading to the top; the tallest one is higher than the tower of the cathedral of Seville.

The markets and public places of this city are daily filled with laborers and masters of all trades,

waiting to be hired.

Though I would fain continue, I shall only say that the mode of life of its people was almost the same as in Spain, with just as much harmony and order; and considering that these people were

barbarians, so cut off from the knowledge of God, and of other civilized peoples, it is wonderful

what they have attained in every respect.

Source: Cortés’ second letter to the Emperor Charles V in 1520, qtd. in Alonso de Zorita, Life and

Labor in Ancient Mexico: The Brief and Summary Relation of the Lords of New Spain, Benjamin Keen, trans. (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 1963), 155-61.

56

Analyzing Effects of Spanish colonialism in the Americas:

Group Document #’s POV Analysis for one Document in Group

Reflect:

How did religious ideas influence the nature and outcomes of encounters between Europeans and peoples native to the Americas whom they contacted?

57

In what ways religion in the Western Hemisphere evolved into an elaborate synthesis of Amerindian and Christian beliefs and practices?

Consider Balboa’s exclamation when he first stepped into the Pacific Ocean in Document 6, and Neil

Armstrong’s when he first landed on the moon. In what ways does each statement reflect the values of the time when it was spoken, and the values of the cultures the speakers came from?

Are the values identified for Balboa’s time and culture still held by Europeans today? If no, in what way? If not, explain.

58

THE COLUMBIAN EXCHANGE

List your favorite foods and the ingredients required to make them in the space below:

Origin in the Americas Origin in Afroeurasia Crops Manioc, Cassava, Beans (also known as legumes

such as wax, pinto, pink, kidney, lima), Cacao tree (cocoa), Corn, Sweet corn, Pumpkin, Peanut, Peppers (sweet and hot; chili and cayenne), Pineapple, Potato, Squash, Strawberry, Sunflowers

(used for oil, seeds; they are rich in protein), Tomato, Avocado, Guava, Papaya, Passion fruit, Tobacco

Beet, Broccoli, Cabbage, Brussels sprout, Carrot, Eggplant, Okra, Onion, Pea, Sorghum, Soybean, Yam, Mulberry, Pomegranate, Tamarind, Cherry, Black pepper, Cinnamon, Coffee, Loquat, Banana, Clove, Ginger, Parsley, Coriander, Leechee, Oregano, Rice,

Wheat, Barley, Rye, Turnip, Onion, Lettuce, Peach, Pear, Orange, Olive, Sugar, Cotton

Animals Dog, Llama, Alpaca, Guinea pig, Turkey, Raccoon, Chipmunk, Hummingbird, Rattlesnake, Skunk

Dog, Horse, Donkey, Pig, Cattle, Goat, Sheep, House Cat, Starling, Barnyard fowl, European brown and red rat

Patho-

gens

Probably syphilis

Smallpox, Malaria, Yellow fever, Measles, Black plague,

Tuberculosis, Common cold, Chicken pox

Do a majority of the foods you enjoy come from the Americas or Afroeurasia? Why might that be?

AMERICAN FOODS: A CASE STUDY

Ease of Growth Uses Impact on Foreign Markets (WHERE and HOW?)

Corn

(Maize)

Cassava

Potato

59

What Old World Foods Went To The Americas?

Food crops that went from Afroeurasia to the Americas were part of the Columbian Exchange, but in the opposite direction. These included wheat, oats, barley, and citrus fruits. When grown on the

immense plains of the Americas, these food crops transformed farming after the sixteenth century. Plantation owners also made huge profits growing Old World “cash crops,” notably sugar, coffee,

and cotton. Between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, slaves brought by force from Africa grew most of these commercial crops. The horse, an Afroeurasian animal, transformed life for plains Indians in the Americas, and cattle ranching spread across North America, Brazil, and Argentina.

Define cash crops:

NOTES:

60

The Great Dying

In his book The Columbian Exchange, Alfred W. Crosby discusses the many advantages

the Spanish had over the Aztec populations they encountered in the valley of Mexico in 1519. The Spanish had:

• iron and steel weapons, not stone.

• cannon and firearms, bows, arrows, and slings.

• horses, which American Indians had never seen.

• military and political unity compared to different American Indian groups

• the opportunity to exploit Aztec myths that predicted the arrival of the “white

gods”.

But even with these advantages, Crosby asks, how were only about 600 Spaniards able

to conquer thousands of Aztecs so easily? With the advantages listed above, one would think that the highly organized and militarized Aztecs in Mexico and the Incas in the Andean Highlands would have survived the initial contact with Europeans. Why

would not thousands of Aztec warriors be able to overcome just a few hundred Spaniards?

