The Big Pivot in History, the 15th century

17/11/2017

I heard from so many people over the past couple of weeks who are so excited about a breakthrough. You guys are figuring out what YOU need to do to manage a huge volume of material! It's very personal, and usually emotional, when someone makes a big leap forward in their understanding of them-self. For those of you who aren't there yet, the solution is doing the work. The work will energize your creativity so you can teach yourself how to learn efficiently.
I'm looking forward to talking with you guys over this break. I'll actually have some time to see what you guys are thinking as you read this pivotal story in our world history soap opera.

24 Comments

Bingham

21/11/2017 11:24:40

Hello? Heeeelloooo? Anybody home? Well, I guess I'll just sit here on your couch and munch on the stuff in your fridge. Just remember, there will be no reading check on this chapter, just the test on Wednesday/Thursday. Enjoy your break, you deserve it!

Bingham

21/11/2017 11:29:22

Well, as long as I'm here, this is one I find interesting.
What differences can you identify among the four major empires in the Islamic world of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries?

The Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal empires had Turkic origins, while the Songhay Empire consisted of geographically indigenous peoples.

The Ottoman and Safavid empires ruled over the heartland of the Muslim world, where a majority of their subjects followed Islam; the Mughal and Songhay empires ruled over regions where Islam was a minority faith.

The rulers of the Safavid Empire were the only ones to impose a Shia version of Islam as the official religion of the state.

Lia Stallmann

21/11/2017 21:27:39

Here's a shot at a MQ1: In what ways did the gathering and hunting people of Australia differ from those of the northwest coast of North America?

The general distinction is that North American h&g societies were more similar to settled agricultural civilizations than Australian societies.

-Socially:
• North American societies had economic specialization and social ranks (sometimes even slavery)
• had permanent settlements
• had food storage

-Politically:
• North American societies had chiefdoms controlled by single sources of power

-Interactions w Environment:
• h&g societies in Australia needed to be more manipulative with their environment, as seen in "firestick farming," while those in North America were considered complex/affluent societies

Am I missing anything?

Maha Rahman

26/11/2017 11:47:49

This is really close to what I got. If you wanted to be super specific you could add that the basis of the "affluent" gathering societies were their access to a bounteous environment. Also North American Paleolithic peoples had large sturdy houses in their villages.

Bingham

26/11/2017 13:31:30

I agree with Maha, combined, you two have a good answer.

Seb Covington

28/11/2017 21:20:55

Would it be wrong to add the fact of Australia's trade, mythology and rituals, art, and Paleolithic tech/economy?

Lia Stallmann

26/11/2017 12:05:24

I was really confused on how to approach MQ8: How did Aztec religious thinking support the empire?

-capturing prisoners of war for human sacrifices through war was essential for cosmic order (provided a necessity for expansion)
-in war, Aztecs emphasized capturing rather than killing enemies
-sacrificial rituals themselves displayed great wealth and impressed outsiders

I'm not sure if I got all the parts to the question or if I'm even going in the right direction...

Bingham

26/11/2017 13:51:10

Lia, I think you have a good answer in short form. I would add that the priests and the political leaders were engaged in mutually supportive relationships. I would guess that not all sacrifices were made to maintain the cosmic order, I'll bet more than a few outspoken critics of the empire ended up as sacrifices. (This is an old and ongoing story, right?)

I would also point out that mass sacrifices must have been scary even this context to both citizens and potential enemies outside the empire.

Maha Rahman

26/11/2017 12:07:32

What kinds of changes were transforming the societies of the west African Igbo and the North American Iroquois?

For this question I had some trouble making a distinction between changes and characteristics of the civilizations so please make edits!

The main idea is that while their neighbors began to develop state, these societies rejected state building efforts and developed their own methods of order.

Igbo:
-rejected kingship and state-building efforts of neighbors and relied on other institutions for social cohesion
-these included adopting title societies where wealthy men had prestigious ranks, women's associations, hereditary ritual experts as mediators, and a balance of power between kingship groups
-they traded among themselves and distant peoples/ their products drew neighboring peoples into networks of exchange
-they maintained cultural unity in a politically fragmented region as evidenced by common artistic traditions
-changed from a matrilineal to a patrilineal system
-eventually caught in the transatlantic slave trade and changed in the process

Iroquois
-recently had become fully agricultural adopting Mesoamerican maize and bean farming techniques
-this productive agriculture led to population growth, and increase in the size of settlements, and the emergence of distinct peoples
-frequent warfare erupted (scholars speculate that as agriculture was seen as women's work, warfare became a symbol of male prestige rather that getting food)
- this conflict triggered a loose alliance among 5 Iroquois people (known as the Five Nations): Mohawk, Oneida, Onodaga, Cayuga, Seneca.
-Through the Great Law of Peace, they created a confederation of council leaders to settle their differences peacefully.
-they were able to suppress blood feuds and tribal conflicts and coordinate their people's relationship with outsiders.
-the Iroquois League gave expression to the ideas of limited government, social equality, and personal freedom
-equality in gender relationships included matrilineal descent, married couples living with wive's family, and women owning property

-both societies were increasingly encompassed in conquest empires based in Western Europe, China, Russia or India.

