Period 4: Global Interactions, c. 1450-1750

Key Concept 4.1: Globalizing Networks of Communication and Exchange Interconnection of western and eastern

hemispheres key transformation Technological innovations Global circulation of commodities– new

regional markets and financial centers Spread of religion through commerce, as well

as migration of peoples Exchange of germs, flora and fauna

Columbian Exchange

Columbian Exchange

Columbian Exchange

Columbian Exchange

Commodities Coffee beans used first

in Yemen and then later in Europe and the Americas

European using chocolate technology from the Aztecs 17th Century

Commodities: Sugar, Silver and Slaves

Brazil: Plantation colony Portuguese due to

Treaty of Tordesillas 1494

African slave labor used to support the plantation complex (sugar)

Largest producer of sugar in world first half of 17th C.

Missionaries: Jesuits

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Fur Trade – French British, Native Peoples, Russians

Key Concept 4.2: New forms of Social Organization and Modes of Production Still predominately agrarian economy globally, but

new methods in crop and field rotation as well as new crops

Increased proto-industrialization, urbanization and commerce

Challenges to political and social order by peasants and elites, changing status of merchants.

Demographic growth New forms of coerced and semi-coerced labor New varieties of ethnic and racial classifications

Commodities African slave

trade

Notice the primary destinations

Key Concept 4.3: Types and Varieties of Colonialism and Empires European empires more maritime than territorial

(Indian and Atlantic Oceans) Land-based empires of Ming and Qing China, and

the Ottomans– supported by tribute and tax-collection systems and characterized by expansion, incorporation of cultural and religious minorities, and imperial power through art.

Decline in interior West African polities as coastal societies strengthened.

Americas 1300-1800 Conquest – arrival of Spanish in western

hemisphere Population impacts: disease, racial

intermingling, war Columbian exchange Colonial societies

Empires: African Characteristics of:

Stateless societies - organized around kinship, often larger than states, forms of government

Large centralized states – increased unity came from linguistic base – Bantu, Christianity and Islam, as well as indigenous beliefs

Trade – markets, international commerce, taxed trade of unprocessed goods.

African Empires Oyo

Benin

Kongo

Asante

Oyo 1100 C.E. emerged in northern

Yoruba lands becoming a kingdom in the late 14th or early 15th century and dominant political power in region by 17th century,

Increased trade of kola nuts and palm products, in return for horses and salt.

Using horses the rulers of Oyo conquered much of Yorubaland in the 17th century, and expanded their empire to its greatest extent, forcing Dahomey to be a tributary.

Oyo Took control of the seacoast and

expanded trade with Europeans. (“Slave Coast." )

Empire collapsed during the first two decades of the 19th century due to expansion of slave holding.

Increasing importance of slavery may have helped cause a revolt by an important military commander named Afonja in 1823.

Yorubaland experienced protracted warfare and internal migration

Prompted interest in new faiths such as Christianity.

Benin Southern Nigeria, 12-13th century kingdom emerged. Meritocracy of sorts, ruled by an oba Obas profited from Portuguese traders selling them

cloth, pepper and ivory for copper and brass (not slaves until late in the 18th century)

Arts flourished as a result of the profits from cloth. With the decline of the obas, and increased of slave

trading, political instability and ritual sacrifice emerged.

Benin

Asante (Also Ashante, Akan, Ghana) Highly centralized rule around

the Akan. Royal arts, especially stools,

weights, gold jewelry and kente cloth

Rise initially due to gold trade and continued through trade in slaves and kola nuts.

By end of the 17th century, the Asante Kingdom emerged in the central forest region of Ghana, when several small states united under the Chief of Kumasi in a move to achieve political freedom from the Denkyira.

Kongo 15th century Kongo was the most

powerful of a series of states along Africa's west coast known as the Middle Atlantic kingdoms.

Success of the Bakongo due to their willingness to assimilate the inhabitants they conquered rather than to try to become their overlords. The people of the area thus gradually became one and were ruled by leaders with both religious and political authority.

First kingdom on the west coast of central Africa to come into contact with Europeans. (Portuguese)

Kongo Ruler who came to power in

1506 took a Christian name, Afonso.

Admired European culture and science and called on Portugal for support in education, military matters, and the conversion of his subjects to Christianity.

Afonso, therefore, soon came into conflict with Portuguese bent on exploiting Kongo society, especially with slave trade.

Kongo For a time Portuguese were kept at

bay but a war in 1622 led to the capture of a large number of slaves and increased European economic interests in the Kongo.

War also created a xenophobia among the Bakongo of the interior, who drove away many Portuguese. Because the trading system depended largely on the Bakongo, commerce was greatly disrupted, with effects on the Angolan colony as great as those on the Kongo Kingdom.

Adding to Kongo's troubles in the early 1600s was a general dissatisfaction among the Bakongo with their rulers.

Asante (Also Ashante, Akan, Ghana)

It is said that the Golden Stool of the Asante descended from heaven to rest on the knees of Osei Tutu, the first Ashantehene, who was guided by his adviser the priest Okomfe Anokye. The Golden Stool became the focal point of the creation of the Akan confederacy, of which the most important people were the Asante.

The Asante dominated Ghana for the next 200 years and are still a dominant political force today.

Asante Known for the Golden Stool Stool embodies the political unity of the Akan states

and the power of the chiefs of Asante. Departed kings are represented by stools which have

been blackened during a sacrificial ceremony. Golden stool more visible representation of the

spiritual link to the King, but it is the blackened stool that truly honors the strength and continuity of the throne.

Asante

Empires: Songhay Initially farmers, herders, and fishers Foreign merchant community in Goa (gold) Powerful cavalry forces, expansive empire Fusion of Islamic and indigenous traditions

Songhay

Questions How does this time period change the ways in

which societies think about labor? About land? About new encounters?

How will this evolving worldview influence the ways in which both Latin America and Africa will be integrated into the global economy?

Suggest the best possible ways to learn case studies of these global forces.