Professor William McNeill asks the same question. He points out that, “If horses and gunpowder were amazing and terrible on the first encounter, armed clashes soon

revealed the limitations of horse flesh and of the very primitive guns the Spaniards had at their disposal.” Other questions about the conquest of Mexico occupied McNeill. He wondered why the religions of Mexico and Peru disappeared almost completely. Why

did some Indians come to worship and accept the Christian faith so readily? The Aztecs quickly realized that the Spanish were not returning gods after all and that they meant

to do harm. McNeill points out that the Indians who gave aid to the Spaniards and their Indian allies only did this when they were convinced that Cortez and his men would win.

Historians have come to understand that the key to the conquest of Mexico lies in basic biology.

Our studies of the Age of Exploration have shown that the New World had been virtually unknown to Afroeurasia. The trade networks of Afroeurasia did not include the

Americas, and the Indians were physically isolated from the lethal infections that had, over several millennia, become endemic, and less lethal, in the Old World. When a population has no antibodies to fight unfamiliar infections, it may suffer ecological

disaster. Without immunities, diseases familiar in one setting are deadly in another. Diseases such as smallpox, measles, whooping cough, chicken pox, bubonic plague,

malaria, diphtheria, amoebic dysentery, and influenza were unleashed on the Mexicans and Andeans. Historians have called this event “The Great Dying.” While

estimates vary, it is believed that up to 90 percent of American Indians living in the valley of Mexico died as a result of the unseen invasion of microbes.

During “Noche Triste” (“Sad Night”), when the Spaniards were driven out of

Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztecs, a Spaniard who was present remarked that many Aztec warriors were ill with what seemed to be smallpox. In 1699, a German

missionary said, “The Indians die so easily that the bare look and smell of a Spaniard causes them to give up the ghost.”

The Plantation Complex

The Great Dying of the Amerindian population coincided with the growth of the Plantation Complex. This was the European economic and political enterprise to

Notes on the

lives of Native

Americans and

African Slaves

61

develop commercial agriculture in the tropical Americas. It arose in response to growing international market demand for sugar, tobacco, cotton, indigo, and other

products.

American Indians who survived the Great Dying tended to resist working on European

sugar or other plantations. They would sometimes starve themselves rather than be forced to provide the labor. A sugar plantation demanded a hardy and strong labor

force. Europeans brought Africans to the Americas as slaves in order to meet the enormous labor requirements of the sugar and other industries in the Atlantic world. African slave traders aimed to capture and sell mainly young women and men

because they were the age group best fit to work and reproduce. The African slave trade drained African societies of millions of productive people. The success of

American plantations, however, came to depend absolutely on a steady supply of slave labor from Africa.

But the steady supply of slave labor from Africa ensured that European planters and

merchants could make huge profits. The slave/sugar complex began early in the sixteenth century. At that time, African slaves were brought to America by the

Portuguese, the first to begin sugar production in Brazil. By the end of the seventeenth century, sugar production was growing greatly in efficiency. New plantation societies

emerged on Barbados, Jamaica, Haiti, and other islands of the Caribbean, as well as the lowland coasts of Mexico.

Though estimates vary, it is believed that between 1492 and about 1870, 12-14 million

Africans were forced into slavery to work in the Americas on plantations, in mines, and in European households and shops. The brutal treatment they suffered has been well-

documented in most textbooks. In the Caribbean islands, slaves were likely to survive only six or seven years. One fact not well known is that comparatively few slaves were

sent to North America.

As we have seen, the Columbian Exchange negatively affected the populations of both Native Americans and Africans. Exposed to European diseases and brutally taken

from their homes and forced into plantations and mines, population figures can only suggest the extent of human suffering these men, women, and children experienced as

a result of this aspect of global convergence.

State-Building Economic Development Development and Interaction of

Culture

Africa

Americas

CROPS AROUND THE WORLD

62

63

SLAVERY IN THE AMERICAS In 1300, the African Kingdom of Mali was the richest civilization in the world, but by 1500, the Iberian Kingdoms of Spain and Portugal had become the wealthiest through their control of the slave trade.

Mali, 1300 Changes Songhai, 1500

Mansa Musa’s

pilgrimage to Mecca extends Trans-Sah- aran trade routes

and gives Mali control of regional trade.

Songhai participated

in, but did not control, the Trans- Atlantic Slave

Trade, part of the Triangular Trade.

