Nekeisha Maxie
Chapters 11-13
Chapter 11
The Worlds of Islam
Opening
There were thousands of pilgrims, from all over the world
They were all colors and different eye colors
All participated in the same rutuls
As the twenty-five century dawned, Islam had acquired a serious presence in the United States, with more than 1,200 mosques and estimated 8 million Muslims
2 million were African American
independence colonial rule, the Iranian Revolution of 1979
The rising price of oil all focused global attention on the Islamic
Osama bin Laden and the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States
For a thousand years people claiming allegiance to Islam
Christendom penetrated and was transformed by African Cultures, and also took root in India, Central Asia, and Southwest Asia
The Birth of a New Religion
Most of the major religious or cultural traditions of the classical era had emerged
Arabia also had sedentary, agricultural areasArabia lay on important East–West trade routes
Mecca became important as a trade center
The Kaaba was the most prominent religious shrine
The Quraysh tribe controlled local trade and pilgrimage
Arabia was on the edge of the Byzantine and Sassanid empires
So Arabs knew some practices of these empires
Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism had spread among Arabs
By 600 c.e., most settled Arabs acknowledged a supreme god (Allah)
Increasingly identified Allah with Yahweh
The Messenger and the Message
The prophet of Islam was Muhammad Ibn Abdullah (570–632 c.e.)
Orphaned at a young age
Became a prosperous merchant thanks to marriage to Khadija
Took to withdrawal and meditation
Beginning of revelations from Allah in 610 c.e.
Revelations recorded in the Quran
When heard in its original Arabic, believed to convey the presence of the divine
Radically new teachings
Monotheistic
Muhammad as “the seal of the prophets”
Return to old, pure religion of Abraham
Central tenet: submission to Allah (Muslim = “one who submits”)
Need to create a new society of social justice, equality, and care for others (the umma)
The Transformation of Arabia
Muhammad attracted a small following, aroused opposition from Meccan elites
In 622, emigrated to Yathrib/Medina (the hijra)
Created Islamic community (umma) in Medina
Broke definitively from Judaism
Rapid expansion throughout Arabia
Military successes led to alliances
Large-scale conversion
Consolidation of Islamic control throughout Arabia by time of Muhammad’s death in 632
The Making of an Arab Empire
The Arab state grew to include all or part of Egyptian, Roman/Byzantine, Persian, Mesopotamian, and Indian civilizations.
Many both in and out of Arab Empire converted to Islam
Arabic culture and language spread widely
Islam became a new third-wave civilization
War and Conquest
Arabic conquests were a continuation of long-term raiding pattern
New level of political organization allowed greater mobilization
Byzantine and Persian empires were weakened by long wars and internal revolts
reasons for expansion:
Economic: capture trade routes and agricultural regions
Individual Arabs sought wealth and social promotion
Communal: conquest helped hold the umma together
Conquest was not too destructive
Arab soldiers were restricted to garrison towns
local elites and bureaucracies were incorporated into empire
Conversion to Islam
Initial conversion for many was “social conversion,” not deep spiritual change
Islam’s kinship to Judaism, Christianity, and Zoroastrianism made it attractive
Islam was associated from the beginning with a powerful state—suggested that Allah was a good god to have on your side
The state provided incentives for conversion
Earliest converts included slaves and prisoners of war
Converts didn’t have to pay the jizya
Islam favored commerce
Social climbers were helped by conversion
Resistance to conversion among Berbers of North Africa, some Spanish Christians, some Persian Zoroastrians
Around 80 percent of the population of Persia converted between 750 and 900
Some areas (Egypt, North Africa, Iraq) also converted to Arabic culture and language
Divisions in the Islamic World
A central problem: who should serve as successor to Muhammad (caliph)?
