Transcript Module 2 Empires and Encounters –1750 1450

Module 2
Empires and Encounters
1450–1750
European Empires in the Americas
• Maritime Expansion
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Spaniards in Caribbean, then on to Aztec and Inca empires
Portuguese in Brazil
British, French, and Dutch colonies in North America
Europeans controlled most of the Americas by the mid-nineteenth century
• The European Advantage
– geography: European Atlantic states were well positioned
– need: Chinese and Indians didn’t have much incentive to go beyond
Indian Ocean markets
– marginality: Europeans were aware of their precarious position in
Eurasian commerce and wanted to change it
– Rivalry: interstate rivalry drove rulers to compete
– Merchants: growing merchant class in Europe
– Wealth and status: opportunities for impoverished nobles
– Religion: Christianity’s crusading zeal + persecuted minorities
– European states and trading companies mobilized resources well
• seafaring technology
• iron, gunpowder weapons, and horses
European Empires in the Americas
• The Great Dying: demographic collapse of Native Americans
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pre-Columbian Western Hemisphere had population of 60 million–80 million
no immunity to Old World diseases
Europeans brought European and African diseases
mortality rate of up to 90 percent among Native American populations
native population nearly vanished in the Caribbean
Central Mexico: population dropped from 10/20 million to around 1 million by 1650
similar mortality in North America
• The Columbian Exchange
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massive native mortality created a labor shortage in the Americas
migrant Europeans and African slaves created entirely new societies
American food crops (e.g., corn, potatoes and cassava) spread widely worldwide
potatoes especially allowed enormous population growth
corn and sweet potatoes were important in China and Africa
exchange with the Americas reshaped the world economy
importation of millions of African slaves to the Americas
network of communication, migration, trade, transfer of plants and animals
(including microbes) is called “the Columbian exchange”
the Atlantic world connected four continents: Europeans got most of the rewards
Comparing Colonial Societies in the Americas
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Europeans established wholly new societies.
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In the Lands of the Aztecs and the Incas
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all were shaped by mercantilism—theory that governments should encourage exports and
accumulate bullion to serve their countries
colonies should provide closed markets for the mother country’s manufactured goods
the most wealthy, urbanized, and populous regions of the Western Hemisphere
within a century, the Spaniards established major cities, universities, and a religious and
bureaucratic infrastructure
economic basis : commercial agriculture and mining (gold and silver)
rise of a distinctive social order replicated some of the Spanish class hierarchy
accommodated Indians, Africans, and racially mixed people
Spaniards were at the top, wanted a large measure of self government from Spanish Crown
emergence of mestizo (mixed-race) population
gross abuse and exploitation of the Indians
more racial fluidity than in North America
Colonies of Sugar: in high demand in Europe
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lowland Brazil and the Caribbean developed a different society: export based economy
Arabs introduced large-scale sugar production to the Mediterranean
Europeans transferred it to Atlantic islands (Canaries, Azores, Madeira) and Americas
Portuguese on Brazilian coast dominated the world sugar market 1570–1670
British, French, and Dutch in the Caribbean broke the Portuguese
Sugar transforms Brazil and Caribbean: “the first modern industry”
The Plantation complex spreads to southern parts of North America (ie. South Carolina)
Comparing Colonial Societies in the Americas
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Europeans Settler Colonies in North America
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different sort of colonial society emerged in British colonies of NewEngland, New York, and
Pennsylvania
British got the unpromising lands in N. America but British society was changing more rapidly
many British colonists were trying to escape elements of European society
British settlers were more numerous; by 1750, they outnumbered Spaniards in New
World by five to one
by 1776, 90 percent of population of North American colonies was European
Indians were killed off by disease and military policy
small-scale farming didn’t need slaves
