Africa and the Americas before the European Arrival

Sub-Saharan Africa: the Unknown Land

Historically, northern Africa was included in the Mediterranean civilization.

To the Europeans, the whole interior of the continent was terra incognita.
And it was over the wide expanses of this region that political growth and
development were mushrooming in the centuries around 1500.
o Africa south of the great desert was a world unto itself, living by its
own rhythms, growing accordingto its own patterns of social
evolution

East Part of Sub-Saharan Africa

Ethiopia in East Africa

o A Christian trading empire based on the old Axum-Kushite
Empire lasted for a long time, but by the 1500s had lost connection
with the Europeans because of the Islamic conquest over North
Africa.
City-States in east coastal Africa:
o Trade with the Middle East and India prosperous
o The Swahili language, a native language of the Bantu people
mixed with Arabic words

 Coastal area in East Africa was included in the Muslim zone. Its trading
relations with Arabian world remained close.

Western Africa: outside influence varies

Songhai: A new Sudanic empire overthrowing Mali

The soldier-king Sonni Au (14641492): founder of the new empire

Askia Muhammad (14931528): Builder of the Islamic empire ==>The
Songhai kingdom reached its height under the reign of Askia
Muhammad (14931528).
Decline in the late 16th century because of invasion of Moroccans

Kano: a major city in the Hausa city-states

Merchant and craft communities grew wealthy

The elites of the Hausa cities accepted a modified Muslim religion and
developed a written language based on Arabic

Benin ==>Major features?

Flourishing in the fifteenth century

 Crops grew luxuriantly in the cleared land around the city. Prosperous Benin
merchants traded as far away as the Sudan. Benins carvers of ivory and
wood and casters of brass were famous.
The political system was a complex one centering in a political and religious
leader, the oba (king). But a good deal of power was also dispersed among
the lyoha (queen mother), the crown prince, a group of leading noblemen or
palace chiefs, and the town chiefs outside the capital.

Central and South Africa

The Kingdom of Kongo ==>Major features?

A developed agricultural society, depending most heavily on a variety of

palm trees

The political organization was on a matrilineal basis in village level:

Villages=>Districts=>Provinces=>State
The king legally was not hereditary but elected by elders and
governors. The kingdom had no standing army but all men had a
universal military-service obligation when necessary.

The Bantu people in the south (Great Zimbabwe) ==>Who were the Bantu people?

Migrated from the north

Bantu means people
In Zimbabwe, the people had developed a varied economy =>Major
features?

 The largest walled construction is the Great Enclosure. It included a

huge stone hall, a great enclosure with thirty-foot-high walls of
unmortared stones, and a large stone tower, as well as many other
buildings. This Great Enclosure represents the major achievement of
the Bantu people.

==>the Bantu culture in Central and South Africa was less influenced by the
Islam than other sub-Saharan African cultures.

The Americas==>The major features of these two civilizations, combined with

the documentaries?

Mesoamerican civilization (Aztec): based on city-states encouraging trade,

monumental religious buildings like pyramids, massive sacrifice of human
blood
The Inka Empire: centralized state without trade (agriculture as its
economic base), a remarkable network of roads and supply
stations, worship the sun but no blood-soaked religious practices, the
longest "socialism" in the world with strong government control.
Culturally sophisticated but technologically backward (particularly shown in
Mesoamerica)==>Use specific examples to explain how Mesoamerican
civilizations became culturally sophisticated but
technologically backward?
For example: In their agricultural production, the Aztecs widely used
stone and wood tools. Although they knew metals such as gold, copper,
and tin, they did not use them for production. Instead, these metals were
used for decoration or religion purpose.

A Revolutionary and Expansionist Europe and Overseas

Expansion
Our previous discussions focus on non-European civilizations. The discussions and
lectures revealed some key reasons why non-Europeans failed to conduct a lasting
overseas expansion. In this section, we will focus on the European efforts and
particularly on why the lasting overseas expansionwhich began to connect all
parts of the world together into a single unitwas conducted only by Europeans.
The textbooks do not have a detailed discussion on this issue. This lecture will
explore certain economic/social, political, ideological, and technological roots of
the European overseas expansion. And then the lecture will outline the remaining
portion of Chapter 16 in The Earth and Its Peoples with my brief notes.