Mansa’ Musa’s conquest of large cities

across the Sahara and the spread of Islam brought peace

and stability

Songhai’s prisoners of war and other

captives were sold to Portugal as slaves in exchange

for European guns

Mali’s control of the

gold and salt trade made them the

wealthiest nation in the world

The Trans-Saharan

gold and salt trade had collapsed

almost completely

3 Facts about the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade 2 things that surprised you 1 Question

64

HOW COULD THE SLAVE TRADE HAVE HAPPENED?

Watch a clip from History Channel’s Roots to answer the questions below:

1. According to Dr. Morgan, what role did race play in the institution of Atlantic slavery?

2. Below is a depiction of the Triangular Trade system between Europe, Africa, and European

colonies in the Americas. Before we learn more about the triangular trade next week, brainstorm some of the goods that may have been transported along each leg of the trade system and

record them on the picture below.

3. Why is it so difficult for historians to represent Africans’ experiences on the Middle Passage?

Answer the following AFTER watching a clip from History Channel’s Roots:

4. Why do you think that Africans were unable to resist or prevent the institution of Atlantic slavery, despite their efforts to rise against captors, merchants, and, later on, their owners?

65

What role did African Kingdoms play in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade?

66

AMERICAN SILVER IN ASIA Document 1- Source: Ye Chunji, county official during the Ming dynasty, order issued to limit

wedding expenses, 1570’s.

The frugal man with only one bar of silver currency can have something left over, whereas the

extravagant man with a thousand can still not have enough.

Document 2- Source: Tomás de Mercado, Spanish scholar, Manual of Deals and Contracts,

Seville, 1571.

High prices ruined Spain as the prices attracted Asian commodities and the silver currency flowed out to pay for them. The streets of Manila in the Spanish territory of the Philippines could

be paved with granite cobblestones brought from China as ballast* in Chinese ships coming to

get silver for China.

*A heavy substance used to improve the stability of a ship.

Document 3- Source: Wang Xijue, Ming dynasty court official, report to the emperor, 1593.

The venerable elders of my home district explain that the reason grain is cheap despite poor

harvests in recent years is due entirely to the scarcity of silver coin. The national government

requires silver for taxes but disburses little silver in its expenditures. As the price of grain falls, tillers

of the soil receive lower returns on their labors, and thus less land is put into cultivation.

Document 4- Source: Ralph Fitch, British merchant, an account of his travels to the East Indies,

published in 1599.

When the Portuguese go from Macao, the most southern port city in China, to Japan, they carry

much white silk, gold, perfume, and porcelain and they bring from Japan nothing but silver. They have a great ship that goes to Japan every year, and brings back more than 600,000 coins’

worth of Japanese silver. The Portuguese use this Japanese silver to their great advantage in

China. The Portuguese bring from China gold, perfume, silk, copper, porcelain, and many other

luxury goods.

Document 5- Source: Xu Dunqiu Ming, writer, in his essay in The Changing Times, about the

commercial city of Hangzhou, 1610.

In the past, the dye shops would allow customers to have several dozen pieces of cloth dyed

before settling accounts and charging the customers. Moreover, customers could pay for dying the cloth with rice, wheat, soybeans, chickens, or other fowl. Now, when you have your cloth

dyed you receive a bill, which must be paid with silver obtained from a moneylender.

Document 6- Source: Charles D’Avenant, an English scholar, “An Essay on the East-India Trade”

regarding the debate on a bill in Parliament to restrict Indian textiles, 1697.

Since we were supplanted in the spice-trade by the Dutch, our chief investments or importations

from the East Indies have been in dyed cotton cloth, silks, drugs, cotton-yarn, and wool; part of which commodities are for our own use, but a much greater part, in times of peace, were

brought to London for sale to France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, and our colonies.

For Europe draws from Asia nothing of solid use; only materials to supply luxury, and only perish-

able commodities, but sends to Asia gold and silver, which is there buried and never returns.

But since Europe has tasted of this luxury, since the custom of a hundred years has made Asian

spices seem necessary to all degrees of people, since Asian silks are pleasing everywhere to the better sort, and since their dyed cotton cloth is useful wear at home, and in our own colonies,

and for the Spaniards in America, it can never be advisable for England to quit this trade, and

leave it to any other nation.

Document 7- Source: He Qiaoyuan, Ming dynasty court official, report to the emperor on the

possibility of repealing the 1626 ban on foreign trade, 1630.

The Spanish have silver mountains, which they mint into silver coins. When Chinese merchants

trade in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, they trade the goods we produce for the goods

of others. But when they go to Luzon (Philippines) they only return with silver coins. Chinese silk yarn worth 100 bars of silver can be sold in the Philippines at a price of 200 to 300 bars of silver

there. Moreover, porcelain from the official pottery works as well as sugar and fruit from my

native province, are currently desired by the foreigners.