First four caliphs (the Rightly Guided Caliphs, 632–661) were companions of Muhammad
Had to put down Arab tribal rebellions and new prophets
Uthman and Ali were both assassinated
Result was the Sunni/Shia split of Islam
Sunni Muslims: caliphs were rightful political and military leaders, chosen by the Islamic community
Shia Muslims: leaders should be blood relatives of Muhammad,descended from Ali and his son Husayn
Over time, caliphs became absolute monarchs
Umayyad dynasty (661–750) was a time of great expansion
Caliphs became hereditary rulers
Capital moved to Damascus
Arab military aristocracy ruled
Decadent rulers and unequal treatment of non-Arab Muslims caused unrest
Basic religious issue: what does it mean to be a Muslim?
Islamic law (the sharia) helped answer the question
Addressed most aspects of religious and social life
Concern was with correct behavior
Creation of four Sunni schools of law, even more Shia ones
Reactions against the distraction of worldly success: Sufis
Sufis were mystics, seeking direct experience of the divine
Renounced the material world
Spiritual union often expressed in terms of drunkenness or sexual experience
Became widely popular by ninth/tenth centuries
Sufis were critical of the sharia and even of reading the Quran
Members of the ulama often thought Sufis were heretics
The ulama and Sufism weren’t entirely incompatible—e.g., al-Ghazali (1058–1111)
But there was often tension between the two approaches
Women and Men in Early Islam
What rise of Islam meant for women remains highly controversial
Spiritual level: Quran stated explicitly that women and men were equals
Social level: Quran viewed women as subordinate, especially in marriage
Quran helped women in some ways (banned female infanticide, gave women control over their own property, granted limited rights of inheritance, required woman’s consent to a marriage, recognized a woman’s right to sexual satisfaction)
Social practices of lands where Islam spread were also important in defining women’s roles
Early Islam: some women played public roles; prayed in mosques, weren’t veiled or secluded
Growing restrictions on women (especially in upper classes) under Abbasids
Veiling and seclusion became standard among upper, ruling classes
Lower-class women didn’t have the “luxury” of seclusion
Practices were determined by Middle Eastern traditions much more than by Quran
Muslim scholars soon added religious rationale
Islam and Cultural Encounter: A Four-Way Comparison
The Arab Empire had all but disintegrated politically by the tenth century.
Last Abbasid caliph killed when Mongols sacked Baghdad in 1258
But Islamic civilization continued to flourish and expand
The Case of India
Turkic-speaking invaders brought Islam to India
Eestablishment of Turkic and Muslim regimes in India beginning ca. 1000
At first, violent destruction of Hindu and Buddhist temples
Sultanate of Delhi (founded 1206) became more systematic
Interaction of Hindus and Muslims
Many Hindus served Muslim rulers
Mystics blurred the line between the two religions
Sikhism developed in early sixteenth century; syncretic religion with elements of both Islam and Hinduism
Founded by Guru Nanak (1469–1539)
Muslims remained as a distinctive minority
The Case of Anatolia
Turks invaded Anatolia about the same time as India
Major destruction at early stages in both places
Sufi missionaries were important in both places
But in Anatolia by 1500, 90 percent of the population was Muslim, and most spoke Turkish
Reasons for the different results in the two regions
Anatolia had a much smaller population (8 million vs. 48 million)
Far more Turkic speakers settled in Anatolia
Much deeper destruction of Byzantine society in Anatolia
Active discrimination against Christians in Anatolia
India’s decentralized politics and religion could absorb the shock of invasion better
Turkish rulers of Anatolia welcomed converts; fewer social barriers to conversion
Sufis replaced Christian institutions in Anatolia
By 1500, the Ottoman Empire was the most powerful Islamic state
Turks of Anatolia retained much of their culture after conversion
Freer life for women persisted
The Case of Spain
Arab and Berber forces conquered most of Spain (called al-Andalus by Muslims) in the early eighth century
Islam did not overwhelm Christianity there
High degree of interaction between Muslims, Christians, and Jews
Some Christians converted to Islam
Christian Mozarabs adopted Arabic culture but not religion
The World of Islam as a New Civilization
By 1500, the Islamic world embraced at least parts of nearly every other Afro-Eurasian civilization.