Lia Stallmann

26/11/2017 12:30:40

I had your first two points under Igbo too, but I wasn't sure if they counted as changes or not, since the question specifically asks for changes in the fifteenth century, and Strayer doesn't really specify if their rejection for kingship was already there before the century started...

Maha Rahman

26/11/2017 20:42:40

I was definitely also conflicted on this. I'm assuming that these are changes specific to the 15th century mainly because it says "by the fifteenth century their neighbors had begun to develop small states..." which implies that the Igbo and their neighbors diverged (further) in their social orders during the 15 century.

Olivia Miller

26/11/2017 15:14:44

When Strayer says, "all of them would eventually be caught up in the transatlantic slave trade," is he talking about the Igbo people or the processes that he had previously mentioned?

Maha Rahman

26/11/2017 18:16:10

I think he is referring to the Igbo as in the previous sentence he says "to the peoples of the West African forest..." and then leads the next sentence with "all of them".

Olivia Miller

26/11/2017 12:49:41

In what different ways did the peoples of the fifteenth century interact with one another?

For this question, would it just be the major sources of interaction such as:
-webs of empire
-religion and culture
-trade

do we also need to include the specific examples of each web of interaction and how they worked in the different regions?

Bingham

26/11/2017 14:01:24

Yeah, that's pretty much all you need. I don't think you would need to list examples, you'd end up re-writing the entire chapter. I think you should flesh it out from bullet points a bit though; something like this.

They interacted through webs of empire, large scale political systems that brought together a variety of culturally different people; through webs of religion that linked widely separated peoples; and through long-established patterns of trade among peoples occupying different environments and producing different goods.

If this were an essay, that would be too vague, but the nature of this question sort of leaves you to answer broadly as I just did.

Maha Rahman

26/11/2017 17:13:08

What role did Central Asian and West African pastoralists play in their respective regions?

Central Asian pastoralists
-Turkic warrior Timur's army brought devastation to Russia, Persia and India
-under his descendants' control, the state hosted a culture combining Turkic and Persian elements
-In the state's capital Samarkand, rulers patronized artists, poets, traders, and craftsmen
-Timur's conquest was the last great military success of nomadic people's from Central Asia

West African Pastoralists (Fulbe)
-Fulbe lived in small communities under agricultural people, but relations with their farming hosts were tense as the Fulbe had to pay taxes and resented their subordination to agricultural groups
-Fulbe slowly adopted Islam and some settled in towns to become respected religious leaders
-Fulbe were at the center of a wave of religiously bases uprisings (jihads) which gave rise to a series of new states which they themselves ruled

*for the Fulbe, the first bullet point is background information and probably not a point itself as it doesn't answer the question

Maha Rahman

26/11/2017 18:26:09

I wasn't really sure what the answers to this question were as it seems like more of an opinion since it addresses "you" directly, but here's my best shot.

How would you define the major achievements of Ming Dynasty China?
-creation of enormous encyclopedia (with 11,000 volumes, compiled by more than 2,000 scholars, compiled all previous writings on social sciences)
-magnificent imperial residence known as the Forbidden City built
-Temple of Heaven constructed
-reestablishment of examination system and development of highly centralized government (power given to emperor, authority given to cadre of eunuchs)
-restored land for cultivation, rebuilt canals, reservoirs, irrigation works and planted many trees resulted in economy rebounding, domestic and international trade flourishing, and population growth)
-large and impressive maritime expeditions
*enormous fleet launched with 300+ ships
*sought to enroll distant peoples into tribute system (successful)
* served to establish Chinese power and prestige in Indian
Ocean and exerted control over foreign trade there

Maha Rahman

26/11/2017 20:16:39

What political and cultural differences stand out in the histories of fifteenth century China and Western Europe? What similarities are apparent?
*I separated the Maritime Voyaging differences and similarities and din't use it to answer this question since they are in different sections and they each have margin questions addressing them, but they overlap and the same answers are probably applicable to both questions
*also the section this margin q. addresses expands on the Renaissance but I'm not sure how to integrate it into my answer
Similarities
-similar processes of demographic recovery, political consolidation, cultural flowering, and overseas expansion
-both recovered after their populations were devastated by the plague
-the infrastructure of the civilizations proved durable foundations for demographic and economic revival
-Europe joined China in continuing earlier patterns of state-building
-renewed cultural blossoming of the Renaissance in Europe paralleled the revival of all things Confucian in Ming Dynasty China