I. The Medieval Tradition

We label the European society in around 1500 revolutionary and expansionist.
Here, revolutionary means that Europe experienced substantial structural
changes and expansionist means that Europe became looking-outward. But these
features could be traced back to the European Medieval tradition. And in this
section we only focus on Western Europe. The eastern portion of Europe had a
different experience.
Western Europe is located in the west end of the Eurasian continent. With East
Europe as its buffer zone, after the 10thcentury Western Europe was largely free
from large-scale external invasion, except internal frequent feudal and religious
wars. This advantageous location historically provided Western Europe with a
relatively peaceful environment for several centuries.
Meanwhile, the Western Europeans widely utilized dry farming when engaged in
agricultural word. Such dry farming normally referred to the cultivation of such
crops as wheat, millet, and barley, dependent largely on annual rainfalls rather than
irrigation which was used in rice cultivation in the Oriental society. Although dry

farming was more risky in comparison, it did not need numerous large-scale water
control/adjustment projects used in irrigation farming. As a result, there was less
government intervention in the Western European society than in the Oriental one.
More important, the Western European social classification was unique. There
were four major social groups (kings, nobles/warriors, peasants, priests) which also
appeared other societies. But what was unique was that these social groups
functioned in different medieval institutions:
Kings and nobles were related to feudalism, in which kings granted their land to
their followers in return for the followers loyalty and military service. The nobles
and warriors who received the land were called vassals. And the land became
vassals fief. In this system, the rights and obligations for kings and vassals were
specified. The kings did not manage or control those fiefs and thus were unable to
establish a centralized imperial authority. Actually, many vassals became more
powerful than their lords, as time went on.
Landlords (including kings, noble vassals, and high-ranking priests) and
peasants were related to a self-sufficient manor system, in which the landlords
controlled land and forced landless peasants (serfs) to work for them. Here, serfs
were not slaves but also not freemen. They were bound to the landlords by land
and could not freely leave their manor. But the landlords could not totally control
the serfs who still had certain rights. For example, the serfs had right to get a patch
of land for their own life from the landlords. They also enjoyed various holidays in
which they did not have to work. Thus manor system was popular in Europe during
the medieval period, as there was no centralized empire which could control those
manors.
In Western Europe, the Christian Church remained an independent political
force. This was different from what happened in the Oriental society where the
religious force was either subordinated to or merged with the secular power.
Christianity in the medieval period was not only independent of the secular
political regime but also politically became more powerful than kings and nobles.
Obviously, in the medieval period, the above three institutions damped any
possibility for the Europeans to establish a stable and powerful centralized political
and social system. In each of the three, neither party could become powerful
enough to totally control the other. These various conflicting political/social forces
coexisted and made the European political and social structure not so stable and
solid as that in the Orient.
Actually, there were three major constant conflicts in medieval Europe: conflicts
between kings and vassals, between landlords and serfs, and between secular rulers
and church priests). These conflicts made it for the new force (here referred to new
merchant class) easy to break the European medieval tradition and structure. The

rising merchant class could utilize these conflicts to expand its influence and
become a major driving force to promote the substantial social, economic, and
political changes.
II. Economic Foundation
After the 10th century, with a relatively peaceful environment, important
technological inventionssuch as the heavy-wheeled plow (which could plow the
land six inches deep) and the harnessled to a slow but steady economic growth
in Europe. The invention of harness was particularly important. Unlike the old
yoke which would strangle horse when encircling the horse neck and belly, the
harness was placed on horse shoulders so that horse could pull and run without
choking (see the illustration below):