History’s first “global civilization”
Networks of Faith
Islamic civilization was held together by Islamic practices and beliefs
Beliefs/practices transmitted by the ulama, who served as judges, interpreters, etc.
Starting in eleventh century: formal colleges (madrassas) taught religion, law, and sometimes secular subjects
System of education with common texts, sharing of scholarship throughout Islamic world
Sufism: branches of Sufism gathered around particular teachers (shaykhs) by the tenth century
Development of great Sufi orders by the twelfth/thirteenth centuries
Sufi devotional teachings, practices, writings spread widely
Many thousands of Muslims made the hajj to Mecca each year
Networks of Exchange
Islamic world was an immense arena for exchange of goods, technology, and ideas
Great central location for trade
Islamic teaching valued commerce
Urbanization spurred commerce
Muslim merchants were prominent on all the major Afro-Eurasian trade routes
Aided by banking, partnerships, business contracts, credit instruments
Exchange of agricultural products and practices between regions
Muslim conquest of northwestern India introduced rice,sugarcane, sorghum, hard wheat, cotton, and many fruits and vegetables to Middle East
Diffusion of technology
Spread ancient Persian water-drilling techniques
Improvement of Chinese rockets
Adoption of papermaking techniques from China in the eighth century
Exchange of ideas
Persian bureaucratic practice, court ritual, poetry
Ancient Greek, Hellenistic, and Indian texts
Developments in mathematics, astronomy, optics, medicine,pharmacology
Reflections: Learning from Outsiders: A Tale of Two Travelers
“Outsider” accounts can be very useful in understanding a culture.
Ibn Battuta (1304–1368) traveled nearly 75,000 miles around the Islamic world.
Often criticized the quality of Muslim observance outside of core lands
Appalled by freedoms given to women in outlying lands
Found only China to be completely foreign
Marco Polo (1254–1324) traveled from Italy to China, where he served at the court of Khubilai Khan.
Unlike Ibn Batutta, Polo found himself an outsider everywhere he went
Did not show as much disapproval of strange behaviors
The writings of the two show that Islam was the “central fact” of the Afro-Eurasian world in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; Europe was still on the margins.
Legacy of Chinggis Khan in Mongolia
According to Mongol tradition, that means his soul was destroyed
Late twentieth-century revival of Chinggis Khan’s memory
2006 was 800th anniversary of foundation of Mongol Empire
The story of the Mongols is an important corrective to historians’ focus on agriculturalists.
Pstoralists had a lasting impact on development of Afro-Eurasia
Looking Back and Looking Around: The Long History of Pastoral Nomads
Economies focused on livestock production emerged around 4000 b.c.e.
Dependent on horses, camels, goats, sheep, cattle, yaks, reindeer
Pastoral societies developed in:
Grasslands of Eurasia and sub-Saharan Africa
Arabian and Saharan deserts
Subarctic regions, Tibetan plateau
Not in Americas: lack of large animals for domesticating
The World of Pastoral Societies
Standard features of pastoral societies:
Generally less productive than agricultural societies
Needed large grazing areas
Populations much smaller than in agricultural societies
Lived in encampments of related kinfolk, usually common ancestry in male line
Clans sometimes gathered as a tribe; could absorb unrelated people
Pastoralists had deep connections to agricultural neighbors
Sought access to foodstuffs, manufactured goods, luxury items
Especially in inner Eurasia, longing for civilized products encouraged formation of nomadic states
Formation of nomadic states was difficult
Charismatic leaders like Chinggis Khan could make a series of tribal alliances that became powerful states
When formed, almost the whole male population (and some women) became warriors
Cultural interaction with agricultural lands
The Xiongnu: An Early Nomadic Empire
Mounted warfare made nomadic empires possible
The Xiongnu (in Mongolian steppes north of China) formed an important early confederacy (from Manchuria to central Asia) in third/second centuries b.c.e.
