Download Civilizations of the 15th Century

Civilizations of the
Century
th
15
Comparing China and
Europe
Ming Dynasty China
► If
you were able to be a traveler in time and
go back to the 15th century, Ming China
would be the place to start.
► Ming China was heir to a long tradition of
effective governance, sophisticated artistic
achievements, and a highly productive
economy.
Ming Dynasty China
► Even
though China
had been greatly
disrupted by nearly a
century of Mongol
rule, and its
population greatly
reduced by the
plague, during the
Ming dynasty (13681644) China
recovered.
Ming Dynasty China
► The
Ming (means
“brilliant”) ruled
from 1368-1644
and re-established
the cycle of Chinese
dynasties.
► They would be the
dynasty in power
when the
Europeans arrived.
Ming Dynasty China
► The
early decades of the dynasty saw the
effort to eliminate all traces of foreign
(Mongol) rule, discouraging the use of
Mongol names and dress, while promoting
Confucian learning based the models of the
Han, T’ang, and Song dynasties.
► Culturally, the Ming looked to the past (preMongol).
Ming Dynasty China
► Politically,
the Ming reestablished the civil
service examination system that the
Mongols had neglected and they created a
highly centralized government based around
the emperor.
► A cadre of eunuchs personally loyal to the
emperor had great authority, much to the
chagrin of the official bureaucrats (as
castrated men, there was no fear of them
trying to seize power and trying to create a
dynasty).
Ming Dynasty China
► The
first Ming emperor (Hongwu) wanted to
eliminate all governmental corruption (a
major problem under the Mongols).
► He tried to impress all officials with the
honesty, loyalty, and discipline he expected
from them through the practice of public
beatings for those found guilty of corruption
or incompetence.
Ming Dynasty China
► Officials
charged with misdeeds were
beaten on their bare tushies (several even
died).
► Those who survived never recovered from
the humiliation.
► Reverting back to Confucian veneration,
students were expected to follow the
instructions of their teachers without
question (even if the teachers were wrongbut you know teachers are NEVER wrong!-)
Ming Dynasty China
► One
student at the imperial academy dared
to dispute the lessons of one of his teachers
and was beheaded…his severed head was
put on a pole and hung at the academy
entrance.
► There wasn’t a problem with order in the
classroom after that.
Ming Dynasty China
► In
1402, a new emperor was
crowned…Yongle (Yung la) =emperor of
perpetual happiness.
► He
moved the capital of China from Nanjing
to Beijing (1402)…an area to the north not
far from the Great Wall which had been
depopulated by the Mongols.
Ming Dynasty China
► Emperor
Yongle (r 14021422) sponsored an
enormous Encyclopedia of
some 4,000+ volumes.
► With contributions from
over 2,000 scholars, this
work was to compile all
previous writing on
history, geography,
ethics, government and
more.
Ming Dynasty China
► Yongle
is also known for building the famous
Forbidden City in Beijing.
► Starting in 1406, Yongle had over 1,000,000
peasants conscripted to build what would
become the largest palace complex in the
world.
Ming Dynasty China
► Thousands
of peasants were sent into the
forests of southwestern China where they
were to cut great timbers for construction.
► These people were at the mercy of disease,
starvation, and wild animals…it is believed
over ½ of them died.
► It would take four years to get these
timbers from the forests to Beijing and
when construction began in 1417, it would
take 15 years to complete.
Ming Dynasty China
Ming Dynasty China
► The
Ming vigorously tried to repair the
damage of the Mongol years by restoring
millions of acres to cultivation; rebuilding
canals, reservoirs, and irrigation works; and
planting, according to some estimates, over
a billion trees to reforest China.
Ming Dynasty China
► As
a result, the Chinese economy
rebounded, both international and domestic
trade flourished, and the population grew.
► By virtually every account, Ming China was
the best governed and most prosperous
country in the world.
Ming Dynasty China
► China
also undertook the largest and most
impressive maritime expeditions the world had
ever seen.
► Since the 11th century, Chinese sailors and
traders had been a major presence in the
South China Sea and in Southeast Asian port
cities.
Ming Dynasty China
► An
enormous fleet, commissioned by
Emperor Yongle himself, was launched in
1405, followed over the next 28 years by six
more such expeditions.