As a result, the horses power was effectively utilized. And the consequent wide
use of horse as a new animal power source in Western European production
process to some extent paved the way for future mechanization.
These new technologies led to corresponding economic growth and further
promoted population increase. The total Western European population increased
from 24.7 million in 1000 to over 57 million in 1500.
Economic and population growth inevitably further promoted the growth of
commerce. The self-sufficient economy gradually broke up. Production became
more and more market-oriented. Commerce became a necessary part of peoples
economic life. Before the 11th century only luxury goods (most from the Orient)
were traded. By the 15th century, almost all daily-used goods such as salt, wine,
linen, cloth, wool, timber, leather, steel, and iron had been traded widely in the
European market. The trading routes spread throughout Europe and extended to
Asia and Africa. See the map below:

Based on prosperous commercial activities, many old local fairs gradually

developed into towns and even cities and became the local or regional trading
centers. Although most European cities in the 15th and 16th centuries could not
match the Oriental cities in terms of population and trading volume, one
fundamental difference between the cities in the two areas was that the
European cities were increasingly autonomous, free, and independent and the
Oriental cities were more firmly controlly by kings/emperors, nobles, and
religious forces. The people in towns and citiesthey were called bourgeoisie
(which later referred to property owners) or burghersinitially had by contractual
relations with landlords who could share commercial profits with them. Although
the landlords tried to control these cities and towns, the town/city people had to be
free to come and go, as their occupations were connected with trade and thus made
freedom and independence essential. Otherwise, the cities and towns would no
longer become trading centers to provide the landlords with more benefits. As a
result, in the late medieval and early modern periods, most European cities and
towns had been granted autonomy and the people (including merchants) there had
gained different degrees of freedom and independence from the feudal laws.

Such unique status never appeared among the Asian merchants who were
subordinated the government. Unlike their Oriental counterpartners, the European
merchants, with their freed and independent status, not only became actively
involved in politics by serving as city senators, mayors, and financial advisors of
kings and nobles but also utilized the prosperous European market to reorganize
production and expand trading activities.
With their efforts, a new mode of production or economic systemcapitalism
had begun to develop by the 14th century only in Western Europe. The major
driving force of this new capitalism was the desire to acquire maximal profit by
using large amount of capital in various ways, in other words, to use money to
produce money as much as possible. The major slogan of those early capitalist
merchants was: profit or perish.
With such profit orientation, capitalism as an economic system had some new
features, many of which were opposite to the medieval tradition: private ownership
of means of production (opposite to medieval landholding system), production for
a constantly expanding market (opposite to manorial self-sufficiency), wide use of
money and credit (opposite to the previous bartering trade), individuals freedom
of choice, large economic organizations (opposite to the old family based group),
and development and application of business laws to regulate complicated trading
activities.
The development of capitalism could be roughly divided into 3 stages in a
simplified way:
1). Commercial capitalism in the early modern period: commercial activities were
more important than manufacturing
2) Industrial Capitalism from the late 18th century to the early 20th century: the
industrial revolution made manufacturing dominant
3) Post-Industrial Capitalism I labeled: this stage lasted from the early 20th century
to the present, in which capitalism tended to become monopolistic and introduced
the state intervention and adjustment.
In the early modern period, capitalist merchants conducted their business
mainly through their new organization: the joint stock company. Normally,
after establishing the company, the merchants (many of them were bankers) sold
their share to public so that they could accumulate large number of capital for their
trading enterprises from the society and spread both risks and profit among a
number of investors. These companies often got the charter from the government
and could monopolize certain trade in certain regions outside Europe. This new
form of organization was attractive to all sorts of individuals, because the
individual investors at worst only lost their invested capital and did not afford other
responsibility. When these powerful companies went to Asia and Africa, the nonEuropean merchants whose business was family-based were unable to compete