Ruler Modun (r. 210–174 b.c.e.) revolutionized nomadic life
Created a more centralized, hierarchical political system
Divinely sanctioned ruler
Distinction between “junior” and “senior” clans became more important
The Arabs and the Turks
Nomads made their greatest impact on world history between 500 and 1500 c.e.
Arabs, Berbers, Turks, and Mongols created largest empires of that millennium
Islam derived from largely nomadic Arabs, carried by Turks
Byzantium, Persia, India, and China were all controlled at least for a time by formerly nomadic people
Bedouin Arabs became effective fighters with development of a good camel saddle (sometime between 500 and 100 b.c.e.)
Made control of trade routes through Arabia possible
Camel nomads were shock troops of Islamic expansion
The Masai of East Africa
Best information on nomad/agrarian relations in Africa comes from after 1500
No large states or chiefdoms, pastoral or agricultural, developed in what is now Kenya and Tanzania
Masai were nomadic cattle-keepers
Breakout: The Mongol Empire
The Mongols formed the greatest land-based empire in history following their breakout from Mongolia in the thirteenth century.
Extensive linkage of nomads of inner Eurasian steppes with agricultural civilizations
Created far greater contact between Europe, China, and Islamic world than ever before
Total Mongol population was only about 700,000
Did not have a major cultural impact on the world
From Temujin to Chinggis Khan: The Rise of the Mongol Empire
Temujin (1162–1227) created the Mongol Empire
Mongols before Temujin were unstable collection of feuding tribes and clans
Temujin’s rise
Father was a minor chieftain, but was murdered before Temujin turned ten
Temujin’s mother held family together after they were deserted by the clan
When Temujin grew up, he drew together a small following of friends, allied with a more powerful tribal leader
1206: Mongol tribal assembly recognized Temujin as Chinggis Khan(“universal ruler”)
Chinggis Khan then began expansion to hold his followers together
Major attack on China in 1209 started 50-year Mongol world war
Chinggis Khan, Ogodei, Mongke, and Khubilai created an empire that included China, Korea, Central Asia, Russia,
Much of Middle East, and parts of Eastern Europe
Explaining the Mongol Moment
Mongol Empire grew without any grand scheme
By the time of his death, Chinggis Khan saw conquests as a mission to unite the whole world
Mongols were vastly outnumbered by their enemies
Mongol reputation for brutality and destructiveness
Encountering the Mongols: Comparing Three Cases
China and the Mongols
Mongol conquest of China was difficult, took from 1209 to 1279
Began in northern China (ruled by dynasties of nomadic origin), was vastly destructive
Conquest of southern China (ruled by Song dynasty) was far less violent
More interest in accommodation of local populace
Landowners were guaranteed their estates in return for support
Mongols unified a divided China, made many believe that the Mongols had been granted the Mandate of Heaven
Mongols didn’t know how to govern an agricultural society, so they used many Chinese practices
Gave themselves a Chinese dynastic title, the Yuan (“great beginnings”)
Built a new capital—Khanbalik (“city of the khan”; now Beijing)
Khubilai Khan (r. 1271–1294) had a set of ancestral tablets made
Much of his reign was in the model of a benevolent Chinese emperor
Still, Mongol rule was harsh, exploitative, and foreign
Mongols did not become Chinese
Relied heavily on foreigners for administration, rather than the traditional administrative system
By 1368, rebellions had forced the Mongols out of China
During the succeeding Ming dynasty, memory of brutal Mongol rule stimulated commitment to Confucian values, effort to wipe out all traces of Mongol impact
Persia and the Mongols
Conquest of Persia: first invasion led by Chinggis Khan 1219–1221;second assault under his grandson Hulegu 1251–1258
Hulegu became first il-khan (subordinate khan) of Persia
Massive impact of invasion
Shook faith: how could Muslims be savaged so badly by infidels?