IMPACT OF THE COLOMBIAN EXCHANGE ON ASIA

Notes

67

How and why might silver from points B and C be introduced to Asian Markets?

What can happen to the value of silver at point A once silver from points B and C are introduced to Asian Markets? Why?

Why is this problematic for the people of China?

European Powers in Asia

Portugal The Dutch Republic Spain

JAPAN IN ISOLATION

68

Feudal Shogunates

Origins of the Samurai

Although an emperor reigned in Japan since ancient times, by the late 1100s powerful military leaders were

challenging the power of the imperial court. From the thirteenth century on, Japan was ruled through a dual government structure. While the emperor retained cultural and religious sovereignty over the nation, the military

elite during this period assumed political and economic leadership. This system of governance remained in

place until the late 1800s.

Samurai, meaning “one who serves,” is the term used to refer to members of Japan’s warrior class. The origins of

the samurai can be traced to the eighth and ninth centuries, when large landholdings moved into the hands of the imperial family and related members of the aristocracy (nobles). In the Heian period (794–1185), the Kyoto-

based imperial court and nobles depended on the agricultural income from these landholdings, especially

large private estates in northern Japan. The need to defend these distant estates from attacks by local chieftains led to the birth of the samurai. The nobles sent from the capital to govern the estates often lacked

the skills and authority necessary to maintain security or provide effective administration in such remote districts,

so the court appointed deputies from among the local population to assist them. Forerunners of the early

samurai, these deputies built local and regional power by creating privately controlled militia.

Starting as little more than family organizations, warrior bands were initially formed for the duration of a specific

military campaign and then disbanded to allow the men to return to farming. By the eleventh century the bands were changing to groups of fighting men not necessarily connected through kinship. Power was

beginning to aggregate in the hands of a few elite military families, or clans, whose regional dominance was

supported by the fighting abilities of retainers and vassals. These were men bound to their lords by vows of

loyalty and/or other contractual obligations, such as grants of land or income in exchange for military service.

The First Warrior Government and Beginning of the Bakufu Period: The Kamakura Shogunate, 1185–1333

By the late eleventh century, the Minamoto (also known as Genji) clan was recognized as the most powerful

military clan in the northeastern region of Japan, having defeated several other powerful local groups.

The victorious Minamoto went on to establish a new, warrior-led government at Kamakura, their eastern stronghold. In 1185 the great Minamoto leader Minamoto Yoritomo (1147–1199) was appointed shogun by the

emperor. Yoritomo established a military government, appointing warriors to fill important regional posts as

constables or military governors and land stewards. Reporting to the shogun were daimyo provincial

landowners who led bands of warrior vassals and administered the major domains.

The military victory and subsequent structural changes not only established the new ruling group in a position of

military and economic power but also allowed for the infusion and development of a new cultural ethos—one that paralleled but was determinedly distinct from that developed by the court in Nara and in Kyōto. Warrior

values of strength, discipline, austerity, and immediacy found resonance in the practices of Zen Buddhism. This

strain of Buddhism had long played a subsidiary role in Japan, but, from the 13th century, strong Japanese adherents were bolstered in number and authoritative leadership by immigrant Chinese monks who had been

displaced by the Mongol conquests in China. Zen Buddhism offered the new military leadership a

nonthreatening alternative to the Tendai-controlled religious establishment that dominated the Kyōto court. The iconographic needs and the inherent aesthetic predispositions of Zen Buddhism were refined through this

initial relationship with the Kamakura elite and over the next several centuries became widely influential

throughout Japan.

The Second Warrior Government: The Ashikaga Shogunate of the Muromachi Period (1338–1573)

Nara Period (710-794) Heian Period (794-1185) Kamakura Period (1185-1333)

Mu

rom

ac

hi P

erio

d

(1392-1

573)

Ed

o P

erio

d (

1573-1

868)

69

The Kamakura shogunate was overthrown in 1333 and succeeded by the Ashikaga shogunate (1338–1573), based in Muromachi, near Kyoto. Under the Ashikaga, samurai were increasingly organized into lord–vassal

hierarchies. Claiming loyalty to one lord, they adhered to a value system that promoted the virtues of honor,

loyalty, and courage. As in the Kamakura period, the Ashikaga shogun was supported by direct vassals and by powerful but more independent regional daimyo, who administered the provinces. These regional leaders were

expected to maintain order, administer justice, and ensure the delivery of taxes.