with them.
Generally speaking, the emergence of capitalism had its historical
significance. Unlike many oriental ideologies based on the notions of stability
and harmony, new capitalist ideology was based on the notion of progress and
development. The capitalist merchants were never content with their existing
wellbeing but always pursued the constant increase in their assets or profit. It was
such a desire that transformed the European society, promoted the rise of Europe,
and made the European overseas expansion inevitable, because, without a
constantly expanding market outside Europe, capitalism could not substantially
develop and capitalists could not constantly increase their profit.
III. The Political, Cultural, and Technological Foundation
I have spent a lot of time on the economic reason, largely because the textbook
does not explain this issue in detail. But this does not mean that the emergence of
capitalism alone could not sufficiently explain the reasons for the lasting and
successful European overseas expansion. Other elements also made substantial
contribution to the European efforts. We need to briefly discuss them.
1. Politically, the rise of the New Monarchs
By the 15th and 16th centuries, several Western European countries such as Spain,
England, and France moved toward the building of a new national monarchy.
These kings or queens were called new monarchs and made efforts to undermine
the power and influence of the old feudal nobles and establish a new centralized
political system. The most famous new monarchs included:
1) King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella of Spain, who achieved the unification of
Spain through their marriage in the mid-15th century and defeated the invaded
Moor Muslims in 1492 (see the picture below);

2) Louis XI (14611483) who put under his control all of the major areas of
todays France (see the picture below);

3) Francis I (1515-1547) who substantially expanded the power of his royal

council and successfully centralized the taxation system in order to increase the
revenue (see the picture below);

4) Henry VII (14851509) of England, who also centralized the power of his
government and put under control the noble-dominated parliament (see the picture
below).

In their move toward new monarchy, these monarchs regarded the old feudal
nobles as their major enemy. To fight against these feudal nobles, the
monarchs establish an alliance with the rising wealthy merchants. As the
textbook mentions, there was a "unique alliance between merchants and rulers"
(p.426). For example, Louis XI appointed those merchant burghers as his advisors
and encouraged them to expand their trade, while the merchants provided him with
financial support in his struggle against the nobles. Such an alliance not only
assured the kings victory over the nobles but also made the overseas
expansion receive the government support rather than merely a merchant
effort, since such overseas expansion not only met the merchants demands
and increased the revenue but also showed and expanded the glory and
greatness of the new monarchy.
2. Ideologically or Culturally, Christian Expansionism and Renaissance
Ferment
Oversea expansion was also motivated by religious consideration: to spread the

universal Christianity throughout the world. Historically, Christian expansion was

conducted through either peaceful missionary work or militant, crusading
expeditions. Overseas expansion provided new opportunities for the Europeans to
fight against Muslims, spread Christianity to other parts of the world, and lead the
non-European pagans to God, whether peacefully or militantly. Many explorers
like Prince Henry, Vasco da Gama, and Christopher Columbus showed strong
religious intentions.
Besides God, Gold (including profit), and Glory mentioned above, Renaissance
also played a role in overseas expansion. Here I would like to mention its influence
on the overseas expansion rather than discuss its process. Generally speaking,
Renaissance followed two principles: secularism (concern with this world rather
than the world after death) and humanism (concern with the human being and the
purpose of life). Take a look at the illustration below:

This is Raphael Sanzios School of Athens. Describing ancient Greek philosophers

Aristotle and Plato as well as other scholars, this painting revealed Raphaels
humanist and secularist ideal: the two famous philosophers (human beings) were
put at the center and whole painting did not describe any sign of Christian God;
Aristotle and Plato as well as other scholars were in the 16th century Italian dress

rather than that in the 5th century BC and the hall of the school was totally the style
of Renaissance architecture, which showed that he put an ancient topic in the
setting of this world.
We cannot say Renaissance directly promoted the overseas expansion. But this
cultural awakening movement, with its emphasis on secularism and humanism,
stimulated the Europeans to seek new knowledge outside Europe and expand into
unknown fields in this world, thus indirectly promoting the overseas exploration by
providing the Europeans with a new intellectual foundation.
3. New navigation Technology
The new technology the Europeans grasped made their long-distance ocean
navigation possible, for example, their use of new caravel and the triangular lateen
sails along with the Atlantic square sails. See the picture below:

magnetic compass,
guns, and cannons. Particularly, they could firmly mount the cannons to the ship so
that the cannons would be fixed when fired. This made their small vessels more
powerful and destructive. No other people grasped this technology at the time.

