WW Part 4: Intro, Ch 13 (Empires & Encounters), Ch 14 (Commerce & Consequence), Ch 15 (Religion & Science)

Intro

• This chapter focuses on what is commonly known as the Early Modern Era, but which Strayer argues as more of a Late Agrarian era. By way of examples, he highlights that the following aspects of early agriculture continued throughout this era: pre-industrial energy (man, animal, wind, and water), long-established elite classes still governed Eurasia, the pervasive religion was still Islam, and much of society continued their existence in an agrarian fashion.

Ch 13 (Empires & Encounters)

• European conquest within the Americas marked a distinct imperial change, as lands oceans away were conquered in favor of closer bordered lands.
• Spain: Caribbean, Aztec, and Inca
• Portugal: Brazil
• Britain, France, and Netherlands: North America Eastern Coast
• Eastern Europeans had a distinct advantage in exploration of the Americas: proximity to the Atlantic, trade winds (consistent by comparison to Indian Ocean monsoon winds), new innovations (mapmaking, navigation, sailing techniques, and ship design), and a lack of competition (Chinese, Indian, and Muslims enjoying the rich Indian Ocean trade).
• The claim by a Spanish conquistador, “We came here to serve God and the King, and also to get rich” concisely describes the motivation of the elite and commoners to risk the journey across the Atlantic.
• “Columbian Exchange”
• Colonization efforts were furthered through: incorporation of rival indigenous peoples against their traditional enemies, diseases which diminished the native peoples.
• Isolated Mesoamerican and Andean peoples without domesticated animals did not acquires Old World immunities: smallpox, measles, typhus, influenza, malaria, yellow fever. Densely populated Caribbean islands and central Mexico were decimated by smallpox.
• Trade revolutionized both sides of the Atlantic:
• With the reduced native population, the slave trade introduced a large African workforce.
• Incorporation of cattle and work animals in the American altered many indigenous tribes way of life.
• Crops from the Americas helped to offset the slave trade population deficit, and created a population boom in areas like Ireland.
• Luxury goods, such as Mexican silver, helped Europe buy its way into the Silk trade for goods such as Tea.
• This massive influx of information and goods from the Americas helped spark the European Industrial revolution, and provided a destination for the ever growing population in Europe.
• The colonization approaches created varying forms of new society within the Americas. Some existed in settler-dominated or slave-based plantation agricultural communities, others were more radically mercantile in their strip mining of local resources. The influx of new peoples and slaves into the Americas created new cultures of intermingled peoples, either through brutal rape of women, or the intermarriage of the elite.
• The Spanish subjugation of the Aztecs and Incas took the form of crown sponsored programs which evolved over time. The encomienda was little more than a protection racket legal granted by the crown to settlers. The repartimiento was more or less the same practice but with control governed by the crown. The hacienda was a wage system which seemed intent on providing some benefits to the indigenous workers, but in reality levied huge taxes and debts for their continued existence.
• Spanish populations created a divided peoples across the new incorporated kingdoms. Not just between Spaniards and natives, but between the original conquistadors and the recent immigrants. Equally the natives incorporated and married into their conquerors societies creating a unique multiethnic culture.
• The Portuguese similarly found a sense of commercial wealth through Brazilian sugar cane, and later in gold and diamonds. Portugal's dominance of the sugar market caused the British, French, and Dutch to convert Caribbean regions into high production sugar cane territories. These new territories, with no indigenous peoples, created a large African slave market to work the farms. This slave incorporation into the Caribbean and Brazilian territories created an enduring population majority of African descent.
• British colonization was seen as fruitless until the later 18th century. Settlers came mainly to escape religious conflict and political subjugation. Puritan and Quakers created new family farms with paid laborers; creating a new form of government hierarchy. Settlers came in droves by comparison to their Spanish counterparts who were relatively timid in their colonization. These colonies decimated local indigenous people and did not intermix as the Spanish had; this created a purely anglo civilization.
• Russian expansion was similarly destructive to the native peoples north of Mongolia (steppes and Siberia); however rather than their eradication, passive attempts were made to incorporate them into agrarian Russian society and dominated tribute system, before forced Russification occurred. As a Russian population influx began to dominate the conquered regions, forced resettlement of Muslims occurred as pressures to convert to Christianity were made. Interesting, the western expansion was less financial and driven more by rivalry with the surrounding European empires.
• The Chinese opted not to expand their nation through naval exploration as their European counterparts had. Alternatively, the Chinese Qing dynasty took a military approach to conquering of Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet, and establishing a treaty with the expanding Russians to solidify their borders. A focus was put on returning to Confucian teaching culturally, but the management of the conquered peoples utilized a new Court of Colonial Affairs which attempted to manage these regions without forced incorporation, and instead showed significant respect for their differences. With these two unified nations (China and Russia) controlling the heart of the silk road, trade across land diminished as it no longer reflected the cultural cosmopolitan diversity which made it so lucrative.
• In India, the Mughal Empire formed by the Turkic Muslims created a brief political unity over the indigenous Hindu. Recognizing the religious ideological differences, an effort was made by Emperor Akbar to accommodate the Hindu majority into the political-military elite, and to remove tax on non-Muslims. This created a rift with fundamentalist Muslims who found these concessions to be heretical. Ultimately civil unrest created sufficient instability for the British conquering of India.
• Similar to the Mughal’s, the Muslim Turkic Ottoman Empire spread across the Mediterranean and north Africa. Maintaining the Shia form of Islam, it created a cross cultural empire with tolerance of Christianity in it’s varying flavors.