The Ashikaga shoguns were notably active in the cultural realm, amassing a prized collection of imported Chinese artworks, and leading the samurai by example in their patronage of ink painting, calligraphy, the Noh

theater, Kabuki, and the “Way of Tea” (Chado). These practices were avidly pursued even during the years of

growing disunity culminating in the Onin Civil War (1467–1477). Architectural remnants of this era include the “Golden Pavilion” of Kinkakuji temple, where the third Ashikaga shogun, Yoshimitsu (1358–1409) lived during his

retirement years (only after his death was the site converted to a Buddhist temple). Covered in gold foil, the

two story villa served as an elegant backdrop for the retired shogun’s cultural and leisure activities.

The Third Warrior Government: the Tokugawa Shogunate of The Edo Period (1615–1868)

In September of 1600, Tokugawa Ieyasu won a decisive victory over rival daimyo factions, including supporters of Hideyoshi’s heir, Hideyori. The Tokugawa military government, based in a new capital city at Edo (present-

day Tokyo), achieved unparalleled control over the country, lasting more than 260 years, from 1600 to 1868. The

regime’s unprecedented longevity was achieved through exceptional social control over the population, including the daimyo and their vassals. From 1635 until 1868, the country’s borders were closed to foreigners

with the exception of a single port, Nagasaki, through which Dutch traders could operate under close

supervision. For these and other reasons, the era of Tokugawa rule was a time of peace, when the warriors

were increasingly called upon to fulfill bureaucratic roles. Below are 4 of 17 provisions of the Edict of 1635:

1. Japanese ships are strictly forbidden to leave for foreign countries.

2. No Japanese is permitted to go abroad. If there is anyone who attempts to do so secretly, he must be executed. The ship so involved must be impounded and its owner arrested, and the matter must be

reported to the higher authority.

3. If any Japanese returns from overseas after residing there, he must be put to death. 4. If there is any place where the teachings of padres (Catholic priests) is practiced, the two of you must

order a thorough investigation

Under the Tokugawa shogunate land taxes were based on an assessment of rice productivity. This calculation determined the allotment of daimyo domains and samurai stipends: so many bushels of rice (or the land

70

necessary to produce them) could be granted as a reward for loyalty, or designated as an individual warrior’s yearly income. In the Tokugawa system, there were about 260 daimyo domains, each with its own castle,

served and protected by samurai vassals. The distribution of land to the daimyo was based on security

considerations, and the government held absolute control over all appointments. For example, the shogun might appoint a loyal daimyo to oversee a restless domain. Though entrusted with the administration of their

domains, the daimyo thus held no authority independent of the central government. The Tokugawa authority

was strengthened by their direct control over an immense area of land surrounding the Edo capital (present-day Tokyo); they also held authority over the other major urban centers. Profitable gold and silver mines also

added to their power.

A further means of controlling the daimyo was the system of “alternate attendance,” which required daimyo to maintain at least two residences: one in their domain and the other within the capital at Edo. The shogun

mandated they spend alternate years residing in Edo. During years spent in the home domain, the daimyo

were required to leave their families in the castle town of Edo, in essence as political hostages of the shogun. Costly processions back and forth from Edo, together with the requirement to maintain lavish residences in

each location, led to a gradual draining of the daimyo’s financial resources. Ironically, in this peacetime

economy, many samurai became hopelessly indebted to moneylenders and lower-ranking members of society. Throughout the long peaceful reign of the Tokugawa, warriors were transformed into civil officials, and

increasingly able to focus their energies on intellectual and cultural activities.

Complete the following chart based on the reading. Use the space inside the arrows to indicate changes in

each area between each time period after you complete the chart

Kamakura Period Muromachi Period Edo Period

Go

ve

rnm

en

t

Art

s a

nd

Cu

ltu

re

Sa

mu

rai T

rad

itio

ns

ISOLATIONISM IN ASIA

71

By the middle of the 14th century, the Yuan dynasty, run by the Mongols was in decline. Like all Chinese

dynasties, it was coming to an end and the evidence that the rulers had lost the Mandate of Heaven was everywhere. The government was corrupt, spent too much money on wars, and they could not collect enough taxes from the population to provide them with the services to keep them content. In addition, many Chinese leaders grew tired of being ruled by the foreign Mongols. They wanted a return to China run by Chinese. In 1368, a rebel leader named Zhu Yuanzhang (1328-1398) who led a group of bandits against the Yuan military and other rivals who wanted power, captured the capital city and declared the start of the Ming dynasty (1369-1644).

A Changing Map and Protection to the North

When the Yuan dynasty ruled China, the Mongols controlled land that included their homeland to the north. Through trade routes they were connected to the

rest of the Mongol empires that lay to the west and to the Middle East and Europe. Since the Mongols and their allies ruled most of central Asia, they had little need to reinforce their defenses and did little to maintain the Great Wall.