► On board the more than 300 ships were
nearly 30,000 sailors and soldiers, 180
physicians, hundreds of government
officials, 5 astrologers, 7 high-ranking
“grand eunuchs,” carpenters, tailors,
accountants, merchants, translators, and
cooks.
Ming Dynasty China
► Visiting
many ports in
Southeast Asia,
Indonesia, India,
Arabia, and East Africa,
these fleets, captained
by Admiral Zheng He (a
Muslim eunuch from
western China), sought
to bring distant peoples
and states into the
Chinese tribute system.
Ming Dynasty China
Ming Dynasty China
► Dozens
of local rulers accompanied the
fleets back to China, where they presented
the emperor with gifts (and tribute),
performed the required rituals of submission
(kowtow), and in return, received abundant
gifts, titles, and trading opportunities.
► Chinese officials were amused by some of
the exotic products found abroad, especially
ostriches, zebras, and giraffes brought back
for the royal zoo.
Ming Dynasty China
► The
giraffe became the unicorn of Chinese
legends.
Ming Dynasty China
► Officially
described as “bringing order to the
world,” Zheng He’s expeditions sought to
establish Chinese power and prestige in the
Indian Ocean and to exert Chinese control
over foreign trade in the region.
Ming Dynasty China
► However
the Chinese did
not try to conquer or
colonize new territories
or spread their culture.
► On one of the voyages,
Zheng He erected on the
island of Ceylon (Sri
Lanka) a tablet honoring
the Buddha, Allah, and a
Hindu deity.
Ming Dynasty China
Ming Dynasty China
► Probably
the most surprising feature of
these voyages was how abruptly and
deliberately they ended.
► After 1433, Chinese officials simply stopped
their expeditions and allowed the most
expensive and magnificent fleet in history
(to that point) to disintegrate in port.
► The greatest navy in the world had been
ordered into “extinction.”
Ming Dynasty China
► Part
of the reason was the death of their
patron, Emperor Yongle.
► But many high-ranking Confucian scholar
officials had long seen the expeditions as a
waste of resources because China, they
believed, was the self-sufficient “middle
kingdom,” requiring little from the outside
(barbarian) world.
Ming Dynasty China
► In
the eyes of the Confucian scholar
officials, the real danger to China came from
the north, where nomadic barbarians
constantly threatened.
► The Confucian scholars also saw the
voyages as a project of the much despised
court eunuchs and saw this as a way to
lessen their power.
Ming Dynasty China
► Private
Chinese merchants continued to
trade with Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan,
and Southeast Asia, but they did so without
the support of their government.
► China turned its back on what was surely
within its reach…total domination of the
Indian Ocean region.
European Comparison
► At
the other end of the Eurasian continent,
similar processes of population recovery,
political consolidation, cultural flowering,
and overseas expansion were underway.
► Western Europe, having escaped the
Mongol onslaught but devastated by the
plague, began to rebound during the second
half of the 15th century.
European Comparison
► Politically,
Europe, like China continued its
earlier patterns of state building.
► In China, this meant a single, centralized
government that encompassed almost the
whole of its civilization.
► In Europe, it was a fragmented system of
separate, independent, and very
competitive states.
European Comparison
► Europe
in 1500:
European Comparison
► Many
of these states—Spain, Portugal,
France, England, the city-states of Italy
(Venice, Genoa, Milan, and Florence),
various German principalities—learned to
tax their citizens more efficiently, to create
more efficient and centralized administrative
structures, and to raise standing armies.
European Comparison
►A
small Russian state emerged, centered on
the city of Moscow as Mongol rule faded
away.
► Much of Europe’s state building was based
on the needs of war, a frequent occurrence
in such a competitive and fragmented
political environment.
► Long term implications?
European Comparison
► For
example, England and France fought
intermittently for more than a century in the
Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) over rival
claims to territory in France.
European Comparison
► Nothing
remotely similar disturbed the
internal life of Ming dynasty China.
► A renewed cultural blossoming, the
Renaissance, paralleled the revival of
Confucianism in China.
► In Europe, that blossoming celebrated and
reclaimed a classical Greco/Roman tradition
that had been kept alive in the Arab world.
European Comparison
► Beginning
in the vibrant commercial cities of
Italy between 1350-1500, the Renaissance
reflected the belief of the wealthy/powerful
elite that they were living in a new age, far
removed from the confined religious world
of feudal Europe.