Ch 14 (Commerce & Consequence)

• Unlike with Columbus’ accidental discovery of the Americas, Vasco da Gama intentionally sailed to India to create an inlet into the lucrative Indian Ocean trade market. As many goods from the underdeveloped Europe were seen as inferior, goods were required to be purchased in the expensive currency of precious metals (gold, silver, etc.).To bypass this trade deficit, and to remove intermediaries which cut into profits (i.e. Venice, and Muslims), this insurgence into Asia through the Indian Ocean became somewhat of a necessity for many of the western European nations.
• Portugal extended into the Indian Ocean forcibly, creating “trading post empires” in which they levied taxes and controlled a portion of trade within the region rather than large amounts of lands and people. Ultimately they resorted to trading in local goods, until their decline in the1600’s to upcoming Asian empires such as Japan and Mughal India.
• Spain, sensing itself behind in the naval trade market, sponsored Ferdinand Magellan on a round the word voyage which established itself on the Philippine Islands. The lack of competing claims by the local superpowers (China and Japan), and relatively weak indigenous hierarchical populace, led the Spanish to colonize the archipelago. This bloodless takeover led to the incorporation of Christianity in Asia, resulting in a switch in gender superiority within religious practices. Additionally, Chinese traders, and sailors became crucial to trade success with China, but resistance to conversion led to hostility, discrimination, expulsion, and racial massacres.
• Dutch and English traders supplanted Portuguese through means of privatized trading companies; the British and Dutch East India Companies. Each were granted preferential trade and ability to enact war on their behalf. The Dutch dictatorially controlled shipping and production of certain spices thru brutal tactics, creating a successful monopoly on nutmeg, mace, and cloves, and cooperatively colonizing with China the island of Taiwan. Alternatively, the British counterparts established themselves in India through permission of Mughal authorities by way of bribery, as they lacked the ground might to compete. This trade allowed them to focus on cotton textiles which became a massive market in England and the Americas.
• European trade benefited some Asian territories such as Japan, who leveraged their superior military technology, and religious ideologies to stabilize the region under a single leadership. Once established, these same traders and religious practitioners were expelled violently as they were seen as a threat to stability.
• Silver fueled global commerce as mines in the Americas and Japan filtered through Manila as the primary trading currencies across Europe and Asia. While Spain and China seemingly wasted their significant silver surplus as inflation took hold, Japan used this period of wealth to implement agricultural systems, forest preservation policies, and birthing reductions to set themselves up for a future industrial age.
• As a minor ice age took hold across the world, a new trade in furs peaked across the world. Native Americans, the voluntary workforce provided the first to French, English, and Dutch settlements in the Americas. Trade with the Europeans provided trade benefits which allowed tribes to improve their standings amount the many indigenous peoples. Alcohol, not introduced before, created a dependency with local tribes, ultimately decimating their numbers. Women marrying into European households further reduced native numbers, but contributed influence by providing translators and guides. A similar process occurred in Russia as Siberian natives became dependent on Russian expansion, as they competed with private trading groups.
• The slave trade became the link between all societies of the age. Slaves represented the workforce of all conquered societies, although slave treatment and representation differed in each countries. In some, slavery allowed for the opportunity to assimilate within household lineages, and in some Islamic societies allowed for prominent military careers, In the Americas, the sheer amount of slaves created a dehumanized property concept as African slavery became a new racial component which was identified with subservience. Ironically, the original term came from the original Mediterranean plantations slaves which were Slavic-speaking people from the Black Sea.
• European demand for slaves created a supply within Africa for slaves; most of which were sold by African tribes willing to offload their conquered rivals. Slaves were bought and sold using the silver of the Americas, and trade of many European goods. Many slaves came from Western Africa, while some were transported from the Interior; though most were prisoners of war, criminals, debtors, or those not affiliated with a powerful tribe.
• The Slave Trade created a permanent link between African and the Americas, creating a enormous cultural population within the latter. Although trade did not create an extinct population as it did in the Americas or the Asian islands, culture in Africa slowed significantly. As a result new markets opened up as fewer women were sold into slavery, women took on more cultural burdens.  Additionally local tribal lords prospered through formalization of the slave trade with Europeans.

