Download 09 Notes - The Early Modern World

Chapter 9: The Early Modern World
Part One: Eurasian Interaction and Growth
With the exception of the Chapter on the Interaction and Retrenchment, we have looked at civilizations in a
relatively regional or isolated manner, one at a time. In the first half of this chapter we will examine Eurasian
interaction from 1200 to 1500 CE as the early modern period of history dawns. The most obvious form of
interaction was travel and travelers who traveled for three reasons: trade, diplomacy and missionary activity.
We will also examine the challenges of nature (Little Ice Age and Bubonic Plague) and the political, social and
economic results. We will look particularly at how Ming China and Western Europe recovered from the
devastation of the Bubonic Plague. We will study the European Renaissance, European rivalries (i.e., The Seven
Year’s War) and explore the powerful question: why did Europe so quickly outpace the rest of the world
politically, technologically and militarily?
A Snapshot of Early Modern Eurasia
The easiest way to get a “visual” of early Modern Eurasia is through the adventures of four travelers:
1. Rabban Bar Sauma: was a Uighur – Nestorian - Christian priest, who was born in Beijing, China in the
mid 13th century. On a pilgrimage to Jerusalem he was introduced to the Ilkhan of Persia who was looking
for an ambassador to the Christian nations of Europe to negotiate for allies against the Mamluke Sultans.
In1287, the Ilkhan dispatched Rabban Bar Sauma as an envoy to the pope and European political leaders.
Rabban Sauma had an audience with the Byzantine Emperor and gave a vivid description of Hagia Sophia.
Bar Sauma then traveled westward and from his ship witnessed a violent eruption of Mt. Etna in Sicily. He
traveled to Rome and then through Tuscany and Northern Italy; met with Philip IV (the Fair) in Paris and
later met with Edward I of England in Bordeaux. He returned to Rome where the pope allowed him to
celebrate the Divine Liturgy (Mass) in his own Orthodox rite. Although he was well received everywhere,
he could not form any alliances. He lived the rest of his life in Baghdad and died in 1294. Although a new
Ilkhan converted to Islam in 1295, Rabban Bar Sauma’s mission showed the growing complexity of
international diplomacy and gives an excellent snapshot of Eurasia during the Crusading era.
2. Marco Polo was perhaps the best-known long-distance traveler of all time. He was born in 1253 in
Venice, Italy. Marco’s father Niccolo and uncle Maffeo were among the first European merchants to visit
China; between 1260 and 1269 they traveled and traded through Mongol lands, and they met Khubilai
Khan as he was consolidating his hold on China. When they returned to China in 1271, the seventeen year
old Marco Polo accompanied them. The Great Khan took a special liking to Marco, who was a marvelous
storyteller and conversationalist. Kublai allowed the Polos to pursue their mercantile interests in China and
but he also sent Marco on numerous diplomatic missions, partly because Marco was so adept at reporting
to the Khan stories and information about distant parts of his realm.
After 17 years in China, the Polos decided to return to Venice, and Khubilai granted them permission to
leave. They went back by sea, escorting a Mongol princess to be married to the Ilkhan. They traveled
through Southeast Asia and Indian Ocean before arriving back in Venice in 1295. A historical accident has
preserved the story of Marco Polo’s travels. After his return, Marco served as captain of a Venetian Galley
in a war with Genoa. He was captured and made a prisoner of war. While in prison, Marco related his tales
of his travels to his fellow prisoners, one of whom wrote them down and published them. In spite of
occasional exaggerations and tall tales, Marco described the textiles, spices, gems and other exotic goods –
and the awesome things he observed - and Europeans wanted those goods and luxuries. His deathbed
statement fascinated generations, when he declared, "I didn't tell half of what I saw, because no one
would have believed me."
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3. Abu Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta was born in1304 in Tangier, Morocco and was trained as a
legal scholar and qadi (Islamic judge). However, he is best known as a traveler, who kept a diary of his
travels and side-excursions spanning a period of almost thirty years, and covering some 73,000 miles.
These journeys covered almost the entirety of the Dar al-Islam: the Near East, Spain, West and East Africa,
Constantinople and extending into present-day Pakistan, India, the Maldive Islands, Sri Lanka, Southeast
Asia and China, a distance readily surpassing that of his predecessor, near-contemporary and traveler
Marco Polo.
He served as advisor to the sultan of Delhi. His duties included supervising the affairs of a wealthy
mosque, hearing legal cases and working to promote the proper observance of Islam. He even described
how he ordered the lashing of men who did not attend Friday prayers, the cutting off of the hand of a thief
according to the Sharia and his attempts to enforce the moral precepts of Islam including governmental
advice, women’s dress, and proper relationship between the sexes. He was not unusual, but that he wrote
down his experiences gives us a glimpse into 14th century Islamic thinking and Eurasian interaction.
Many of Ibn Battuta’s frustrations as a Qadi were due to the over-zealous efforts of Sufi missionaries who
would venture into recently conquered or converted lands and complicate matters. Remember that Sufis did
not insist on a strict, doctrinally correct understanding of Islam, but rather emphasized piety and devotion
to Allah. When converts to Islam continued to reverence their traditional gods, the Sufis actually taught
these were manifestations of Allah. These syncretic variations of Islam also illustrate the interaction of
Eurasian and African cultures with Islam.
4. John of Montecorvino was an Italian Franciscan priest, who went to China in 1291, became the first
archbishop of Khanbaliq in 1307 and died there in 1328. While serving the Roman Catholics living in
China, he also worked energetically to establish Christianity. He translated the New Testament and the
Book of Psalms into Turkish (the language commonly used at the Mongol Court) and built many churches. He
took in young boys from Mongol and Chinese families, baptized them, and taught them Latin and Roman
Catholic rituals. By 1305, he claimed to have baptized six thousand people and even tried to convert the
Great Khan. Although widely respected, he failed to establish a large Christian presence in China. The
papacy would send more missionaries to China, but they as well won few converts. As in earlier
missionary efforts, the Chinese simply could not understand Christian exclusivity. John of Montecorvino
also helps to illustrate the increasing Eurasian interaction as Christian missionaries became more active,
accompanying the Crusaders for example and traveled great distances in order to convert the Mongols and
the Chinese.