► The few educated citizens of these cities
sought inspiration in the classical
art/literature of ancient Greece/Rome—they
were “returning to the sources” as they put
it.
European Comparison
► The
elite patronized
great Renaissance artists
like Leonardo da Vinci,
Michelangelo, and
Raphael, whose
paintings were far more
naturalistic, particularly
when portraying the
human body, than those
of their medieval
counterparts.
European Comparison
► Even
though religious themes remained
prominent, Renaissance artists began to focus
more on the secular, on contemporary figures
or scenes from ancient mythology.
European Comparison
► In
the work of scholars, known as
“humanists,” reflection on secular topics such
as history, grammar, politics, poetry, rhetoric,
and ethics was more important than religious
topics.
European Comparison
► Machiavelli’s
(1469-1527)
famous work The Prince, was
a prescription for political
success based on the way
politics actually operated in a
highly competitive Italy of
rival city-states rather than
on idealistic or religiously
based principles.
► Is it better to be loved or
feared?
European Comparison
► Heavily
influenced by classical models,
Renaissance figures were more interested in
capturing the unique qualities of particular
individuals and in describing the world as it
was than in portraying or exploring eternal
religious truths.
► In its focus on the affairs of this world,
Renaissance culture reflected the urban
bustle and commercial preoccupations of
the Italian cities.
European Comparison
► The
secular elements of the Renaissance
challenged the otherworldliness of Christian
culture, and its individualism signaled the
dawning of a more capitalist economy of
private entrepreneurs.
► A new Europe was in the making, more
different from its own recent past than Ming
dynasty China was from its pre-Mongol
glory.
European Comparison
► So
there were three basic characteristics to
the Italian Renaissance:
► First: Renaissance Italy was largely an
urban society made up of powerful citystates.
► These city-states became centers of Italian
political, economic and social life.
European Comparison
► Second:
The Renaissance signaled an age
of recovery from the disasters at the end of
the post-classical period…namely the
destruction caused by the Black Plague, the
political disorder that was caused by it, and
the collapse of the world economy.
European Comparison
► Third:
The leaders of the Renaissance
began to look at humans in a new way.
► For the first time in over 1000 years, an
emphasis was placed on individual ability.
► Individuals tried to achieve a new social
ideal: the well-rounded personality or
universal person who was capable of
achievements in many areas of life.
European Comparison
► Leonardo,
for
example, was a
painter, sculptor,
architect, inventor,
scientist, and
mathematician.
► The ideal of a
“Renaissance
Man.”
European Comparison
► Our
modern notion of individualism
comes from this period, as people
began to seek personal credit for their
achievements…this was in contrast to
the medieval notion that all glory goes
to God, not the individual.
European Comparison
► Some
of the greatest artists in history did
not toil as anonymous craftsmen, they
sought prestige by competing for the
patronage of secular individuals like
merchants and bankers.
European Comparison
► The
Europeans, like the Chinese, began
major outward-bound maritime expeditions
during the early part of the 15th century.
► Initiated in 1415 by the Portuguese and
supported by the state and blessed by the
Pope, their voyages began sailing down the
west coast of Africa.
► By the end of the century, two expeditions
marked major breakthroughs (Columbus in
1492, and Vasco da Gama in 1497).
European Comparison
► The
differences between the Chinese and
European oceangoing ventures were
striking, especially in terms of size.
► Columbus captained three ships with a crew
of 90, while da Gama had four ships
manned by about 170 sailors.
European Comparison
► These
were tiny fleets compared to the
great expeditions of Zheng He.
► “All the ships of Columbus and da Gama
combined could have been stored on a
single deck of a single vessel in the fleet
that set sail under Zheng He.”
European Comparison
► Motivation
was also vastly different between
the two civilizations.
► Europeans were seeking the wealth of Africa
and Asia—gold, spices, silk, and more.
► They also were looking for Christian
converts and of possible Christian allies
against threatening Muslim powers.
European Comparison
► China,
by contrast, faced no equivalent
power, needed no military allies in the
Indian Ocean, and required little that these
regions produced.
► China also didn’t have the impulse to
convert foreigners to Chinese culture or
religion like the Europeans.
