Download Slide Show/Outline Chapter 15

Chapter 15
Expanding Worlds: Recovery
in the Late Fourteenth and
Fifteenth Centuries
Focus Questions
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WHY WERE some African empires able to expand on such
an impressive scale during this period?
WHAT ROLE did geographic diversity play in the Inca and
Aztec empires?
WHAT STRONG new empires arose on the Eurasian
borderlands?
WHY DID China turn away from overseas expansion in the
fifteenth century?
WHY DID Europe begin to reach out and cross the oceans
in the late 1400s?
Empires in Eurasia
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Ottoman Empire
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Rise of the Turks
Empire of Timur the Lame
Adaptation of new military technologies
Invasion of the Balkans
Building of a fleet
Seizure of Constantinople (1453)
 New source of wealth
 Defeat of old Christian rival
 System for rule
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Russian Empire
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Center at Moscow
Ivan III, first tsar
Ivan “the Terrible” (r. 1462-1505)
 Married Byzantine princess
 Moscow the Third Rome
State grows to encompass entire Volga region
Begins to expand to the east
 Colonization
 Fur trade
China Renewed: The Ming dynasty (est. 1368)
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Peasant rising in 1351 and instability of Mongol elite
Chu Yüanzhang proclaims Ming dynasty
 Capital moved to Nanjing
 Many of the foreign advisors and former government
officials retained.
 Exam system and ancient traditions restored.
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Yongle Emperor (r. 1402-1424)
 Moved capital back to Beijing
 Buildt Forbidden City
Voyages of Zheng He
 Muslim eunuch, representative of assimilated old foreign
administration
 Sets out to establish Chinese dominance and gain new tributary allies
for China.
 Increase knowledge of the outside world
Massive fleets and ships: 7 voyages between 1404 and 1433
Opposition by Confucian elites (loathed commerce)
Voyages ended with Zheng’s death; ships and records destroyed.
 Confucian opposition, military threats to the empire, and
astronomical cost of the voyages
 China becomes increasingly inward-looking.
Empires in the Americas
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Inca in South America
Rise of the Inca during late fifteenth century
 Military organization, use of colonies and road building
to maintain control
 Ecological diversity of land
 Precarious nature
 Struggles within the Inca elite
 Resentment of local populations
 Size of the empire itself: communication problems,
economic problems, etc.
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Aztec (Mexico)
Arose during the fourteenth century.
 Based on military prowess of the Aztec military
 Centered on its capital at Tenochtitlan, built in the
middle of Lake Texcoco
 Dependent on tribute from subject peoples, many of
whom deeply resented Aztec rule
 Size of the empire led to communication problems, risk
of collapse if too many tributary states rose at once, etc.
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Empires in Africa
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East
Ethiopia
 Mwene Mutapa
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Both connected into Indian Ocean trade system
West
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Mali Empire (13th to early 15th century)
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In decline with the rise of Songhay
Wealth in gold, ivory, and slaves
Europe
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Portugal
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Hardship of navigation in the Atlantic
Early exploration of the Atlantic by the Portuguese
 Role of trial and error in technological development
Development of sugar plantations
Development of trade contacts with West African kingdoms
Rounding of Africa in 1488
Spain
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Christopher Columbus
 Voyage of 1492
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The building of an overseas trading empire by the
Portuguese was unprecedented in its connection of
Europe with the Indian Ocean trading system and
was a harbinger of things to come. The empires of
sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas represented
states not unlike earlier ones, though larger in size
but still with limited outside contacts and life spans.
The Ming dynasty restored native rule to China and
for a time suggestion a new outward-looking view
that might have challenged European traders
coming into the Indian Ocean, but it turned inward
instead – the consequences for all were enormous.
Today’s Question
Modern ecological imperialism?
Consider
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The U.S., with 6% of the world’s population, accounts for over 25% of
the world’s energy consumption.
This energy profligacy not only drives political policy in the oil-rich
Middle East, but also makes economic growth in the less-developed world
even more problematic ecologically.
Countries such as Brazil might ask why they should not be allowed to
exploit their natural resources (such as the Amazon rain forest) the same
way the U.S. exploited its resources earlier.
Does U.S. energy consumption constitute a new ecological imperialism,
forcing the rest of the world to deal with the impact of the U.S., whether they
want to or not?
Is forcing the consequences of our lifestyle a form of imperial arrogance?