All these above elements were combined together to promote the overseas
expansion. Please note, in Discussion 02,you need to discuss which one was more
important and why.
IV. Overseas Expansion
Chapter 16 of The Earth and Its peopls discuss the initial stage of the European
overseas expansion and the encounters by 1550. Below is the outline with my brief
notes.
Part One. Global Maritime Expansion Before 1450
A. The Indian Ocean
Ommitted. Already Discussed.
B.

The Pacific Ocean

1. Over a period of several thousand years, peoples originally from Asia crossed
the water to settle the islands of the East Indies, New Guinea, the Melanesian and
Polynesian islands, the Marquesas, New Zealand, and other Pacific islands out to
Hawaii. Polynesian use of the sweet potato, domesticated in South America,
suggests that they may have reached the Americas.
2. Polynesian migration and establishment of colonies was aided by the
development of large, double-hulled canoes that used both paddlers and sails.
Polynesian mariners navigated by the stars and by their observations of ocean
currents and evidence of land.
C.

The Atlantic Ocean

1. During the relatively warm centuries of the early Middle Ages, the Vikings,
navigating by the stars and the seas, explored and settled Iceland, Greenland, and
Newfoundland (Vinland). When a colder climate returned after 1200, the northern
settlements in Greenland and the settlement in Newfoundland were abandoned.
2. A few southern Europeans and Africans attempted to explore the Atlantic in
the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Voyagers from Genoa in 1291 and from
Mali in the 1300s set out into the Atlantic but did not return. Genoese and
Portuguese explorers discovered and settled the Madeiras, the Azores, and the
Canaries in the fourteenth century.
3. In the Americas, the Arawak from South America had colonized the Lesser
and Greater Antilles by the year 1000. The Carib followed, first taking over

Arawak settlements in the Lesser Antilles and then, in the late fifteenth century,
raiding the Greater Antilles. Evidence of the transfer of maize cultivation practices
and metallurgy techniques indicates that there was some seaborne contact between
peoples on the Pacific Coast of Mesoamerica and South America after 100 C.E.
II.

European Expansion, 14001550

A.

Motives for Exploration

1. The Iberian kingdoms sponsored voyages of exploration for a number of

reasons, including both the adventurous personalities of their leaders and long-term
trends in European historical development: the revival of trade, the struggle with
Islam for control of the Mediterranean, curiosity about the outside world, and the
alliances between rulers and merchants.
2. The city-states of northern Italy had no incentive to explore Atlantic trade
routes because they had established a system of alliances and trade with the
Muslims that gave them a monopoly on access to Asian goods. Also, Italian ships
were designed for the calm waters of the Mediterranean and could not stand up to
the violent weather of the Atlantic.
3. The Iberian kingdoms had a history of centuries of warfare with Muslims.
They had no significant share in the Mediterranean trade, and thus were willing to
seek new routes to the east. They had advanced shipbuilding and cannon
technology and were open to new geographical knowledge.
B.

Portuguese Voyages

1. The Portuguese gained more knowledge of the sources of gold and slaves
south of the Sahara when their forces, led by Prince Henry, captured the North
African caravan city of Ceuta. Prince Henry (the Navigator) then sponsored a
research and navigation institute at Sagres to collect information about and send
expeditions to the African lands south of North Africa.
2. The staff of Prince Henrys research institute in Sagres studied and improved
navigational instruments, including the compass and the astrolabe. They also
designed a new vessel, the caravel, whose small size, shallow draft, combination of
square and lateen sails, and cannon made it well suited for the task of exploration.

3. Portuguese explorers eventually learned to pick up the prevailing westerly

winds that would blow them back to Portugal, contributing important knowledge
about oceanic wind patterns to the maritime community.
4. The Portuguese voyages eventually produced a financial return, first from
trade in slaves, and then from the gold trade.
5. Beginning in 1469, the process of exploration picked up speed as private
commercial enterprises began to get involved. The Lisbon merchant Fernao Gomes
sent expeditions that discovered and developed the island of So Tom and
explored the Gold Coast. Bartolomeu Dias and Vasco da Gama rounded the tip of
Africa and established contact with India, thus laying the basis for Portugals
maritime trading empire.
C.