European Comparison
► The
confident and overwhelmingly powerful
Chinese fleet didn’t seek conquests or
colonies, while the Europeans soon tried to
monopolize by force the commerce of the
Indian Ocean and violently carved out huge
empires in the Americas.
► This was why the voyages of Zheng He
were neglected for so long in China’s
historical memory—they led nowhere.
European Comparison
► Even
though the European expeditions were
smaller and less promising, they were initial
steps on their journey to world hegemony.
► But why did the Europeans continue a
process that the Chinese had deliberately
abandoned?
► First, Europe had no unified political
authority with the power to end its maritime
outreach.
European Comparison
► Its
system of competing states, so unlike
China’s single unified empire, ensured that
once begun, rivalry alone would drive the
Europeans to the ends of the earth.
► Beyond this, much of Europe’s elite had an
interest in overseas expansion.
► The wealth/greed generated from increased
merchant activity had implications for
monarchs and the Church too…
European Comparison
► Monarchs
saw new revenue streams (from
taxing trade or outright seizing resources)
that could fund larger, better equipped
militaries, fund building projects, etc.
► Lesser nobles (even commoners) might
imagine fame and fortune abroad.
► The Church saw the possibility of
widespread conversion.
Ming vs Europe
► In
China, by contrast, support for Zheng
He’s voyages was very shallow in official
circles, and when the emperor Yongle
passed from the scene, those opposed to
the voyages prevailed within the politics of
the court.
Ming vs Europe
► Ming
emperors after Yongle believed that
China had been weakened by its contact
with other people, so they were much more
cautious in their trade with outsiders, and
much more likely to believe that it was best
for China to remold itself in the greatness of
the past.
Ming vs Europe
► The
Chinese were very much aware of their
own antiquity, they believed strongly in the
absolute superiority of their culture, and
they felt with good reason that, should they
need something from abroad, others would
bring it to them.
Ming vs Europe
► China
made the world’s most desirable
products, especially after Ming craftsmen
began creating distinctive and beautiful blue
and white porcelain.
► In 2007, this Ming jar sold for $3.9 million
at auction.
Ming vs Europe
► The
Ming understood that much of the
empire’s wealth depended on trade, but its
leaders (especially after Yongle) were
always wary of outsiders, afraid to lose
China again to rule by non-Chinese.
► So they set out to rebuild the empire as
independently as possible, repairing
irrigation systems, factories, internal trade
connections, and even the Great Wall.
Ming vs Europe
► The
Great Wall as it looks today was a
product of the Ming.
Ming vs Europe
► Ming
emperors actively promoted Chinese
cultural traditions, especially Confucian and
Neo-Confucian schools.
► For many years, the Ming lived up to their
name (“brilliant”), and built a strong China
that clearly reflected its age old conflict
between opening its doors to others and
closing them tightly to keep intruders out.
Ming vs Europe
► Europeans,
like the Ming, also believed
themselves to be unique, particularly in
religious terms as the possessors of
Christianity, what they considered the “one true
religion.”
Ming vs Europe
► In
material terms, they sought out the
greater riches of the East, and they were
highly conscious that Muslim power (the
Ottomans) blocked easy access to these
treasures and posed a military and religious
threat to Europe itself.
► All this propelled continuing European
expansion in the centuries that followed.
Ming vs Europe
► The
Chinese withdrawal from the Indian
Ocean facilitated the European entry.
► It cleared the way for the Portuguese to
enter the region, where they faced only the
eventual, moderate naval power of the
Ottomans.
Ming vs Europe
► Had
Vasco da Gama
encountered Zheng
He’s massive fleet
as his four small
ships sailed into
Asian waters in
1498, world history
would likely be very
different.
Ming vs Europe
► So
as it turned out, China’s
abandonment of oceanic voyaging and
Europe’s embrace of the seas marked
different responses to a common
problem that both civilizations shared—
growing populations and land shortage.
Ming vs Europe
► In
the centuries that followed, China’s
rice-based agriculture was able to
expand production by more intensive
use of the land, while the country’s
territorial expansion was inland toward
Central Asia.
Ming vs Europe
► By
contrast, Europe’s agriculture, based on
wheat and livestock, expanded primarily by
acquiring new lands in overseas
possessions, which were gained as a
consequence of their commitment to
oceanic expansion.