Differences
-While in China a unitary and centralized government encompassed its civilization, in Europe a fragmented system of many separate, independent, and highly competitive states made for a sharply divided Christendom
-In Europe state-building was driven by the needs of war and England and France fought over territory for over a century; nothing similar to this disturbed the internal life of Ming Dynasty China
-In Europe, cultural renewal celebrated a classical Greco-Roman tradition that had been lost
-The new Europe was more different from its recent past than Ming Dynasty China was from Pre-Mongol times

Seb Covington

28/11/2017 22:25:55

Honestly, (not related to answering the questions) I got lost in the Renaissance section because I was looking for the margin answer and there seemed to be no info to answer the question. There is information, I just wanted to share that...

Seb Covington

28/11/2017 22:55:19

MQ6: In what ways did European maritime voyaging in the fifteenth century differ from that of China? What accounts for these differences?
(did I answer the second part correctly?)

- Size of the "fleets"/groups from each region differed immensely; China: hundreds of large ships, crew: thousands; Columbus: 3 ships, crew: 90, da Gama: 4 ships, crew: 170.
- European motivation was based on the wealth of Africa and Asia, conversions to Christianity, and Christian allies to continue crusading against Muslim enemies.
- Chinese motivation of establishing power by tribute system and building prominence and prestige in the regional trade system.
- The length of the voyages; Chinese decisive ending facilitated the continuing and escalating European effort.
- Chinese nationalism and European expansive behavior (idk?)/ Chinese belief in absolute superiority and European want for expansion in wealth, power, and religion.
- Competing states in the European region accounted for continuing drive for maritime voyaging; whereas a unified Chinese state prevented conflicts.

Seb Covington

29/11/2017 20:36:34

M10: In what ways did Inca authorities seek to integrate their vast domains?

-The emperor was the divine, absolute ruler
-The state owned all land and resources
- Subjects were organized into hierarchical unites and governed by local authorities
- "Inspectors" were used to check on provincial officials
- Population data was recorded
- Subjects were required to acknowledge Inca deities, allowing them to practice their own religions
-Leaders of conquered states were required to learn Quechua, and their sons were taken to the capital to learn Inca ideologies.

Seb Covington

29/11/2017 20:54:42

MQ8: What distinguished the Aztec and Inca empires from each other?

-Size, Inca: entire spine of Andes Mountains (whole of Andean civilization) 10 million
Aztec: much smaller - loosely structured and unstable due to frequent rebellions, 5-6 million
Aztecs:
- "Tribute System" based on conquered states and populations
- Generally left the conquered alone compare to Inc intrusiveness
- No stable administration system for integration of conquered
- Sacrificial rituals of prisoners of war, so central to Aztec religious life and poetic traditions emphasizing the fragility of humanity.
- Developed markets for trade and commerce, including slavery

Inca:
- Had administration system for conquered peoples integration
- Bureaucratic Empire
- State authority directed Inca economy and society

Seb Covington

29/11/2017 21:12:46

MQ11: In what different ways did the peoples of the fifteenth century interact with one another?

- The Ottoman Empire provided a common ground/interaction between Muslims and Christians as well as a disconnect between Europe and China
- The Mughal Empire created an interactive state between the Muslims and Hindus

Religion:
-Christianity - connected cultures from England to Russia
-Buddhism - linked China, Korea, Tibet, Japan, and Southeast Asia (basically a bunch of asian cultures) together
-Islam - the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca) brought Africans, Arabs, Persians, Turks, and Indians together

Trade:
- Siberian hunting societies brought fur and other products to the circulating Silk Roads of Eurasia.
- Saharan African peoples brought horses to Nigeria

Islamic Culture - provided and ease of trade, commerce, and cultural integration.

Seb Covington

29/11/2017 21:14:15

Sorry not a common ground, The Ottoman Empire was just a place of interaction and encountering for the Christian and Muslims.

Bingham

Welcome class of 2020. Some years students collaborate in this space effectively, some years not so much. One thing I know, collaboration significantly enhances learning. If you want access to my thoughts, this is the collaboration space to use. Most people propose an answer to margin questions, big picture question, or anything else related to managing Strayer. Other people can then comment leading to a stronger answer. I'll keep an eye on these pages, and pop in when I think you need me.

The Big Pivot in History, the 15th century

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