The early Ming emperors pushed the Mongols and other nomadic tribes north and secured their borders. They reinforced and expanded

the Great Wall of China continuously throughout their dynasty’s reign. Much of the Great Wall as we know it today was built during the Ming dynasty.

1. What is the difference between these two maps?

2a. What advantages did the Yuan Dynasty gain from the

land it controlled? What disadvantage came from controlling this land?

2b. What advantages did the Ming Dynasty

gain from the land it controlled? What disadvantage came from controlling this land?

72

China’s Ming Dynasty Ends Maritime Exploration

Zheng He was from a Hui (Chinese Muslim) family. His

father was a hajji, a Muslim who had made the hajj

(pilgrimage) to Mecca. He was commissioned by the Ming government to explore southern asia, the Middle

East, and Africa.

For some 300 years the Chinese had been extending their power out to sea. An extensive seaborne

commerce had developed to meet the taste of the

Chinese for spices and aromatics and the need for raw industrial materials. Chinese travelers abroad, as well as

Indian and Muslim visitors, widened the geographic

horizon of the Chinese. Technological developments in shipbuilding and in the arts of seafaring reached new

heights by the beginning of the Ming.

The Tributary System (at the time of his travels)

Because of her cultural excellence, economic

affluence, military power, and vast territorial expanse,

China was the dominant country in East Asia for two thousand years. Since early Ming times (1368-1643)

there was a hierarchical system of international

relations in East and Southeast Asia. China occupied the position of leadership and Korea, Liu-ch’iu (Ryukyu) Annam (Vietnam), Siam, Burma, and a host of other countries in Southeast and Central Asia

accepted the status of junior members.

… international relations were based on an extension of the Confucian idea of proper relations between individuals. Just as every person in a domestic society had his specific status, so every country in an international society had its proper station. Two Korean terms illustrate the idea well:

relations with China were described as sadae, serving the great, whereas relations with Japan were termed kyorin, neighborly intercourse. Thus …

relations between countries were not governed by international law but by what is known as the tributary system. …

During Ming and Qing times, the tributary system had been refined into a highly ritualistic performance, with clearly defined rights and duties on the

part of each participant. To China fell the duty of keeping proper order in the East and Southeast Asian family of nations. China recognized the

legitimacy of rulers of the tributary countries by sending envoys to officiate when they took office and by giving them documents to confirm their authority. China went to their aid in times of foreign invasion, and sent relief missions and condolences in times of disaster. On their part, the tributary

countries honored China as the superior country by sending periodic tribute, by requesting the approval of their kings, and by adopting the Chinese

calendar, i.e. recording events of their countries by the day, month, and year of the reign of the Chinese emperor.

Ma Huan’s account of Melaka (Malacca)

When Zheng He first arrived in Melaka, there was no king. It was controlled by a chief and it was under the jurisdiction of Thailand. Melaka paid an

annual tribute of 48 ounces of gold, and if it didn’t pay Thailand would send men to attack it.

In 1409 the emperor of China sent Zheng He to make the chief a king by giving him two silver seals, a hat, a belt, and a robe. Zheng He erected a stone tablet that declared Melaka to be a kingdom. After that Thailand did not dare to invade Melaka.

73

The king of Melaka selected local products and went with his wife, his son, and some of his chiefs on Chinese ships to the capital of China. He met the emperor of China and presented him the products of Melaka as tribute.

After that, when the Chinese fleet arrived at Melaka, they erected a stockade, like a city wall, and set up towers at four gates. At night they had

patrols of police. Inside the stockade they erected a second stockade, like a smaller city wall. Inside they constructed warehouses and granaries, and all the money and provisions from the Chinese fleet were stored there. The Chinese ships that had gone to various countries returned to Melaka

and stored the foreign goods they had gathered until the winds were blowing in the right direction so the ships could return home to China with all

their foreign goods.

Source: Based on an excerpt from a book written by Ma Huan, who traveled as an interpreter on three of Zheng He’s expeditions.

Maritime Technology 4

The Nautical Charts of Zheng He is the earliest collection

of nautical maps ever existed in the world. The original chart is a long scroll. Later, it is collected into the Book of

Wu Bei Zhi. In it, there are 40 pictures scattered in 20

pages. Two Star Orientation maps are also attached to it. It has recorded over 530 geographical names, of which

300 are foreign names and 16 are names of the eastern

coast of Africa. Cities, islands, nautical marks, shoals, reefs, mountains and navigation routes are also lined out

in Zheng He’s Nautical Charts.