Baghdad in 1258 ended the Abbasid caliphate
More than 200,000 people massacred
Mongols were transformed far more in Persia than in China
Extensive use of Persian bureaucracy
Ghazan (r. 1295–1304) tried to repair some of their earlier damage
Mongols in Persia converted to Islam on a large scale
Mongol dynasty collapsed in 1330s
Mongols were assimilated, not driven out
Russia and the Mongols
Mongol devastation of Russia 1237–1240
Russia was a number of independent principalities
Could not unite against Mongol threat
Destruction of cities, widespread slaughter, and deportation of skilled workers
Russia was integrated into Mongol Empire as the Kipchak Khanate (Russians called it the “Khanate of the Golden Horde”)
But Mongols did not occupy Russia
Remained on steppes north of Black and Caspian seas
Collected tribute and heavy taxes; also raided for slaves
Mongol rulers of Russia were far less assimilated or influenced
Were gradually Islamized and assimilated by the Kipchaks of the steppes
Russian princes adopted Mongol weapons, diplomatic rituals, court practices, tax system, and military draft
The Mongol Empire as a Eurasian Network
Toward a World Economy
Mongols produced little for distant markets; were not active traders
But they promoted international commerce as source of tax revenue
Made it relatively safe to travel across Central Asia
Diplomacy on a Eurasian Scale
Mongol encroachment into Eastern Europe led both the pope and European rulers to dispatch diplomatic missions to the Mongols
Bad no diplomatic or religious consequences
But brought back valuable information about the East
Cultural Exchange in the Mongol Realm
Thousands of craftsmen and educated people were forcibly relocated by the Mongols
Mongol religious tolerance and support of merchants drew foreigners
The Plague: A Eurasian Pandemic
The plague (a.k.a. pestilence, Black Death) spread across trade routes of the Mongol Empire in early fourteenth century
Probably originated in Central Asia
Carried by rodents and transmitted by fleas
The plague broke out in northeastern China in 1331
Reached Western Europe by 1347
Mongol siege of Caffa (in the Crimea) in 1346: Mongols catapulted plague-infected corpses into city
India and sub-Saharan Africa were much less affected
Best information about the plague’s impact comes from Europe
The plague was described in apocalyptic terms
Jews blamed for the plague; many fled to Poland
Longer-term changes in European society
The plague was a primary reason for the breakdown of the Mongol Empire in fourteenth–fifteenth centuries
With population contraction, volume of trade was reduced
By 1350, the Mongol Empire was in disarray
Within a century, Mongols had lost control of China, Persia, and Russia
The Central Asian trade route largely closed
Reflections: Changing Images of Nomadic Peoples
Nomads have often received “bad press” in history books.
Only mentioned in regard to their destruction of established civilizations
Educated sedentary peoples have feared and usually despised nomads
Nomads were usually illiterate, so we don’t have their perspective
Agricultural societies eventually won out
There have been recent efforts to present a more balanced view.
Emphasize what nomads achieved as well as what they destroyed
The total wars and genocides of the twentieth century have made people less judgmental toward the Mongols
Historians are shaped by their times
Chapter 13
In 2005, China celebrated the 600th anniversary of the initial launching of the country’s great maritime expeditions in 1405.
Admiral Zheng He had commanded a fleet of over 300 ships carrying 27,000 people that sailed as far as the East African coast
Why is Columbus so much more remembered?
The fifteenth century was a major turning point in world history.
Zheng He’s voyages did not have world-historical consequences
Columbus’s voyages did
This chapter’s purpose is to review the human story up to the sixteenth century and to establish a baseline against which to measure the transformations of the period 1500–2000.
The Shapes of Human Communities
In 1500, the world still had all types of societies, from bands of gatherers and hunters to empires, but the balance between them was different than it had been in 500.
