Transcript The West and the Changing World Balance

The West and the
Changing World
Balance
Focus Question: How did the balance
of world power shift from east
(Middle East and Asia) to west
(Europe) by the end of the 1400s?
Themes: It’s a Hodgepodge
Chapter!!!
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1400 – a shift in balance occurs between
world civilizations
The world-wide role of Islam was in
decline
China made one last attempt to influence
the world before falling into isolation
Western Europe was becoming the
dominant world region (Italy, Spain and
Portugal)
The Americas and Polynesia also
experienced significant changes
A Change in the Middle East
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Byzantium and the Abbasid dynasty were gone…
 Byzantium was crushed by the Ottomans,
the Abbasids by the Mongols
Religious leaders began to dominate artistic
endeavors…most Islamic thinkers (like
Averroes) had to practice beliefs outside of the
Islamic heartland (Greek rationalism)
Sufis still ran around emphasizing mystical
contact with God
Economic power was in decline…agricultural
productivity diminished as feudalism found its
way into Muslim society
European traders overtook and avoided Muslim
traders and tax revenues from trade declined
(Mediterranean)
The Ottomans did not help the economic
situation…they did not focus on overland trade
(which fell into the hands of the Mongols), rather
spent their existence conquering and expanding
territory…their empire would be solely based on
agriculture (leading to their decline during the
industrial revolution)
The Ottomans did, however for a short period,
along with the Safavids maintain an Indian
Ocean trading network that would become the
basis for trans-oceanic trade in the coming
centuries
Chinese Thrust and Withdraw
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The Ming dynasty replaced the Yuan dynasty in
1368 and pushed to regain China’s previous
borders
The Ming (under the leadership of Hongwu)
reasserted themselves over their neighboring
states and began to “explore” surrounding areas
China had at this point what was perhaps the only
large scale system of product manufacture in the
world, producing such items as weapons,
gunpowder, silk clothes, ships and porcelain
Under the leadership of Yongle, the great
navigator Cheng Ho (Zheng He) sailed the south
seas to Africa, India, the Indies and possibly other
areas with the Ming Treasure fleets
 "1421: The Year China discovered the World"
The Ming halted Zheng’s expeditions in 1433
 Bureaucrats in the scholar gentry began to see
interaction as both costly and dangerous to
China
China became isolated once again, as bureaucrats
claimed that since internal economic production
was dominant, there was no need for foreign trade
*Note: We will hear all of this again in Chapter 22
Rise of the West
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Many small states in the West were still
backward in the 14th and 15th
centuries…the Catholic church was under
attack…kings were selfindulgent…population were growing too
fast and famines were widespread…so
let’s have a plague and kill them all off
(Black Death)…1/3 of the population was
killed
Warfare was a dominant part of life for
Europeans
 100 Years War features England vs.
France, demonstrating a new NONfeudal form of solicitation of warfare,
draft and pay your troops…this gave
the central monarchy greater authority
 Spain and Portugal spend better parts
of 200+ years driving the Muslims off of
Iberia…this drive for freedom leads
both to seek a greater position in
world trade
Mongols had brought an era of prosperity
to Europe as trade contact with the east
exploded…however, their decline put
Europe in a bind…as a result, the hunger
for gold and Eastern luxuries put a strain
on the newly emerging Western economy
The ultimate message was clear, find a
way to bypass the Muslims to trade with
the east
Spain…“Nobody Expects the
Spanish Inquisition”
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Religious fervor in Spain
helped to drive out the
Muslims for good in the 15th
century
The kingdoms of Castile and
Aragon married in1469, and
the result was Ferdinand and
Isabella…they set forth a
clear agenda
 Persecute/expel the
“heathens” (Muslims,
Jews) and purify their
kingdom into a Catholic
state
 Develop the military and
begin to expand Iberian
control into Europe
 Explore the world,
compete with their rivals
in Portugal for dominance
of sea trade
Rise of the West Renaissance
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Internal change was critical to the western
surge…the Renaissance was just that, a cultural and
political movement grounded in urban vitality and
expanding commerce
Begun in the 14th century, it started out as a literary
and artistic movement…art imitated life and was
more friendly to the secular world
Florence, Italy became the center of the movement,
and realistically, the Renaissance really made little
headway out of Italy to the rest of the world in its
early stages…Italy benefited solely from its
developments of art, high culture, goal of personal
glory etc…but the rest of Europe would soon take
notice
Commercial states sought new markets and city
states emerge as trading states (Venice, Hanseatic
League)
*Note – This will be discussed further in Chapter 17
The Exploration Experiment
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Atlantic Exploration
began…Portugal vs. Spain in a
battle royale for dominance of the
sea
It was actually explorers from Italy
who first sailed out the straits of
Gibraltar down the African coast in
the 14th century…Portugal and
Spain followed suit, though these
exploits were hindered by poor
technology
All learned better shipbuilding
techniques and use of
compass/astrolabe form Muslim
explorers and sailors…Prince Henry
the Navigator of Portugal led the
charge in improving sea faring
activities
Portugal and Spain began to settle
the Canary Islands, Madeiras and
Azores…the royalty set up land
grants on these islands and they
experimented with the plantation
economy, growing cash crops
Americas and Polynesia
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The Aztec and Inca empires of
the late 1400s began a period of
decline…internal warfare and
civil uprisings occurred
frequently…eventually,
European invasion would take
advantage of it
In Polynesia,
explorations/colonization of
South Pacific Islands from the
original hearth (map 347)
occurred from the 7th century
into the 1400s…Hawaii was
settled, then cut off form the
rest of Polynesia by 1400…a
distinct agricultural society
developed…kingdoms and
warring states emerged on the
individual islands…a social
order of priests, nobles and
peasants was also
established…rich oral traditions
(stories) and the Hawaii
language (13 letter alphabet)
preserved cultural values
Maori New Zealand
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Parallel to the development of Hawaii,
Polynesians settled New Zealand in
the 8th century and became isolated as
the Maori
New Zealand provided a different
climate and larger amount of territory
and the development of Maori society
was more complex
Similar political institutions were
established, with military leaders and
priests, but differences existed in that
each held slaves gained in warfare
The Maori were highly skilled artists,
but they had no skill at metallurgy…the
economy also was based on
agricultural development
Lastly, the Maori too compiled rich oral
traditions of their society
Summing up the Changes
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Clearly, there are a series of events that make
the 1400s a great period of transition in world
history
 The collapse of Muslim empires
 The transition of technological knowledge
and learning from east to west
 The drive for sea-born exploration, spurred
by competition between regional kingdoms
These transitions created lasting impacts
(next unit)
 The conquest of the Americas
 The conquest and subjugation of Africa
 The move towards mercantilism and global
trade
 The first vestiges of Imperialism in the East