The Haidao Zhenjing (a kind of navigation manual) and Guoyang Qianxing Shu (Star Orientation, i.e. navigation by observing the distribution of the star) used by Zheng He during his sailing to the Atlantic Ocean were the most advanced navigation technology in his time. During the voyages,

Zheng He and his crew used compass to guide the sailing direction during daytime, and made use of star observation and compass orientation to

keep course at night. Having solved such problems as the storage of fresh water, the stability and the anti-sink ability of ships, Zheng He’s fleets could sail smoothly even in tough conditions and accidents seldom occurred to them. In the daytime they hung and wave flags of different colors to

express different meanings. At night they used lanterns to represent the

sailing conditions of the ships. In case of heavy fog and rain, gongs, trumpets and conch-shell horns would be used for communication.

Columbus's ships Santa Maria

(foreground) and

Nina would have appeared pint-

sized next to

Zheng He's largest vessels.

The Ming,

flourishing under a strong, centralized government, commissioned

74

navigator Zheng He to explore throughout the Indian Ocean, a century before the Portuguese first explored the region in the 15th century. Read the attached document to evaluate Zheng’s voyages.

Description Impact on Exploration (either as a motivator or

enabling factor)

Impact on China

Trib

uta

ry S

yst

em

Ne

two

rks

of

Exc

ha

ng

e

Ma

ritim

e T

ec

hn

olo

gy

Whatever happened to Zheng He?

75

The Decline of the Ming:

After the halt of Chinese naval voyages, the rapid depreciation of silver currency and resulting inflation, and the Portuguese laying claim to their port

cities, the Ming Empire was in rapid decline by the 15th century. The Ming Emperor, desperate for support, called in Qing Warriors from nearby

Manchuria to help put down peasant revolts in 1644. The Qing warriors instead turned on the Ming Emperor, stabling the Qing (or Manchu) dynasty, which would rule in China until 1912.

The Qing Dynasty: Leaders of Foreign Lands

An Interesting Predicament:

Civil Service Exams are more widely used among both the elite and

lower classes to help rule the empire

Emperor Adherence to Manchu Traditions Adherence to Chinese Traditions Perspective on global interaction

Kangxi (1662-

1722)

Qianlong

(1735-

1795)

Based on their “first 100 years,” do you think that the Manchu Dynasty will help or hinder the Chinese throughout their reign? Explain.

76

ABSOLUTISM IN EUROPE The Thirty Years’ War, 1618-1648

One major legacy of the Protestant Reformation was a violent period with seemingly-constant warfare based, in part, on the division of Europe into Catholic and Protestant enclaves. The conflicts began with the Peasants’ War in Germany in the early sixteenth century, followed in the seventeenth century with religious wars involving many of the emerging European nation-states.

In England, the Puritan Revolution sought to make England into a Protestant state. The Dutch also experienced a revolt of Protestants against Spanish Catholic rule. In France, the Protestant Huguenots fought the Catholic League and Protestant England battled Catholic Spain on land and sea.

The rise of national states such as England, France, Sweden, Denmark, and Spain, together with the rise of the Habsburg Empire centered in Germany, culminated in thirty years of bloody religious conflict. The battles occurred mostly in German states, where Luther’s new Protestant religion attracted a number of small states and principalities, while other areas remained loyal to the Catholic Church.

The battles of the Thirty Years’ War were particularly brutal. Protestants looted Catholic cathedrals. The Catholic Inquisition burned many at the stake. Assassinations, atrocities, and mob violence were common on both sides. After fierce fighting and five years of negotiations, the Thirty Years’ War ended in compromise with the Peace of Westphalia of 1648. This important set of treaties established the broad outlines of modern Europe and set the precedent for states to have either a Catholic or a Protestant majority. Germany, however, remained divided between the two faiths, a fact that contributed to postponing the unification of that country into a single nation-state for more than two centuries.

Predict| How will religion influence the development of nation-states in Europe?

Why would an absolute monarch circumvent getting approval on their initiatives and laws?

Why would an absolute monarch focus his energy on controlling this class of people? How would controlling the religious authorities allow the absolute monarch to consolidate power?

ABSOLUTISM SPREADS

77

Context

Political:

Religious:

Rise of Monarchs

In Spain:

In France:

Global Absolutism

FRANCE IN THE 16TH AND 17TH CENTURY

78

Religious wars between French Catholics and Huguenots (French Protestants) created chaos in France. For example, in 1572 the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre sparked a 6-week slaughter of

Huguenots. Peace between Catholics and Huguenots was finalized in the Edict of Nantes, which allowed Huguenots to worship and live in Peace throughout France.