Spanish Voyages

1. When Christopher Columbus approached the Spanish crown with his project
of finding a new route to Asia, the Portuguese had already established their route to
the Indian Ocean. The King and Queen of Spain agreed to fund a modest voyage of
discovery, and Columbus set out in 1492 with letters of introduction to Asian rulers
and an Arabic interpreter.
2. After three voyages, Columbus was still certain that he had found Asia, but
other Europeans realized that he had discovered entirely new lands. These new
discoveries led the Spanish and the Portuguese to sign the Treaty of Tordesillas, in
which they divided the world between them along a line drawn down the center of
the North Atlantic.
3. Ferdinand Magellans voyage across the Pacific confirmed Portugals claim to
the Molucca Islands and established the Spanish claim to the Philippines.
[Note: The two countries started the overseas expansion not because they were
the most powerful European nations at that time but because they were the
first kingdoms that established the new centralized monarchy to mobilize
various sources and because other major European powers were still plunged
in feudal and religious wars and unable to pay attention to the overseas issue.]
III.

Encounters with Europe, 14501550

A.

Western Africa

1. During the late fifteenth century, many Africans welcomed the Portuguese and
profited from their trade, in which they often held the upper hand. In return for
their gold, Africans received from the Portuguese merchants a variety of Asian,
African, and European goods, including firearms. Interaction between the
Portuguese and African rulers varied from place to place.
2. The oba (king) of the powerful kingdom of Benin sent an ambassador to
Portugal and established a royal monopoly on trade with the Portuguese. Benin
exported a number of goods, including some slaves, and its rulers showed a mild
interest in Christianity. After 1538, Benin purposely limited its contact with the
Portuguese, declining to receive missionaries and closing the market in male
slaves.
3. The kingdom of Kongo had fewer goods to export and consequently relied
more on the slave trade. When the Christian King Afonso I lost his monopoly over
the slave trade, his power was weakened and some of his subjects rose in revolt.
B.

Eastern Africa

1. In Eastern Africa, some Muslim states were suspicious of the Portuguese,

while others welcomed the Portuguese as allies in their struggles against their
neighbors. On the Swahili Coast, Malindi befriended the Portuguese and was
spared when the Portuguese attacked and looted many of the other Swahili citystates in 1505.
2. Christian Ethiopia sought and gained Portuguese support in its war against the
Muslim forces of Adal. The Muslims were defeated, but Ethiopia was unable to
make a long-term alliance with the Portuguese because the Ethiopians refused to
transfer their religious loyalty from the patriarch of Alexandria to the Roman pope.
C.

Indian Ocean States

1. When Vasco da Gama arrived in Calicut in 1498, he made a very poor

impression with his simple gifts. Nonetheless, the Portuguese were determined to
control the Indian Ocean trade, and their superior ships and firepower gave them
the ability to do so.
2. To assert their control, the Portuguese bombarded the Swahili city-states in
1505, captured the Indian port of Goa in 1510, and took Hormuz in 1515.
Extending their reach eastward, Portuguese forces captured Malacca in 1511 and
set up a trading post at Macao in southern China in 1557.

3. The Portuguese used their control over the major ports to require that all
spices be carried in Portuguese ships and that all other ships purchase Portuguese
passports and pay customs duties to the Portuguese.
4. Reactions to this Portuguese aggression varied. The Mughal emperors took no
action, while the Ottomans resisted and were able at least to maintain superiority in
the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Some smaller states cooperated with the
Portuguese; others tried evasion and resistance.
5. The Portuguese never gained complete control of the Indian Ocean trade, but
they did dominate it enough to bring themselves considerable profit and to break
the Italian city-states monopoly on pepper.
D.