Ch 15 (Religion & Science)

• In this early modern age, established religion ideologies spread throughout the world in various forms (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism). While these religions sought to expand their influence throughout the ever expanding known world, a scientific revolution was occurring throughout Europe and Asia.
• Superficially, Christianities reach extended from Western Europe through Russia, with expanding in the Americas and smaller pockets throughout Africa and Asia. In practice, Christianity was far from unified, with Martin Luther unintentionally creating a divide between the Roman Catholic Church, and what was developing as The Protestant Reformation. The reformation took a theological approach toward criticising the Catholic church's immorality and corruption. By questioning these practices, it raised questions around their authority, and provided royal families and the growing middle class the grounds for which to rebel against the church.
• The conflict became known as the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648) in which Catholics and Protestant struggle spanned all of Europe until their eventual fracturing into distinct ideologies. This sparked a counter-reformation by the Roman Catholic church aimed at correcting the corrupt practices, and reaffirming their core doctrines and faith in the Papal authority.
• Catholic vs Protestant Viewpoints
• Religious Authority: Pope + Church vs. Bible + Individual Interpretation
• Role of the Pope: Ultimate Authority vs. None
• Ordination of Clergy: Apostolic Succession vs. Ordination by Congregation
• Salvation: Church Sacraments vs. Faith
• Statue of Mary: Second to Jesus vs. Less Prominent
• Prayer: To God through Mary / Saints vs. God Alone
• Holy Communion: Transubstantiation vs. Symbolic Only
• Role of Clergy: Mediators between Man and God vs. Lead through Prayer
• Role of Saints: Spiritual Role Models vs. Source of Idolatry
• Christianity spread thru exploration, trade, missionary work  and conflict. Catholics (Spain and Portugal) expanded through the Crusades and its overseas expansion into the new world. Vasco de Gama and Columbus exploration brought with them their religions while they searched for good to make their patrons wealthy.
• The conquering of Latin American empires creating sense by the indigenous people that the European Gods were great. This caused large numbers of locals to adopt the Christian religion, while not completely divesting themselves of tribal beliefs. Christian missionaries did not tolerate idolatry and attempted to educate, and on occasion violently enforce, these tenants. This caused locals to began a subversive blending of beliefs in order to retain cultural religious traditions under the guise of Christianity.
• The Jesuits took a different approach to conversion in China, a unified and dominant power. Rather than directly converting the populace, they targeted the wealthy and elite by incorporating into Chinese society by learning their language and Confucian ideologies, and using their educational background as a guise for information sharing. Weak conversion in China was partly due to their subtle approach, a lack of unique ideological concepts to counter Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, and ultimately Papal attempt to restrict Chinese converts from committing sacrifices to Confucius caused emperial end to Christian presence in China.
• Islam continued its stretch through peaceful means; Sufis, scholars and traders brought their beliefs to Afro-Asia. As Islam brought with it education, literacy, and doctrines for societal structure, many incorporated these into their existing belief systems. This merging of beliefs eventually led to a renewal movements aimed at enforcing the purity and practices of the Quran.
• In China a new neo-Confucianism began to take hold which focused on introspective and “faith alone” as a moral compass for right and wrong.
• Under the Mughal Empire, a new combined religious system which merged Hindu and Muslim believes together took hold and strengthened societal ties. This devotional form of bhakti Hinduism, attempted unity through creativity, using songs, poetry, and dances as a form of prayer and ritual.
• Sikhism also established itself in the northern Punjab region of India. The focus as a rejection of Hindu and Muslim beliefs and a singular focus on god. Caste, gender, and social divides were all set aside under a single brotherhood, under the teaching of Guru Nanak. Their beliefs were predominantly peaceful, but within a larger military community which was highly praised.
• The Scientific Revolution began in Europe despite the intellectual achievements made by Islam. It’s thought that the unique legal system in Europe established autonomy for corporations and emerging universities, which kept them from religious influence and allowed a separation of philosophy from theology. It’s also believed that their access to Islamic teachings and uniquely new information about the new worlds allowed a challenge to conventional thinking.
• Science as a Cultural Revolution
• Copernicus: Sun is at the center of solar system
• Vesalius: Anatomy thru Dissection
• Bacon: Observation and Experimentation
• Galilei: Advanced astronomy (telescope, sunspots, etc.), velocity of falling objects.
• Kepler: Planets follow elliptical orbits; laws of planetary motion
• Harvey: Heart function and blood circulation
• Descartes: Mathematics and logical deduction to understand the physical world; invented analytic geometry
• Newton: Early universal gravitation; invented calculus; created inertia and laws of motion concepts.
• Europeans changed their mindset to one of human reasoning and skepticism of authority. This change in thought paired with advances in book making led to improved literacy and a heightened sense of enlightenment by scientific understanding. This spawned several beliefs about the nature of enlightenment:
• Deism believed in an abstract being who created the world but was not concerned with its affairs.
• Pantheists believed that god and nature were the same.
• Enlightenment became challenged by the artistic romanticism movement and religions entities, as much as by itself. A self-critical approach to knowledge spread throughout the scientific disciple spectrum; biology, sociology, and psychology were all scrutinized and evaluated.
• Enlightenment became an achievement which spread across the world. In China, Jesuit missionaries spread knowledge of astrology, mathematics and medicine. While Japan remained isolated to all, save the Dutch, anatomical dissection became an important topic for their intellectuals. In the Ottoman Empire, which relied primarily on Islamic teachings, cared less about the philosophical leaps and more about practical implementations of map making and calendars.