Religious tensions persisted, but France began to prosper. At age 23, King Louis XIV took control of the government. His goal was to make France wealthy and make himself the most

powerful king in Europe. Now YOU must decide if King Louis XIV decisions Strengthened (S) or

Weakened (W) his position as an absolute monarch.

Situation S

(Strengthen) W

(Weaken) Explanation

Louis XIV spent a fortune to surround himself in luxury.

Louis had the nobles leave their homes to live with him

at the Palace of Versailles.

Louis and his finance minister, Colbert, supported

mercantilism (making France self-sufficient to support French industries

and selling French goods to French colonies)

Louis wanted France to acquire as many overseas

colonies as possible.

Louis cancelled the Edict of Nantes. Now many

Huguenots (many of whom were skilled workers) left France for nations that

tolerated Protestants.

Louis had many

unsuccessful wars and imposed new taxes.

Louis was a patron of the

arts in France. He made opera and ballet popular.

French art was made to glorify the power of the

king.

What is Enlightenment?

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Origins of the Enlightenment The Enlightenment’s immediate roots can be found in the Scientific Revolution. Just as Isaac Newton applied

rational analysis to nature leading to the discovery of natural laws, Enlightenment thinkers applied these

techniques to human behavior. They examined political, social, and economic problems and tried to establish

solutions based on the scientific method established by Newton and others. While the ideas and principles of

the Scientific Revolution helped inform the Enlightenment, they were not the only source of inspiration. The

Enlightenment has longer roots, going back to the ideas of classical Greece and Rome.

The Enlightenment was also shaped by the Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation. During the

Renaissance, humanists argued for the importance and worth of the individual. Reformers questioned the

authority of the Roman Catholic Church and argued that individuals should think for themselves. Of course, the

ideas of the Renaissance were shaped by the Renaissance thinkers’ admiration of classical Greece and Rome.

Enlightenment thinkers also found inspiration in some of the ideals of Greece and Rome. The idea that people

should have a voice in their government finds parallels in the republican governments of Athens and Rome.

Similarly, the belief in humans’ ability to use reason and observation finds parallels in ancient Greece. It was not

only intellectuals who adopted these Enlightenment ideals; they also spread to some of Europe’s rulers.

So where did these ideas come from?

Views on the Role/

Obligations of Govt.

Views on the Role/

Obligations of Man

Core values Where and

When?

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PREDICT| What kind of changes might the Enlightenment inspired in absolutist Europe? Why?

RUSSIAN ABSOLUTISM

BACKGROUND:

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Serfdom in Russia lasted longer than it did in Western Europe. Serfdom continued in Russia until the mid-1800’s. When a Russian landowner sold a piece of land, he sold the serfs with it.

Religious differences widened the gap between Western Europe and Russia. The Russians had adopted the

Eastern Orthodox branch of Christianity while Western Europeans were mostly Catholics and Protestants.

Most boyars (Russian nobles) knew little of Western Europe. In the Middle Ages, Russia had looked to Constan-

tinople, not Rome, for leadership. Then Mongol rule had cut Russia off from the Renaissance and the Age of Exploration. Geographic barriers also isolated Russia. Its only seaport was covered with ice for most of the year.

What are TWO differences that existed between Russia and Western Europe?

Why didn’t Russia experience the Renaissance or Age of Exploration?

How would Western European countries view Russia based on its isolation during the Renaissance?

Russia Out of Isolation

Cossacks:

Czar:

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Changes:

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Our contestant: __________________________________________________

Welcome to Dancing with the Czars! Your task is to create a backstory video for your assigned contestant, to show before their first live performance! You will create a video that contains each item on the Checklist for an A-list backstory video:

1. Introduce yourself with a fun fact that makes you relatable 2. Tell a sob story

3. Explain why you deserve to win 4. Dis another contestant for personal reasons

But first, get to know your contestant, and his competition! Use biography.com to conduct research.

Your Czar: He/she who shall be dissed:

Early Life

Challenges

faced

during rule

Political

Ideology

Contestants:

Peter the Great

Catherine the Great Ivan the Terrible

Henry VIII (England)

Elizabeth I (England) Charles I (England)

Oliver Cromwell (England)

Phillip II (Spain)

Louis XIV (France)

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1. Introduce yourself with a fun fact that makes you relatable:

Fun fact Ideas for the video

2. Tell a Sob Story: Something that you needed to overcome, like a revolt, or the loss of loved ones:

Sob Story Ideas for the video

3. Explain why you deserve to win. For example, tell us about something you did that was good for

your people. Remember that this is the czar’s perspective!

Why you deserve it Ideas for the video

4. Dis another contestant for personal reasons. Ask yourself why your czar would have beef with

your selected competitor.

Dis Ideas for the video