The Americas

1. While the Portuguese built a maritime trading empire in Africa and Asia, the
Spanish built a territorial empire in the Americas. The reasons for the difference
are to be found in the isolation of Amerindian communities, their relative military
weakness compared to Europeans and their lack of resistance to Old World
diseases.
2. The Arawak were an agricultural people who mined and worked gold but did
not trade it over long distances. Spanish wars killed tens of thousands of Arawak
and undermined their economy; by 1502, the remaining Arawak of Hispaniola
were forced to serve as laborers for the Spanish.
3. What the Spanish did in the Antilles was an extension of Spanish actions
against the Muslims in the previous centuries: defeating non-Christians and putting
them and their land under Christian control. The actions of conquistadors in other
parts of the Caribbean followed the same pattern.
4. On the mainland, Hernan Cortes relied on native allies, cavalry charges, steel
swords, and cannon to defeat the forces of the Aztec Empire and capture the
Tenochtitlan. The conquest was also aided by the spread of smallpox among the
Aztecs. Similarly, Francisco Pizarros conquest of the Inka Empire was made
possible by the instability caused by a recent Inka civil war and by Spanish cannon
and steel swords.
[Note: The textbook discussed various reasons for successful European
conquest. Here, I would like to highlight one element: the so-called strangereffect, which was partly related to the native American disunity. In both Aztec

and Inca, the ruling peoples and the ruled peoples were constantly in hostility.
Having suffered from exploitation and oppression from Aztecs and Incas,
those ruled native Americans were extremely hostile to their ruling peoples
and hoped that external forces could liberate them from the rule of Aztecs and
Incas. So, when the Spanish came, most ruled native Americans welcomed the
arrival of these European strangers, regarding them as saviors and siding
with them against Aztecs and Incas. Many scholars agree that, without the
cooperation and support of those native American, the Spanish, based on their
new technology, better leadership, and horses, as well as diseases, could not
quickly occupy such a huge area with a few number of people. Such a
stranger-effect was one fundamental reason for the Spanish successful
conquest over Latin America and also would be shown in later European
conquest over other areas.]
IV. Conclusion
A.

Voyages of exploration and trade

1. Before the sixteenth century many in Asia, Africa and the Americas had
already begun to expand networks of trade and communication. These
groups included Malays, Chinese, Polynesians, and Arabs, as well as
Vikings and Amerindians.
2. These voyages helped to spur technological innovations, increased trade and
cultural interaction.

B.

European expansion

1. Driven by an interest in profit and by state rivalry, Portugal and Spain

launched major expeditions to try to link Asia directly to European markets. In so
doing, they integrated all parts of the world in truly global trade networks, and
created a new balance of power in the world.
2. The shape of European colonization in Asia and the Americas depended on
conditions which predated these European arrivals. In Asia the Portuguese wrested
control of a sophisticated, existing trade network, whereas in the Americas, the
emphasis on natural resources and the demographic impact of the Spanish conquest
meant the establishment of a large territorial empire.
[Note: After the 16th century, the Portuguese and Spanish were unable to be
dominant in the global overseas expansion. The so-called Northern European

countries (like Holland, Britain, and France) replaced them. One important
reason for the decline of the Iberian powers was that the lack of the joint stock
companies also made the Portuguese and Spanish unable to compete with
those Northern Europeans. And among these three (Dutch, British, and
French), the British and Dutch paid more attention to trade rather than
religious conversion. The French paid more attention to conversion and
assimilation.]

The Overland Expansion of a Rising Russia

In this section, the textbook covers major issues on the rise of Russia in the early
modern period.
I would highlight two issues you need to know:
1. The similarities and differences between the development of the Russian
Empire from 1480 to 1800 and the expansion of the West during the same
period.
*Both expansions were based on military superiority over less technologically
advanced peoples. There were economic zones along frontiers, and a colonial
system, incorporating ethnic diversity, resulted.