The Challenges of Nature
Early Modern Eurasia can also been examined through the lens of the challenges of nature:
The Little Ice Age
Scientists speculate that in the years leading up to 1300, decreased solar activity and increased volcanic activity
caused worldwide temperatures to plunge signaling the onset of a half millennium “mini” Ice Age. The
previous 500 to 600 years had been a period of warming (called the Medieval Warm Period). It was this warming
trend that allowed the Vikings to push westward to Vineland (Newfoundland), but in 1250, the Atlantic Ice
Pack began to grow. By 1300, the summers of northern Europe were more often colder than warmer; and by
the mid 16th century the glaciers in both hemispheres were expanding. The average global temperature dropped
two to three degrees and coldest centuries were the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Little Ice Age would
last until the middle of the 19th century, but its most chilling effects (no pun intended) created dramatic
challenges for the peoples of the world.
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The results were dramatic. The population of Iceland fell by half, and the Viking colonies in Greenland died
out. In Northern Europe, agricultural production declined sharply and led to famines; the severe famine of
1315-1317 caused millions to starve to death and caused increased in crime, disease and infanticide. In
Ethiopia and Mauritania, permanent snow was reported on mountain peaks that before and now have no
permanent snow. Timbuktu was flooded at least 13 times by the Niger River. In China, warm weather crops,
such as oranges, were abandoned in Jiangxi Province, where they had been grown for centuries. In the 18th
century in North America, Indians formed leagues in response to food shortages and early European settlers
reported exceptionally severe winters. One bright note: Human resiliency is remarkable. The English and
Dutch organized Frost Fairs on frozen rivers and canals.
See:
“February" from the calendar of Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry - p. 396
The Hunters in the Snow by Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1565
Winter landscape with Ice-skaters, c. 1608, Hendrick Avercamp
The Bubonic Plague and its Consequences
The Bubonic Plague as a global Pandemic was nothing new in world history; it weakened Athens during the
Peloponnesian War; it struck the reign of Justinian in Byzantium (even Justinian contracted the Plague but
survived). In the early 1300s, the plague broke out in Hunan Province in Southwest China and quickly spread.
In 1331, Hebei Province near Khanbaliq lost 90% of its population and by the 1350s some Chinese provinces
had lost two-thirds of their population. During the 1340s, Mongols, merchants and travelers helped spread the
disease westwards along the Silk Roads. By 1346, it had reached the Black Sea ports of Caffa and Tana. In
1347 Italian merchants carried the plague to Constantinople and to Italy so that the plague was soon spreading
across Europe, where 60 to 70 per cent of the population died of the plague (some villages were wiped out).
The Plague also struck the Middle East and caused much depopulation and economic stagnation. By 1347, the
plague had reached Alexandria (Egypt) probably through the trade with Constantinople; it then spread up the
East Coast of the Mediterranean reaching Damascus and Antioch the following year. In 1349, the plague
reached Mecca and Baghdad; by 1351 the plague was recorded in Yemen. Only Sub-Saharan Africa,
Scandinavia and India escaped the worst effects of the plague. In fact, India’s population actually grew
substantially during this period. It is important to note that the plague would return every 20 to 50 years until
modern times when antibiotics became effective deterrents. However plague would strike worldwide again in
the latter half of the nineteenth century particularly in China, the Indian sub-Continent, Hawaii and Australia.
The plague left deep psychological scars. Some people became more religious (piety, giving $$$ to the church,
flagellants); others more worldly. (See Bruegel Painting Triumph of Death) Social and economic effects disrupted
the societies and economies of Eurasia and Northern Africa. In China, the plague was a key component of the
demise of the Yuan dynasty. In Europe, skilled laborers who survived demanded higher pay. The wealthy at
first tried to freeze wages, but the workers struck back. In 1358, the Jaquerie Revolt broke out in France,
when peasants looted castles and attacked the rich. In 1381, Wat Tyler led English peasants into London
where they demanded an end to serfdom. Both rebellions were put down with harsh brutality, but in the end the
wealthy were forced to grant higher wages and other concessions.
So it is important to understand that the Black Death contributed to the demise of serfdom in Western Europe.
Serfs either ran away, bought their freedom or found refuge in towns and cities where they took the places of
workers killed by the plague. And what is more fascinating is that, when Europe recovered from the plague, the
economy rebounded with vigor stronger vigor than before the plague. Many scholars refer to this as a pruning
phenomenon. The irony was that in 1400 there were fewer people than in 1300 but personal income and
production actually increased. Moreover, these factors directly contributed to rise of merchant class whose
competition put great pressure on the old, uncompetitive Medieval Guilds.
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Thus these challenges of nature caused the Fourteenth Century to be one of population decline in Europe and
China, but not in India which was skipped over by the Little Ice Age and the Bubonic Plague.
Year China
1200
115
India Europe
circa 90
58
1300
85
91
79
1400
75
97
60
1500
100
105
81
(Note: Population is given in millions)
Population growing across Eurasia
1. European population peaks before Bubonic Plague
2. Chinese population decreases from Mongol Wars
3. The Little Ice Age begins around 1300
1. Plague, famine, Mongols reduce Chinese Population
2. Plague and famine reduce European population by 25%
3. India remains unaffected by famine or plague
Population is on the rebound in Europe and China
Recovery in Ming China
By the 1360s, the Bubonic plague, Mongol infighting, Ice-age famines and religious unrest proved too much
for the Yuan Dynasty. The liberator was Zhu Yuanzhang who came from a family so poor he was a child
beggar. He later became a Buddhist monk but in 1352 joined an anti-Mongol rebellion, and soon became its
leader. Zhu Yuanzhang won the common people to his side by forbidding his soldiers to pillage. By 1355 the
rebellion had spread through most of China and in 1356 Yuanzhang captured Nanjing and made it his capital.
There he won the support of Confucian scholars who resented the Mongols and their anti-Confucian policies.
In 1368, he performed the traditional rituals to claim the Mandate of Heaven and became the Emperor
Hongwu. Hongwu immediately proclaimed the establishment of the Ming (or “brilliant”) dynasty.
Hongwu immediately stamped his character on China. He eliminated all traces of Mongol rule and built a
standing army to defend against potential Mongol attacks. He established a government and educational
system based on traditional Confucian models and the Scholar Bureaucrats once again dominated
governmental posts. At the same time he centralized authority more tightly than ever before in Chinese history
and he dealt harshly with any suspected treason.
