crisis and recovery 2 western christendom ming china 1300-1500
TRANSCRIPT
Crisis and Recovery 2
Western Christendom
Ming China
1300-1500
The “Calamitous” 14th Century
• Though Europe was spared from the advancing Mongols, the 14th century is seen as a low point in European history characterized by the triple scourge of famine, disease and war
• The plague that swept Europe in 1348 decimated a population already weakened by crop failures in the early part of the centuty
• For some, the calamitous age bred feelings of apocalypticism, as reflected in this late-15th century woodcut by Albrecht Dürer
• The four horsemen are famine, plague, war, and death
Peasant Revolts
• Though periodic revolts were fairly common in medieval Europe, the French Jacquerie (1358) uprisings and the English Peasant’s Revolt under Wat Tyler (1381) showed that people reacted to the circumstances around them
• Both revolts were ruthlessly suppressed by elites eager to hang on to their social position threatened by the uprisings
Violent suppression of a Jacquerie by French cavalry; French nobles referred to the peasants as “Jacques Bonhomme” (kind of like our term “Average Joe”)
Death of Wat Tyler in England
European states and dynasties
• Though shaken by uprisings, the process of state centralization that had begun in the High Middle Ages continued through this period
• Some historians see it as nothing short of a miracle that European states were able to rise from the ashes of the fourteenth century into powerful monarchies and city-states in the 15th century
The Iberian Peninsula
• Throughout the 14th century the Portuguese and Spanish fought with Muslims for control of territory
• By the fifteenth century Portugal had established a centralized kingdom
• The uniting of the crowns of Castille and Aragon through the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella in 1469; marriages of their children to European royalty made for a powerful dynasty
Prince Henry the Navigator, son of the King of Portugal, expanded his kingdom’s territory and trade in Africa and in the Atlantic Ocean
Ferdinand and Isabella unite two kingdoms into a powerful Spanish monarchy
100 Years’ War
• France and England were at war with each other on-and-off between 1337 and 1453
• Through distant marriage and conquest ties English kings made claims to the French crown – thus the wars were fought on the continent in different regions of France
• In the end, the king of France ended up regaining most of his territory on the continent
Renaissance Italy
• The merchant class of Italian port-cities like Genoa became extremely wealthy and able to gain autonomy from the Holy Roman Emperor
• This wealth, derived from long-distance trade, supported a civic structure that encouraged the formation of city-states, which looked to ancient models for their political development
Revival of Antiquity
• Rich merchants also used their money to found schools and hire teachers for their children
• The curriculum they chose was one based on the literature of Ancient Greece and Rome
• In turn, this propmted a cultural flowering in all of the arts and sciences, known as ‘Renaissance humanism’, which forms the basis of the ‘humanities’ today
Botticelli – Birth of Venus
Greek emigrés
• After the fall of Constantinople in 1453 many educated Greeks sought refuge in Italy, bringing with them all extant texts of classical Greek literature
• Being able to read classical Greek became the hallmark of an educated person, and had a profound effect on science, mathematics, textual criticism and culture in general
Ming Dynasty
• The Ming (Brilliant) Dynasty was founded by the peasant-born Zhu Yuanzhang 1368 riding on a wave of revolt against the Yuan Mongol rulers
• Plague and famine were devastating China’s population and causing civil unrest
• Using his military superiority, over the next 25 years Zhu united China under a centralized dynastic state as the “Hongwu Emperor”
Centralization
• During the early Ming Empire emperors focused on infrastructure projects, like irrigation, to ensure that they could grow enough food
• They also reinstated the civil service exams to recruit a loyal administrative class
• They also engaged in palace building to represent their dynastic power to their subjects
The Forbidden City – built during the reign of Yongle Emperor (1403-1424)
Ming Culture
• The Ming emperors promoted an intensely Han Chinese culture, looking back to the Song Dynasty for inspiration
• A cultural assertiveness which would make the Chinese more intolerant of “barbarian” culture and to glorify their own
• In literature they went back to Confucian models and used those as the basis for training their administrative elite
• Ming art was restrained, but elaborate and painstakingly put together
Ming Trade Policy
• At first Ming emperors were eager to gain revenue from long-distance trade – however Hongwu banned foreign trade in 1371, fearing outside influence on China
• An uneasy relationship developed between prosperous merchants engaged in illicit trade and government officials who often turned a blind eye on their illicit dealings
• The voyages of Zheng He showed China’s potential as a world maritime power in the 15th century but after 1433 it was abandoned
Conclusion
• By 1500, both Europe and China had not only survived disease and warfare, but flourished, and their populations were again on the rise
• The main difference was that by 1500 Europe was looking to expand its influence over the globe while China was desperately trying to keep contacts with foreigners to a minimum