*Russian expansion was different because the Russians created a land-based

empire.
-They lacked a mercantile fleet and had only a limited military navy.
-The Russians failed to achieve economic parity with Western empires, and they
did not cause a demographic disaster similar to the European impact on the
Americas and Polynesia. The Russians did not establish the same economic
dominance over frontiers as did the West.
-They failed to develop merchant classes and the state, unlike the West, was in
charge of capitalizing ventures.
-Russian retention of an estate agricultural system was more typical of dependent
economic zones than of Western core regions. They retained a coercive labor
system, depended upon the export of raw materials, and imported manufactures
and luxuries.
2. The impact of Westernization in Russia during the 17th and 18h centuries
*Westernization introduced Western art forms; Peter the Great mandated Western
dress styles. Western political organization was utilized to establish an effective
tsarist autocracy, although grants of local authority to the nobility under Catherine
the Great reduced the ability of the central government to control the masses of the
people.
*Even though the economy remained largely agricultural, economic reforms
enabled the development of industry essentially devoted to military production
(mining and metallurgy).
-Economic development was based on the increasing exploitation of a peasant
labor force.
-Westernization failed to overcome the separation between Russia and the West
because the reforms affected only the nobility and did not make complete changes
among them.
-The masses continued to rely on the Orthodox church to supply primary cultural
influence. Social organization remained typical of large estate agricultural
systems.
-Unlike the Western development of a proletariat less tied to the land, Russia
maintained a rigid serfdom. Russia actually was drawn into the global trading
network as a dependent zone.

Below is the outline of pp. 514-18 of the textbook:

IV. The Russian Empire, 1500-1725

A.

The Drive Across Northern Asia

1. Following the dissolution of Mongol power in Russia, the city of Moscow

became the foundation for a new state, Muscovy, which absorbed the territory of
the former Kievan state and Novgorod in the west and conquered the khanates of
Kazan and Astrakhan. The Muscovite ruler Ivan IV took the title of tsar in 1547.
2. The natural direction for Russian expansion was east; expansion in Siberia
was led by armed adventurers who defeated the only political power in the region,
the Khanate of Sibir, and took land from the small hunting and fishing groups of
native people. Siberia was valued first for its furs and timber and as a penal colony.
3. In the 1650s, the expanding Russian Empire met the expanding Qing Empire
in Mongolia, Central Asia, and along the Amur. A treaty between the two powers in
1689 recognized Russian claims west of Mongolia.
B.

Russian Society and Politics to 1725

1. As the empire expanded, it incorporated a diverse set of peoples, cultures, and

religions. This often produced internal tensions.
2. The Cossacks belonged to close-knit bands and made temporary alliances
with whoever could pay for their military services.
3. Despite the fact that the Cossacks often performed important services for the
Russian Empire, they managed to maintain a high degree of autonomy.
4. Threats and invasions by Sweden and Poland and internal disputes among the
Russian aristocracy (boyars) in the seventeenth century led to the overthrow of the
old line of Muscovite rulers and the enthronement of Mikhail Romanov in 1613.
The Romanov rulers combined consolidation of their authority with territorial
expansion to the east.
5.

As the power of the Romanov rose, the freedom of Russian peasants fell.

6.

In 1649, Russian peasants were legally transformed into serfs.

C.

Peter the Great

1. Peter the Great (r. 16891725) fought the Ottomans in an attempt to gain a
warm-water port on the Black Sea and to liberate Constantinople (Istanbul) from
Muslim rule, but he did not achieve either goal. Peter was more successful in the
Great Northern War, in which he broke Swedish control over the Baltic and
established direct contacts between Russia and Europe.
2. Following his victory in the Great Northern War, Peter built a new capital, St.
Petersburg, which was to contribute the westernization of the Russian elites and
demonstrate to Europeans the sophistication of Russia. The new capital was also
intended to help break the power of the boyars by reducing their traditional roles in
the government and in the army.
3. Peter wanted to use European technology and culture to strengthen Russia and
to strengthen the autocratic power of his government; he was not interested in
political liberalization. As an autocratic ruler, Peter brought the Russian Orthodox
Church under his control; built industrial plants to serve the military; and increased
the burdens of taxes and labor on the serfs, whom the Russian Empire depended
upon for the production of basic foodstuffs.