To make sure that the policies of the central government functioned efficiently and was obeyed, Hongwu and
his successors relied heavily on a new and special class of officials called Mandarins, who were sent out by
the government to ensure that local officials implemented imperial policy. Ming emperors also employed
Eunuchs more extensively than any of their predecessors, the theory being that since eunuchs could have no
offspring, they would work for the emperor and not their families. This use of mandarins and eunuchs so
strengthened the authority of the central government that they created a governing system that would last 500
years. Although the Mings fell to Manchu invaders in 1644, the Manchus, who founded the Qing dynasty,
retained the Ming centralized state.
The Ming emperors worked hard to improve the economy. They conscripted laborers to rebuild irrigation
systems and plant forests and they tried to allocate land more fairly to the peasants. These policies caused
agricultural production to surge. The Ming also promoted the manufacture of porcelain, laquerware and fine
silk and cotton textiles. They did not actively promote trade, but they protected trade and Chinese merchants
traded extensively within China as well as with Korea, Japan, Southeast Asia and the western markets at the
end of the Silk Roads.
Hongwu also had a comprehensive legal code drawn up and instructed its framers to make the code
comprehensive but still intelligible, so as not to leave any loophole for minor officials, potential war lords or
even greedy mandarins to misinterpret (for their own benefit) by playing on the words. The Ming dynasty
sought to revive China’s cultural heritage. Hongwu’s successor Yongle organized the preparation of a
comprehensive Encyclopedia, which was a remarkable anthology or collection of Chinese history, culture and
literature, containing about 23,000 manuscript rolls, each equivalent to a medium-sized book.
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Having driven the Mongols back out onto the steppes, the early Ming emperors verged on xenophobia (fear of
strangers) and were not eager to have large numbers of foreigners residing in China. They did allow foreigners
to trade at the ports of Quangzhou and Guangzhou. The early Ming emperors also refurbished the large
Chinese navy built by the Song emperors. For almost 30 years the Ming sponsored naval expeditions to
establish a Chinese presence in Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean basin. Its dual purpose was to control
foreign trade and to impress foreign peoples with the superiority of Chinese culture and civilization (i.e., the
Middle Kingdom)
Zheng He
Zheng He was the most famous of all the naval leaders and explorers of the Ming Dynasty. He was born in
1371 in Kunyang, a town in southwest Hunan Province. His family originally came from Central Asia and
were devout Muslims. His father had made the hajj and Zheng He grew up hearing his father’s stories about his
travels through foreign lands. Hunan Province was one of the last strongholds of Mongol support, holding out
long after the Ming Dynasty began.
But1382 the province fell back into Chinese control. Zheng He was captured, castrated and brought to
Nanjing. The eleven-year-old captive dedicated himself to his studies, learning several languages and was soon
made a servant of the prince who would become the emperor Yongle. It was Yongle who renamed the boy
Zheng He. He was described as “tall and heavy, with clear-cut features and long ear lobes; a stride like a
tiger and voice clear and vibrant." He was well liked and admired for his quick wit in argument. He was a
brave soldier and when his prince seized the throne, Zheng He became the new emperor’s confidant. Yongle
appointed Zheng He “Admiral of the Western Seas” and commissioned him to lead voyages of exploration.
During his 28-year naval career, he visited 37 countries, traveled around the tip of Africa into the Atlantic
Ocean and commanded a fleet whose numbers surpassed the combined fleets of all Europe. Between 1405 and
1433, at least 317 ships and 37,000 men were under his command. His flagship was a nine-masted vessel
measuring 440 feet, nearly 1.5 times the length of a football field with four decks carrying 500 passengers. His
“treasure ships” were the largest the world had seen to date.
Traveling with him was Sanbao who created a set of 24 maps praised for their accuracy. Zheng's journeys also
stimulated a number of inventions, including the central rudder, watertight compartments and various new
types of sail. More importantly, his voyages demonstrated the power of the Ming Dynasty and the diplomatic
importance of these voyages. The admiral gave lavish gifts of porcelain and silk and received incredible gifts
including African giraffes and zebras. Of course, what he actually was trying to do was to create a tributary
relationship with every nation he called upon. Remember, the Chinese felt it was their duty to “attract all
under heaven" to be civilized in Confucian harmony.
He suppressed pirates near Java and Sumatra. He was surprised to find many Chinese living in Vietnam. At
Calicut, his giant ships created a stir and the ruler there presented him and his officers with sashes made of
gold spun into hair-fine threads and studded with large pearls and precious stones. He intervened in a civil
disturbance in Ceylon on one voyage and on another visited the Buddhist Temple Hill, where the Buddha was
said to have left his footprint on a rock. On another voyage he reached Arabia and fulfilled his dream to make
his Hajj.
He explored the east coast of Africa where he found cities of stone, exotic foods and animals. When Zheng He
came back from his seventh voyage in 1433, he was sixty-two years old. He had accomplished much for
China, spreading the glory of the Middle Kingdom to many countries that now sent tribute and ambassadors to
the court. Though he died soon afterward, his exploits had won him fame. Plays and novels were written about
his voyages. In such places as Malacca and Java, towns, caves, and temples were named after him.
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Shortly after Zheng He’s death, a new emperor decided to end these naval expeditions. His scholar-bureaucrats
criticized Zheng's achievements, complaining about their great expense. Moreover, China was now fighting a
resurgence of Mongol disruptions on its western borders and needed to devote more of its resources to that
struggle and towards improving agricultural output. To make sure there would be no more voyages, court
officials destroyed the logs that Zheng He had kept.
Thus, China abandoned its overseas voyages. It was a fatal decision (one that would cause ruin and failure), for
just at that time, Portugal was beginning to send its ships down the west coast of Africa. In the centuries that
followed, European explorers would sail to all parts of the world. They would establish colonies in Africa, the
Americas, and finally in the nations of East Asia. China would pay a terrible price because it had turned its
back on exploration and naval power. Zheng He had started a process that might have led the Middle Kingdom
to greater glory. Unfortunately, the rulers of the Ming Dynasty refused to follow his lead.
Recovery in Western Europe
Recovery in Western Europe was even more dynamic and far more reaching than in China. The European
Feudal system had made it hard but still possible to build strong, centralized states. In fact some
historians think that because it was both difficult and possible to build strong centralized states, made those
states even stronger. At any rate, as Europe recovered from the plague and transitioned out of the High Middle
Ages into the Early Modern Age, the regional states of Western Europe gradually - and with different
circumstances and sequencing – began to build strong states: first in Northern Italy, then in England, France,
and soon after Spain.