Paleolithic Persistence
Gathering and hunting societies (Paleolithic peoples) still existed throughout all of Australia, much of Siberia, the arctic coastlands and parts of Africa and the Americas
They had changed over time, interacted with their neighbors
Northwest coast of North America developed very differently
Abundant environment allowed development of a complex gathering and hunting culture
Had permanent villages, economic specialization, hierarchies,chiefdoms, food storage
elsewhere, farming had advanced and absorbed Paleolithic lands
Agricultural Village Societies
Predominated in much of North America, in Africa south of the equator, in parts of the Amazon River basin and Southeast Asia
Their societies mostly avoided oppressive authority, class inequalities, and seclusion of women typical of other civilizations
In what is now central New York State, agricultural village societies
Underwent substantial change in the centuries before 1500
Iroquois speakers had become fully agricultural (maize and beans) by around 1300
Population growth, emergence of distinct peoples
Rise of warfare as key to male prestige (perhaps since women did the farming, so males were no longer needed for getting food)
Herding Peoples
Turkic warrior Timur (Tamerlane) tried to restore the Mongol Empire ca. 1400
His army devastated Russia, Persia, and India
Timur died in 1405, while preparing invasion of China
In the following centuries, the steppe nomads’ homeland was swallowed up in expanding Russian and Chinese empires
African pastoralists remained independent from established empires for several centuries longer (until late nineteenth century)
Civilizations of the Fifteenth Century: Comparing China and Europe
By the fifteenth century c.e., a majority of the world’s population lived within a major civilization.
Ming Dynasty China
China had been badly disrupted by Mongol rule and the plague
Recovery under the Ming dynasty (1368–1644)
Effort to eliminate all signs of foreign rule
Emperor Yongle (r. 1402–1422) sponsored an 11,000-volume Encyclopedia summarizing all the wisdom of the past
Reestablished the civil service examination system
Chinese government abruptly stopped the voyages in 1433
Many had regarded them as waste of resources
And saw voyages as project of hated court eunuchs
Chinese merchants and craftsmen continued to settle and trade in Japan, Philippines, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia,but without government support
European Comparisons: State Building and Cultural Renewal
A similar process of demographic recovery, consolidation, cultural flowering, and European expansion took place in Western Europe
European population began to rise again ca. 1450
State building, but fragmented, with many independent and competitive states
Much of state building was driven by the needs of war, e.g., England and France in the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453)
The Renaissance: reclamation of classical Greek traditions
Began in the commercial cities of Italy ca. 1350–1500
European Comparisons: Maritime Voyaging
Portuguese voyages of discovery began in 1415
1492: Columbus reached the Americas
1497–1498: Vasco da Gama sailed around Africa to India
European voyages were very small compared to Chinese ones
Civilizations of the Fifteenth Century: The Islamic World
The long-fragmented Islamic world crystallized into four major states or empires.
Process of conversion to Islam continued both within and beyond new states
In the Islamic Heartland: The Ottoman and Safavid Empires
Ottoman Empire lasted from fourteenth to early twentieth century
Huge territory: Anatolia, eastern Europe, much of Middle East, North African coast, lands around Black Sea
Sultans claimed the title “caliph” and the legacy of the Abbasids
Effort to bring new unity to the Islamic world
Ottoman aggression toward Christian lands
Fall of Constantinople in 1453
1529 siege of Vienna
Europeans feared Turkish expansion
Safavid Empire emerged in Persia from a Sufi religious order
Empire was established shortly after 1500
Imposed Shia Islam as the official religion of the state
Sunni Ottoman Empire and Shia Safavid Empire fought periodically between 1534 and 1639
On the Frontiers of Islam: The Songhay and Mughal Empires
Songhay Empire rose in West Africa in the second half of the fifteenth century
Islam was limited largely to urban elites
Sonni Ali (r. 1465–1492) followed Muslim practices, but was also regarded as a magician with an invisibility charm
Songhay Empire was a major center of Islamic learning/trade
Mughal Empire in India was created by Turkic group that invaded India in 1526
over the sixteenth century, Mughals gained control of most of India
Effort to create a partnership between Hindus and Muslims
Hindu kingdom of Vijayanagara continued to flourish in the south
Civilizations of the Fifteenth Century: The Americas
Both the Aztec and the Inca empires were established by once-marginal peoples who took over and absorbed older cultures.