England was mostly Protestant; didn’t proselytize like the Catholics
British colonies developed traditions of local self-government
Britain didn’t impose an elaborate bureaucracy like Spain
British civil war (seventeenth century distracted government from involvement in the colonies
North America gradually became dominant, more developed than South America
The Steppes and Siberia: The Making of a Russian Empire
• Experiencing the Russian Empire
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conquest was made possible by modern weapons and organization
conquest brought devastating epidemics, especially in remote areas of Siberia—
locals had no immunity to smallpox and measles
pressure to convert to Christianity
large-scale settlement of Russians in the new lands, where they outnumbered the
native population (e.g., in Siberia)
discouragement of pastoralism, nomadic lifestyle/ many natives were Russified
• Russians and Empire
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with imperial expansion, Russians became a smaller proportion of population
rich agricultural lands, furs, and minerals help make Russia a great power by 18thC
became an Asian power as well as a European one
long-term Russian identity problem: expansion made Russia a very militarized state
reinforced autocracy
colonization experience was different from the Americas
conquest of territories with which Russia had long interacted
conquest took place at the same time as development of the Russian state
the Russian Empire remained intact until 1991
Asian Empires
• Making China an Empire
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Qing dynasty (1644–1912) launched enormous imperial expansion to the north & west
nomads of the north and west were very familiar to the Chinese
80-year-long Chinese conquest (1680– 1760) motivated by security fears
China evolved into a Central Asian empire
• conquered territory was ruled separately from rest of China through Court of Colonial Affairs
• considerable use of local elites to govern
• officials often imitated Chinese ways but government did not try to assimilate conquered
peoples
• little Chinese settlement in the conquered regions
– Russian and Chinese rule impoverished Central Asia, turned it into a backward region
• Muslims and Hindus in the Mughal Empire
– Mughals united much of India between 1526 and 1707
– Mughal Empire’s most important divide was religious
– Emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605) attempted accommodation of the Hindu majority
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brought many Hindus into the political-military elite
imposed a policy of toleration
abolished payment of jizya by non- Muslims
created a state cult that stressed loyalty to the emperor
Asian Empires
• Muslims, Christians, and the Ottoman Empire
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the Ottoman Empire was the Islamic world’s most important empire in the early modern period
long conflict (1534–1639) between Sunni Ottomans and Shia Safavids
the Ottoman Empire was the site of a significant cross-cultural encounter
in Anatolia, most of the conquered Christians converted to Islam
in the Balkans, Christian subjects mostly remained Christian, many Christians welcomed Ottoman
conquest
• Ottoman taxed less and were less oppressive
• Christian churches received considerable autonomy
• Balkan elites were accepted among the Ottoman elite without conversion
Jewish refugees from Spain had more opportunities in the Ottoman Empire
devshirme: tribute of boys paid by Christian Balkan communities
• boys were converted to Islam, trained to serve the state
• the devshirme was a means of upward social mobility
7. the Ottoman state threatened Christendom
Reflections: Countering Eurocentrism . . . or Reflecting
It?
• Western European empires still receive more discussion space
because they were different and more significant than the others
• they were something wholly new in human history
• they had a much greater impact on the people they incorporated
Considering the Evidence
• Documents: State Building in the Early
Modern Era
• Visual Sources: The Conquest of Mexico
Through Aztec Eyes
Chapter 14
Empires and Encounters
1450–1750
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Map 14.1 European Colonial Empires in the Americas (p. 627)
Map 14.2 The Russian Empire (p. 640)
Map 14.3 The Ottoman Empire (p. 647)
SPOTMAP: China’s Qing Dynasty Empire (p. 644)
SPOTMAP: The Mughal Empire (p. 645)
Visual Source 14.1 Disaster Foretold (p. 665)
Visual Source 14.2 Moctezuma and Cortés (p. 666)
Visual Source 14.3 The Massacre of the Nobles (p. 668)
Visual Source 14.4 The Spanish Retreat from Tenochtitlán (p. 669)
Visual Source 14.5 Smallpox: Disease and Defeat (p. 670)