Italy ironically was the first area to begin serious state building but it was a fragmented effort. Southern Italy
was under the control of Spain. Central Italy was ruled by popes and called the Papal States. True state
building, however, did take place in the Northern City-States of Florence, Genoa, Milan and Venice. These
city-states grew wealthy by developing industry, banking and trade. They raised money by direct taxes on trade
and interest charged by their growing banking houses, which allowed them to employ the necessary
bureaucrats and maintain armies (and in some cases like Venice and Genoa) navies. Most importantly, they
developed efficient bureaucracies to administer their complex affairs.
France and England imitated Italian administrative methods and their monarchs were able to find new sources
of revenue to add to their small feudal incomes. They led the way by directly taxing individuals. The French
kings taxed sales, hearths and salt; the English taxed hearths, individuals and plow teams. These taxes were
first levied to finance the Hundred Years War but later were used to raise funds to strengthen the power of
the monarch by
1. building bureaucracies loyal to the monarch
2. gaining control of the feudal nobility
3. maintaining standing and/or mercenary armies, both armed with the latest weapons of gunpowder
technology. (Much larger France maintained a standing army, but much smaller England did not.)
In Spain, the culmination of state building was finally achieved by the marriage in 1469 of Ferdinand II
(Fernando) of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile, which united the two wealthiest and most important Iberian
kingdoms. Under their dual monarchy, they collected taxes from sales to support a powerful standing army and
build an efficient bureaucracy. Pope Alexander VI gave them the title The Catholic Kings because they
staunchly defended the Catholic Religion and completed the Reconquista in 1492, absorbing the Moorish
kingdom of Granada. When a French army threatened Naples in 1494, they seized Southern Italy and Sicily.
They (mostly Isabella) also sought Asian commercial markets and financed Christopher Columbus to find a
western route to China.
The Holy Roman Empire, however, was the big exception to the growth of state building, as it was an empire
in name only - since the only effective political power lay with the princes.
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The Renaissance
It was no accident then that the Renaissance first took root in Northern Italy. Renaissance means
rebirth and refers to a revival of interest in the arts and in learning that took place from the fourteenth to the
sixteenth centuries. The Northern Italian City States were the first to develop societies able to break away from
decentralized feudalism and mature into centralized states. Thus their chief focus was to look back for cultural
values and knowledge to Greek and Roman cultural and artistic achievements. This looking back was the heart
and soul of the Renaissance and it created (or found again) that powerful idea of the Greeks, which would
challenge the traditional values of the church: Humanism or the idea that man is the measure of all things.
Religion was not attacked, but its principles no longer dominated.
In political theory, Nicolo Machiavelli in his book, The Prince, produced a manual of how to seize and
maintain power. Christian morality and idealism had often been ignored by Christian rulers, but Machiavelli –
now for the first time - openly advocates the “end justifies the means.”
In the arts, however, the rebirth was most evident. Italian painters like Masaccio (1401-1428) in his painting
The Tribute Money and Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) in his Mona Lisa rejected medieval, two dimensional
style and used perspective to represent three-dimensional forms to create reality on flat surfaces. They also
applied this perspective to the human body, creating increasingly lifelike representations of the human body.
Many artists were daring in their representations of the human figure, especially the nude, but were still deeply
Christian.
Sculptors like Donatello (1386-1466) in his David and Gattamelatta and Michelangelo (1475-1564) in his Pieta
and David sought to depict their subjects in natural poses that reflected the actual working of human muscles,
rather than the awkward rigid postures of medieval times.
Architecture also looked to classical models for inspiration. Inspired by the Roman temple of the Pantheon (all
the gods) Filippo Brunelleschi created the dome on the Cathedral of Florence and Michaelangelo the Dome
on St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
The Renaissance was stimulated scholars and writers who drew from classical models of literature. These men
were called humanists and their field of study was called the humanities: literature, history and moral
philosophy. Most of the humanists were deeply Christian and applied what was called new learning to
religious studies. Most notable of these Christian Humanists was Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) who
published the first Greek Translation of the New Testament in Western Europe in 1516.
Humanists scorned the convoluted writing style of the scholastic theologians. Instead they preferred the elegant
and polished language of Classical Greek and Latin authors, whose works they considered more engaging and
more persuasive. Thus some humanists such as the Florentine Francesco Petrarch (1304-1374) traveled
throughout Europe searching for manuscripts of classical works.
Thus Classical Greek and Latin values encouraged the humanists to reconsider or re-evaluate medieval ethical
teachings. Medieval moral philosophers had taught that the most honorable calling for any human being was
that of monks and nuns who withdrew from the world and dedicated their lives to God in prayer and
contemplation. However the humanists, who drew inspiration from classical authors like Cicero (who was
stoic), argued that it was possible to lead a morally virtuous life while participating actively in the affairs of the
world. They argued that it was perfectly honorable for Christians to enter into marriage, business
relationships and public affairs and still be good Christians. To be honest, it also challenged the rigid
morality of many Churchmen as many Christian Humanists sought to reconcile classical values with Christian
values.
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At this point a question must be asked: What factors lay behind the incredible vitality and the dramatic
changes which, after the year 1400, transformed the West from an almost stagnant, agricultural society,
struggling to find order politically, socially and economically, into a dynamic society which leaped out
ahead of the rest of the world politically, economically and technologically – and which became the driving
force of global transformation in the Modern World? The best reasons seem to be:
1. Medieval Vitality: In spite of the fact that Medieval Europe was a backwater of civilization,
nevertheless, its internal political struggles and its resistance to nomadic incursions of the Early Middle
Ages forced Europeans to become self-strengthening and self-reliant. Feudalism was gradually followed by
the rise of national monarchies and the growth of cities, both of which laid the foundation for the rise of the
middle class and capitalism and both of these would propel Europe into international hegemony during the
Renaissance and beyond.
2. The Ability to Imitate: When Europe learned to survive and flourish, one of her chief survival tools
was imitation. Europeans copied Asian technologies: the compass, the printing press and gunpowder, but
they also applied these technologies to their world and developed the ability to “stand on the shoulders”
and go beyond imitation to invention. This growth from imitation to invention included exploration for the
sake of procuring goods from Asia by trying to find an all water route to India, thus by-passing the middle
men of the Islamic world and Silk Roads.
3. The Secularism of the Renaissance: The Renaissance focused on human and secular concerns for
their own sake, and not as part of a divine plan. Secularism, moreover, drove innovation that began in the
visual arts and quickly spread into political, scientific, technological and economic arenas, as seen in the
wide range of commerce and shipping, the growth of city states and national monarchies, technological
developments of better sailing ships and military weapons, the growth of economic enterprises, and an
insatiable thirst for scientific and intellectual knowledge.