Both empires were destroyed by the Spaniards and their diseases
The Aztec Empire
The Mexica were a seminomadic people who migrated southward from northern Mexico
Established themselves on an island in Lake Texcoco by 1325
Built themselves up and established capital city of Tenochtitlán
Triple Alliance (1428): Mexica and two other city-states united
Launched a program of military conquest
Conquered much of Mesoamerica in under a century
Trade included slaves, many intended for sacrifice
Human sacrifice much more prominent in Aztec Empire than in earlier Mesoamerica
Tlacaelel is credited with crystallizing ideology of state giving human sacrifice such importance
Created an important philosophical/poetic tradition focused on the fragility of human life
The Inca Empire
Quechua speakers established the Inca Empire along the length of the Andes
Empire was 2,500 miles long
Around 10 million subjects
Inca Empire was more bureaucratic, centralized than the Aztecs
Emperor was an absolute ruler regarded as divine
State theoretically owned all land and resources
Around 80 provinces, each with an Inca governor
Subjects grouped into hierarchical units of people (10, 50, 100, 500, etc.), at least in the central regions
Resettlement program moved much of the population
Incas attempted cultural integration
Leaders of conquered peoples had to learn Quechua
Sons were taken to Cuzco (the capital) for acculturation
Subjects had to acknowledge major Inca deities
Webs of Connection
Large-scale political systems brought together culturally different people.
Efforts to integrate diverse peoples, e.g., in Ottoman, Mughal, and Inca empires
Religion both united and divided far-flung peoples.
Common religious culture of Christendom, but divided into Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy
Buddhism linked people in China, Korea, Tibet, Japan, and parts of Southeast Asia
Islam was particularly good at bringing together its people
The annual hajj
Yet conflict within the umma persisted
Patterns of trade were very evident in the fifteenth century
Trade was going on almost everywhere
The balance of Afro-Eurasian trade was changing
The Silk Road network was contracting
Ocean trade in the west Atlantic/Indian Ocean picked up
A Preview of Coming Attractions: Looking Ahead to the Modern Era (1500–2000)
No fifteenth-century connections were truly global.
Those came only with European expansion in the sixteenth century
1500–2000: inextricable linking of the worlds of Afro-Eurasia, the Americas, and Pacific Oceania
“Modern” human society emerged first in Europe in the nineteenth century and then throughout the world.
Core feature: industrialization
Accompanied by massive population increase
Societies favored holders of urban wealth over rural landowning elites
States became more powerful and intrusive
Opening up of public and political life to more of the population
Self-conscious departure from tradition
The modernity revolution was as important as the Agricultural Revolution
Introduced new divisions and conflicts, new economic inequalities
Destruction of older patterns of human life
The prominence of European peoples on the global stage grew over the last 500 years.
After 1500, Western Europe became the most innovative, prosperous, powerful, imitated part of the world
Spread of European languages and Christian religion throughout the world
Initiated the Scientific Revolution and the Industrial Revolution
Origin of modern -isms: liberalism, nationalism, feminism, socialism
Rest of the world was confronted by powerful, intrusive Europeans
Reflections: What If? Chance and Contingency in World History
Might history have been shaped, at least at certain points, by coincidence, chance, or the decisions of a few?
What if Ogodei Khan hadn’t died in 1241 and the Mongols had continued their advance into Europe?
What if China had continued maritime exploration after 1433?
What if the Ottomans had taken Vienna in 1529?
It’s worthwhile to sometimes take a “what if” approach to history.
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