Thus, the year 1500 is pivotal in World History and marks the Rise of the West in no less than five areas.
1) Western Europeans come to possess advanced technologies and weapons – and improve upon
them relentlessly;
2) Western Europeans impose political hegemony wherever they go;
3) Western Europeans create sophisticated transportation, communication and trading networks;
4) Plants, animals, technologies and diseases are exchanged with dramatic consequences, both
positive and negative;
5) This dramatic rise to world domination continued to accelerate so the by the 19th century,
Western Europeans directly or indirectly ruled most of the world
Part Two: European Domination of the World
It is important to remember that from 1000 to 1500 C.E., the peoples of Eurasia traveled and interacted more
extensively than ever before. Moreover, Asian and African peoples and nations managed their own affairs free
from European interference. But, after 1500, that begins to change as Europeans jump out ahead of Africa and
Asia politically and technologically. In the second half of this chapter we shall look at what occurred as a result
of the Rise of the West:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Exploration, led by the search for resources and converts.
Exploitation of technologically inferior nations and peoples
Rivalry between the European trading nations ending in the dominance of Great Britain
Exchange of diseases, food crops, animals and people.
The beginnings of a global trading system and economy
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I Exploration: Motives
First was the search for fresh natural resources. Resource poor Portugal searched for new resources as early as
the 1200s, especially fish, seals, whales, timber and lands where more food, especially grains could be grown.
Fish was harvested for a high protein source of food; seals and whales for oil, and timber for construction,
especially ship construction.
Second was the motivation of Trade. Trade made a lot of money. The Portuguese reasoned that if they could
find a direct route to Asia, skipping the Middle East and the high tariffs charged by the Muslim nations, they
could make even more money. Indian pepper, Chinese ginger, Southeast Asian cloves and nutmeg were highly
prized.
Third was the motivation missionary fervor. Like Buddhism and Islam, Christianity was a missionary religion.
The New Testament urged Christians to spread the faith throughout the world. Many times Christian
missionary efforts were peaceful, as was the mission of John of Montecorvino to China. But Christians also
felt that some of “their” lands had been taken. So they launched crusades both to regain places in the holy land
in Palestine and the Reconquista of the Iberian Peninsula. This militant idea was especially strong in Portugal
and Spain, as we shall see in subsequent chapters.
II Technologies of Exploration
1.
During the 15th Century, Europeans took advantage of a number of technological improvements. From the
Chinese via the Arabs they began to use the compass increasing their mapmaking skills dramatically.
2. It was the Portuguese that led other European nations in developing Caravels, small, highly maneuverable,
three-masted ships that carried a sternpost rudder and had both square and lateen sails. Square sails
enabled them to take full advantage of a following wind and the lateen or triangular sails allowed them to
take advantages of crosswinds. Caravels also possessed a deep draft and rounded hulls, which were strong
enough to sail in the Atlantic and carry powerful guns.
3. The Astrolabe was soon replaced by the Cross Staff. The Cross Staff more efficiently measured the angle
of the sun or pole star to determine the latitude of a particular ship. Thus, by the 1200s both latitude and
direction could be accurately determined. The measurement of Longitude required the ability to measure
time precisely, so it would not be until the 19th century when accurate, spring driven clocks would be
available)
4. Sailors also began to compile data about regular wind and ocean currents. In both the Atlantic and Pacific
Oceans, strong winds blow regularly to create giant Wind Wheels both north and south of the equator.
Between about 5 and 20 degrees of latitude north and south of the equator, trade winds blow from the east
to the west. Between thirty and sixty degrees north and south of the equator, the winds blow from the west
to the east. In the Indian Ocean, as we have seen, winds follow a different, monsoonal pattern, northeast to
southwest in the summer months and southwest to northeast in the winter months.
5. The Portuguese developed the Volta do mar (meaning return through the sea) which was a strategy of
taking advantage of prevailing winds to sail indirectly but efficiently to wherever they wanted to go. For
example, when the Portuguese wished to sail from the Canary Islands home, they had to sail against the
wind, which was an arduous task. By the Volta do mar strategy they would sail northwest from the Canary
Islands until they found the westerly winds and then easily sailed back to Europe and Portugal. Although
the Volta do mar strategy often took sailors many miles away from a direct route to many destinations,
experience soon taught that sailing around contrary winds was much faster, safer and more reliable.
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When Vasco da Gama departed for India he sailed south to the Cape Verde Islands off Africa. Then he
allowed the trade winds to carry him southwest into the Atlantic Ocean until he had almost reached Brazil.
There he caught to prevailing westerlies that enabled him to sail east around the Cape of Good Hope. Then
he used the Indian Ocean winds to take him up the east coast of Africa and across to Calicut.
III Great Voyages of Exploration
It is the Portuguese who begin the great voyages of exploration. Unlike Zheng He, the Portuguese did not
venture onto the seas in the interests of diplomacy or in hopes of establishing a political reputation in far off
lands. They wanted to reap the profits of trade and to expand the boundaries of Roman Catholic Christianity.
During the fifteenth century, Prince Henry of Portugal (sometimes called Henry the Navigator or Dom Henrique),
started his country on this twin goal of evangelism and profit. In 1415, his forces seized the Moroccan city of
Ceuta, which guarded the Strait of Gibraltar, and regarded its capture as a victory over Islam. Next, he pushed
Portuguese mariners out into the Atlantic where they discovered and colonized Madeira and the Azores. Then
he pushed his forces to sail down the African coast where they discovered many other islands such as the Cape
Verde, Fernando Po and Sao Tome, which they colonized and began to use to cultivate sugarcane. Northern
Italian City State investors and bankers – anxious to find sugar supplies outside the Muslim world and make
profitable investments - eagerly supplied money to support an industry which would supply Europeans with
this sweet tasting substance.
The Portuguese did not hesitate (their Christian principles not withstanding) to trade guns, textiles and
manufactured goods for gold and slaves. They built forts along the African coast and transported slaves to their
Atlantic plantations as well as for domestic work as servants in Europe. The use of slaves for this heavy labor
(which was often unspeakably brutal) on these sugar plantations grew more popular because sugar was profitable
and so soon these plantations created a huge businesses and profits. However, Prince Henry’s ultimate goal
was still to bypass the Dar al-Islam and establish direct commercial links to Asia.
The great explorers we shall note are:
1. Bartholomew Dias left Lisbon in August 1487 with a fleet consisting of three ships. He sailed down
the coast of Africa to the Congo River and in 1488 became the first European to sail around Cape of Good
Hope and enter the Indian Ocean as far as the Great Fish River. Dias would later sail with Vasco da Gama
and Pero Alvarez Cabral (1500) in subordinate positions. Ironically he died in a shipwreck off the Cape of
Good Hope later in 1500.
2. Christopher Columbus was arguably the most famous explorer in world history. He was a Genoese
sailor named Christopher Columbus who hit upon the idea of sailing west to connect with China and India.
He tried to get the backing of the Portuguese, but they were satisfied with the work of Bartholomew Dias
and refused to back him. Therefore, he went to Spain, Isabella persuaded Ferdinand and the rest is history.
In 1492, his fleet of three (Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria) ships departed Palos in Southern Spain. He picked up
supplies at the Canary Islands and almost three months later found an island in the Bahamas, which he
called San Salvador. He then sailed northwest and discovered Cuba before sailing home via Lisbon. He
made three trips to the new world and told the king and queen he had found Asia. Columbus died in 1506
and never knew that he had not found a direct route to Asia, but rather a new world.
The Importance of Columbus’ work was almost immediately recognized in Europe and hundreds of
Spanish, English, Dutch and French mariners soon followed. At first, they still looked for a direct route to
Asia, but slowly it became clear that a new world had been discovered. Thus, Columbus’ voyages began
the establishment of links between Europe and the Americas. Exploration and colonization would follow
very quickly.
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3. Pero Alvares Cabral (with thirteen ships) was actually traveling to India and when he used the Trade
Winds to sail south west he became the first European to land in Brazil. He returned to Portugal after a
rather unsuccessful voyage and was forgotten, except as the discoverer of Brazil.
4. Vasco da Gama (in 1497) rounded the Cape of Good Hope, but sailed across the Indian Ocean all the
way to Calicut. He returned to Lisbon the next year with a hugely profitable cargo of pepper and spices. Da
Gama succinctly stated the Portuguese twin goal of profit and domination when, having arrived at Calicut,
the local authorities asked him what he wanted. His reply was, “Christians and spices.”
5. Vasco Nunez de Balboa (1475 – 1519) was a Spanish conquistador and explorer. In 1509 he helped
found the city of Darien in what is today Panama and became the acting governor. In 1511 Indians told
him of a sea on the other side of the Isthmus of Panama and stories of gold and other wealth in an area
farther to the south (they meant the Incas in Peru). Balboa felt he had to do something spectacular to keep his
governorship so in September 1513 he led an expedition of about 90 Spaniards and a large number of
Indians to find this ocean. Three weeks later Balboa instructed his men to stay behind as he climbed the
mountain. From the top he became the first became the first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the
Americas. Balboa also found gold and pearls and sent them to King Ferdinand in Spain. The king
confirmed Balboa as assistant governor as recognition for his work. In 1518, however, he was falsely
accused of treason by the governor and beheaded the next year. Balboa is credited by many as naming the
Pacific Ocean Pacifico because its waters seemed so calm, but it was really the Portuguese explorer
Ferdinand Magellan who gave the ocean its name. Like Columbus, Balboa’s discoveries exited Europeans
and spurred further discovery of this new ocean.
6. Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521) was the first to explore the Pacific Ocean. Magellan was an
experienced sailor who, for Portugal, had sailed around Africa and explored the Indian Ocean Basin as far
as the Southeast Asian island of Maluku, near modern New Guinea. Magellan believed that Asia was near
to the new world and had no idea of the expanse of the Pacific. Portugal was not interested in his services
was Spain was, so in 1518 Charles, the king of Spain and later Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, appointed
Magellan commander of a fleet of five vessels. The fleet sailed on September 20, 1519. They steered by
way of the Cape Verde Islands, rode the trade winds to the coast of Brazil and, probing for a western
passage, he finally discovered the tip of South America, Cape Horn, and entered the Pacific in November
1520 through straits that have his name today.
It took until March of 1521 to sail north to the equator, discover the island of Guam and land on the
Archipelago of San Lazaro, which was later called the Philippines. He stayed there for a time, rested and
repaired his ships. There he became involved in a local dispute and was killed by the natives with about 40
of his men. His lieutenants who reached Spain via the Indian Ocean and the West Coast of Africa on
September 8, 1522 completed the voyage. Although Magellan himself did not reach his goal of the Spice
Islands, he did accomplish to most difficult part of his task proving that the world was round and that
Columbus had been right. Magellan had led the way, established a trade route between Central America
and the Philippines, and leading the way for exploration of the Pacific by other nations in addition to Spain.
7. Francis Drake (1540 – 1596) was an English navigator, politician, slave trader and civil engineer, but is
most well known as the First English navigator to circumnavigate the globe. In the 1560s, Drake had made
a reputation as a privateer for raiding Spanish gold convoys (trying to steal what the Spanish had stolen from
the Aztecs and Inca) and even attacking the Spanish port of Cadiz. In 1577, he left England and took
Magellan’s basic route to the tip of South America. Instead of heading across the Pacific, Drake sailed up
the coast of South, Central and North America, raiding Spanish settlements in Chile and Peru and Mexico,
capturing at least one Spanish treasure ship.
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By June, 1579, Drake had sailed up the Coast of California and into San Francisco Bay, which he promptly
called New Albion. This claim for England lay more than 400 miles north of the furthest Spanish claim of
modern day Point Loma. He explored as far north as Washington State before sailing across the Pacific,
returning to England via the Indian Ocean Basin in January of 1581. In 1588, Drake was second in
command of the English navy which (along with terrible storms) defeated the Spanish Armada. In 1596, he
was back in the Caribbean when he died of dysentery. The Spanish grudgingly recognized Drake’s
brilliance and called him El Draque (the Dragon)
8. Captain James Cook (1728-1779) who ranks alongside Magellan as a great Pacific Ocean Basin
Explorer led three expeditions to the Pacific before being killed in a scuffle with the natives of Hawaii.
Cook charted eastern Australia and New Zealand and added New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Hawaii to
European maps. He also spent much time in the Polynesian Islands of Tahiti, Tonga and Hawaii where he
showed deep interested in the local culture and languages. Cook gave European geographers a reasonably
accurate geographic knowledge of the Pacific.
IV European Exploitation
Trading Post Empires
1. Following the voyages of Dias and da Gama, the Portuguese built a trading post at Calicut. Soon, they
began a lucrative trading business in what history has come to the first Trading Post Empire. The goal
was to build a network of trading posts, not to conquer territories. The idea was to control trade routes by
forcing merchant vessels to call at these fortified trading sites and pay duties. By the mid 16th century the
Portuguese had build more than fifty trading posts between West Africa and East Asia, from Nagasaki in
Japan and Macau in China to Melaka in South East Asia to Calicut in India stretching all the way back to
Portugal.
2. The Portuguese were quite aggressive and used their superior artillery and other weapons to spread their
influence. The architect of this aggressive policy was Alfonso d’Alboquerque who was commander of the
Portuguese forces in the Indian Ocean Basin in the early 16th century. His fleets seized Hormuz in 1508,
Goa in 1510 and Melaka in 1511. From these strategic sites Alboquerque sought to control Indian Ocean
trade by forcing all merchant ships to purchase safe-conduct passes and present them at Portuguese trading
posts. Alboquerque punished violators very sternly. Nevertheless Arab, Indian and Malay merchants
continued to trade in defiance of the Portuguese who never extended their hegemony into the Arabian and
Red Seas.
3. By the late 16th century, Portugal, as small country, was losing ground and loosing its grip on the Indian
Ocean Basin. Traders and investors, especially English, French and Dutch, began to organize their own
expeditions and build their own trading posts. Moreover, these newcomers enjoyed two additional
advantages. First, their ships were faster and more powerful and could bypass Portuguese posts and they
organized and conducted trade through an exceptionally efficient form of commercial organization: the
joint stock company. These joint stock companies enabled investors to realize handsome profits while
limiting their risks.
4. The two most powerful of these trading companies were English East India Company and the Dutch
United East India Company (VOC). Both were private enterprises, but enjoyed government support and
both reaped huge profits.
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European Conquests in Asia
Following voyages of exploration to the Western Hemisphere, Europeans conquered indigenous peoples, built
territorial empires and established colonies settled by European migrants. We will discuss these events in
Chapter 11. However, in the Eastern Hemisphere, Europeans were less able to force their will on the large
centralized states of Asia. However, during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries, they did force their will
upon the Indian subcontinent as a prelude to annexation and quickly and quickly annexed Southeast Asia and
the Philippines.
1. Spanish forces conquered the Philippines in the late 1560s and early 1570s under the command of Miguel
Lopez de Legazpi. There was not centralized government in the Philippines and so they fairly easily
overcome. The islands were named Philippines in honor of King Philip II of Spain. The main islands fell
quickly but the outer islands were not pacified for another 50 years.
The Spanish policy in the Philippines revolved around trade and Christianity. Manila was already a
bustling, multicultural port city. It was a trading center for silk and Chinese commodities; and it quickly
became the hub of Spanish commerce in Asia. Chinese merchants accounted for a quarter of the population
and were especially prominent in Manila. Their commercial successes caused a Filipino and Spanish
reaction resulting in no less than 6 massacres between 1603 and 1819. Nevertheless, the Chinese merchants
were the backbone of Manila trading. The Spanish pressured the rich Filipinos in hopes of converting local
population to Roman Catholic Christianity; and they opened schools to teach literacy and religion. The
Filipinos resisted, especially in the highlands, but by the 19th century, the Philippines had become a solidly
Roman Catholic country.
2. The Dutch moved in on Southeast Asia and imposed their rule on the islands of Indonesia. They were less
interested in religion and more interested in trade, especially the lucrative spice trade. The architect of
Dutch policy was Jan Pieterszoon Coen, who in 1619 founded Batavia (Jakarta today) on the island of
Java to serve as an Entrepot for the VOC. (Entrepot is a French word, from the Latin interponere, which means
a storage or distribution point for goods, such as a seaport like Batavia). Coen used his superior navy and
weapons to dominate the Indonesian islands and by the late 17th century, all of Indonesia was under Dutch
authority. The VOC and its enormous monopoly led to great prosperity for the Netherlands. The Dutch
expelled the Portuguese merchants from Southeast Asia and prevented the English from establishing a
foothold – and built an enormously profitable empire. As a result, the Netherlands was the richest country
in Europe during the 17th century.
3. The English become involved in the domination and eventual conquest of India though the English East
India Company (a joint stock company we have already mentioned, which was chartered by Queen Elizabeth I in
1599 and given a monopoly over the emerging Asian trading market.) After they were deflected from the spice
trade and Indonesian markets, the British begin to take an interest in India. By 1615 they had defeated a
Portuguese fleet, established an ambassador at the Mughal Court and secured permission to set up
factories.
The Mughal rulers were interested in trading and encouraged trading posts, but their main interest was
internal development and political expansion. By 1661, the EEIC had obtained Bombay and made it a
flourishing center of trade and from that point on, they began to acquire more territory including Madras
and Calcutta (Calicut). Their chief economic goal was to control the cotton industry. In the early eighteenth
century, they expanding into Northern India and moving into the Malay Peninsula to control the Asian silk
and tea trade.
The French were also interested in India and set up trading posts, the most important at Pondicherry, but
they would be driven from India by the British in 1763.
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4. Further to the north, as the Mongol Khanates weakened, the Russians filled the vacuum. As we will see in
Chapter twelve, Cossacks would capture the lower areas of the Volga River Valley occupied by remnant
kingdoms of the old Khanate of the Golden Horde. In the seventeenth century, they would expand across
Siberia at the expense of the indigenous peoples, principally the Yakut peoples. In the 18th century, they
would force the King of Georgia to recognize Russian hegemony. Georgia, which was an ancient kingdom
(ancestry tracing back to King David of Judah), was an Orthodox country in a beautiful, mountainous land in
the Caucasus Mountains and who feared the Turks, so the Russian domination was easy to achieve when
the Russians offered the Georgian nobility the same privileges as the Russian aristocrats. To this day,
Georgia, although no longer part of the former Soviet Union, is a favorite vacation spot for Russians.
V European Rivalries
Most rivalries or conflicts were a direct result of the European attempt to displace all Asian shipping,
especially in coastal waters of India, China and Japan. The Europeans were not always successful. In the Red
Sea, the Arabian Sea and along the East African coast, Muslim traders remained adept at avoiding European
taxation. However, as their ships became stronger and better able to sail long distances without putting into
shore, the Europeans did come to dominate oceanic shipping and often “muscled in” on local trade when it
was profitable. On a wider scale conflict flared with old empires. In 1571, Spanish and Papal forces in the
Eastern Mediterranean defeated the Ottoman navy in the Battle of Lepanto and destroyed the Ottoman ability
to trade over long distances. Along with the Mughals and Safavids, the Ottomans remained interested in trade,
but made the mistake of “letting trade come to them” and feeling (historical experience was on their side) that
they were secure, failed to compete commercially and technologically.
However, most conflicts were a result of the commercial rivalries between the European powers. By the early
18th century, France, as we have noted, also becomes involved in the Indian Ocean Basin and established
trading posts of her own in India and the New World. English pirates preyed on Spanish shipping from
Mexico. The English and French skirmished over sugar plantations in the Caribbean and the tea and cotton
production in India. The French even captured the English trading post of Madras in 1746. The result was
growing worldwide tension and rivalry - and the showdown came in 1756.
The Seven Year’s War
(Called the French and Indian War in North America)
The Seven Year’s War was the culminating struggle in European commercial rivalries. The antagonists were
Britain and Prussia on one side who fought with France, Spain, Austria and Russia on the other side. The war
spanned five continents and lasted from 1756 to 1763. It was the first true world-wide war; and was fought
on three principal global fronts.
The first front was in Europe, where the Prussian ruler Frederick the Great fought the larger armies of
France, Russia and Austria. Aided by English money and his own superior military daring and skill – and luck
- he won the war. It should be noted that Frederick was almost beaten until the Russian Tsarina Elizabeth died
and her successor Peter III (who admired Frederick) ended Russian participation in the fighting.
The second front was in India where British and French forces each had alliances with local Indian rulers, but
the British commander Sir Robert Clive defeated the French in 1757 at the Battle of Plassey and ousted the
French from India.
The third front was in North America. Early on, a young George Washington became a Colonial hero after he
helped save a British expeditionary force from annihilation. But more importantly, the British had superior
forces in North America and by 1760 controlled all of French North America.
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The Seven Years’ War not only put Prussia on the European map as a major player, but also established
Great Britain as the dominate trading power in the world paving the way for the British Empire of the
nineteenth century. By the Treaty of Paris in 1763, Great Britain gained French India, French Canada and
Spanish Florida. In compensation, Spain received Louisiana and France retained only Caribbean islands of
Martinique and Guadeloupe (for their lucrative sugar production). Oddly enough however, the war helped to set
in play forces that lead to the American Revolution.
VI Global Exchanges
European explorers and those who followed them established links between all lands and peoples of the world.
These interactions in turn resulted in an unprecedented volume of exchange across the boundary lines of
societies and cultural regions. Sometimes that exchange involved biological species: plants, food crops,
animals, human populations, and disease pathogens all spread to regions they had not previously visited. These
global exchanges were the byproducts of the commercial exchanges we have just described.
The Colombian Exchange.
1. Epidemic Diseases: Beginning in the 16th century, infectious and contagious diseases brought sharp
demographic losses to indigenous peoples of the Americas and the Pacific islands. The worst scourge was
smallpox, but measles, diphtheria, whooping cough, and influenza also took heavy tolls. Europeans had
been ravaged in earlier centuries, but had build up tolerances. No so in the Americas and Oceania where
these diseases carried off anywhere between 50 to 95% of some populations. The Aztecs were reduced by
95 %. Between 1500 and 1800, one hundred million people died of imported diseases. (The devastation of
the native population of the Americas was the largest global decline by percentage in World History, even
more than the Black Death in Eurasia.)
2. Food Crops and Animals: Wheat, sugar, bananas, dandelion, horses, sheep, goats, pigs and chickens went
to the Americas. Maize, potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, peanuts, manioc, papayas, guavas, avocados,
pineapples, cacao, quinine and tobacco went to Europe and Asia. The result was that the world diet was
greatly improved (both in taste and nutrition) and, despite huge population losses, world population grew
from 425 million in 1500 to 545 million in 1600 to 610 million in 1700 and to 900 million in 1800. The
Andean white potato alone dramatically increased the population of Northern Europe where sandy soils
and cool climate were perfect for this crop; the potato also caused similar population increases in China.
3. Migration: Between 1500 and 1800, enslaved Africans were the largest migrants, but sizable migration
from Europe to North America, South America South Africa, Oceania and Australia also took place in
large numbers.
The Origins of Global Trade and a World Economy
The search for sea routes to Asia led Europeans to the Western Hemisphere and the Pacific Ocean Basin.
Europe’s worldwide dominance of the oceans and trade from 1450 to 1650 had three major consequences:
1. A new international pool for basic exchanges of foods, diseases and manufactured goods was created. In
spite of the diseases exchanged, New World crops often improved life in the Eurasian and African worlds.
In Chapter twenty five, we shall see how peanuts, manioc and maize were brought to Africa and improved
Sub-Saharan diets so much that a population explosion resulted. American maize, sweet potatoes and
peanuts similarly put so much marginal land in China into agricultural production that China’s population
grew by over 50% in the 17th century. Ironically, Europe herself was slower than other areas to take
advantage of both the potato and corn, not integrating them into her economy until the late 1600s. But the
effect was dramatic, as the potato in Russia, Eastern Europe and Ireland became a food staple, which had
up to 25% more nutritional value than many grains traditionally grown in these areas.
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2. Transoceanic trade created a new world economy and genuinely global trading system, which, for the first
time, included the Americas. A superb example was this new global system was the Manila Galleons,
which were sleek, fast, heavily armed ships that sailed the waters between Manila and Mexico hauling
Asian luxury goods to Mexico and silver from Mexico to China. During the next two centuries, the volume
of global trade would grow at a lightning pace. The groundwork for an interdependent world had been laid.
3. It is very important to remember that India remained fragmented under Mughal rule with ever increasing
British encroachments and that China did not keep up with European advances in the growing world
economy. Although China played a minor role in trading, Chinese manufacturing strength led to a strong
export market and increased wealth. Europeans sent a great deal of American silver to China to pay for the
porcelain and silks they wanted. However, Chinese isolation was increased in that the Chinese felt that they
had no use for foreign goods and Europeans wanted to find a way into Chinese markets. In the nineteenth
century, China would pay dearly for its failure to keep up with the Europeans. Thus, by the conclusion of
the Seven Years’ War, the handwriting was on the wall that Europe was in the process of creating a vast
world economy and was poised to expand even further at the expense of the rest of the globe.
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