Snapshot in Time, the 14th century

4/11/2016

Critical, vital, important chapter!
You need to understand where the world stands on the verge of one of the great turning points in human history.

20 Comments

Cassie Barham

6/11/2016 09:48:30

This is what I came up with as an answer to a rhetorical question Strayer poses in the section European Comparisons: Maritime Voyaging:

Why did the Europeans continue a process (the overseas voyages) that the Chinese had deliberately abandoned?

--Europe didn't possess the unified authority with the political power to decisively end the voyages
*Europe had competition between its fragmented states that propelled the continuation of the voyages. China did not have this, as its government was very centralized.

--Much of Europe's elite was interested in overseas expansion
*merchants saw them as an opportunity for profit
*monarchs saw opportunity for state revenue from taxing overseas trade or seizing resources
*the church saw the voyages as an opportunity for more Christian converts

--The Chinese, seeing their culture as elite and completely independent, had an attitude of superiority that discouraged the seeking of things from others. While the European also saw their culture as unique, it was largely in regards to their religious tradition, and expansion served as a tool to combat the threat of the penetration of Islam.

Ashton Haq

7/11/2016 22:53:30

Also:

- Chinese withdrawal from the Indian Ocean facilitated European entry, since it cleared the way for the Portuguese to access the area more easily
- Elite officials in China were generally opposed to the voyages. When Emperor Yongle died, these people took power in the court.

Sofia Puccio

6/11/2016 20:27:29

I attempted to answer margin question 4 (How would you define the achievements of Ming dynasty China?), which I interpreted as listing out some notable achievements mentioned in the chapter, but I'm not sure if that's correct, so tell me what you think
-Overall, there was an effort to restore former glory of the Han, Song, and Tang dynasties
-Compilation of an enormous encyclopedia
-Construction of the Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven
-Re-establishment of civil service exams and centralized govt.
-Rebulding infrastructure and reforestation; as a result, the economy flourished
-Undertook large and impressive maritime expeditions to the south, establishing China's prestige

Amy Vaughan and Eliza Pillsbury

7/11/2016 19:48:18

MQ1: Comparison: In what ways did the gathering and hunting people of Australia differ from those of the northwest coast of North America?

AUSTRALIA:
-Many separate hunter-gatherer groups
-No agricultural practices adopted
-Altered environment to ensure sufficient food supply (firestick farming)
-Local trade
-Distinctive religious and artistic style

NORTH AMERICA:
“Complex” hunter-gatherer societies
-Agriculture spread through European settlers
-North American environment was plentiful and required little manipulation
-Permanent village settlements
-Economic specialization
-Social hierarchy, sometimes including slavery
-Chiefdoms led by powerful clan leaders
-Food storage

Amy Vaughan

7/11/2016 19:53:33

(for North America, we got rid of "Agriculture spread through European settlers," so ignore that.)

Bingham

8/11/2016 09:08:39

This is really a great study result. Think about it, it gives you a nice neat list to learn.

The next step is to add visualization (images that might represent the bulleted item), and try to ascribe some meaning to the item (this is called semantic encoding).

For example, for economic specialization, you might imagine a group of poorly dressed people arranged around a campfire, but each is doing something different like making a bow, sewing clothes, taking care of a child, and so on. To ascribe meaning you might think about how chores are divided up at your home, maybe your sister does dishes, you have to vacuum, mom takes care of the car, etc.

These techniques are much more effective than reading over the same notes again and again.

Yasmeen Gaber

7/11/2016 20:10:36

MQ5: What political and cultural differences stand out in the histories of fifteenth-century China and Western Europe? What similarities are apparent?

-Differences
-China was politically unified whereas Europe was fragmented
-Europe sought to return to past ideas and expand upon them, whereas China sought to use solely those ideas
-State building in Europe was largely based on internal conflict and war
-Similarities
-Return to past cultural ideas--Greco-Roman tradition, Confucianism, respectively
-Continued earlier patterns of state building

I feel like I'm missing something...

Eliza Pillsbury and Amy Vaughan

7/11/2016 21:06:41

I agree with your differences, though it may seem like there are too few. However, we took our list of similarities from Strayer's initial statement in "European Comparisons: State Building and Cultural Renewal". Strayer mentions demographic recovery, political consolidation, cultural renewal, and overseas expansion. Would you agree?

Yasmeen Gaber

7/11/2016 21:13:19

I definitely agree! I think I included that in there with a more vague category, but the specificity is definitely important!

Amy Vaughan and Eliza Pillsbury

7/11/2016 20:19:20

MQ2: Change: What kinds of changes were transforming the societies of the West African Igbo and the North American Iroquois as the fifteenth century unfolded? (14 points that we found)

IGBO (5 points)
-Rejection of state led to political unity in the form of title societies, women’s associations, ritual mediators, and power balance between kinship groups
-Trade brought villages into closer contact with established societies
-Incorporation into transatlantic slave trade shifted historical trajectory
-Changed from matrilineal to patrilineal descent
-Artistic traditions brought cultural unity to politically fragmented region

IROQUOIS (8 points)
-Adopted agriculture which led to population growth, larger settlements, and a distinct cultural identity
-Frequent warfare led to association of agriculture with female and warfare with male
-Formed “Iroquois League of Five Nations” to remediate warfare, and instituted equality (even b/w men and women! Wow! Go you, Iroquois!)

Eventually, both were forcibly incorporated into powerful empires

Amy Vaughan and Eliza Pillsbury

7/11/2016 20:37:24

MQ3: Significance: What role did Central Asian and West African pastoralists play in their respective regions?

CENTRAL ASIA:
-After global Mongol Empire, Timur’s conquest was last of great military successes of Central Asian nomadic people
-Immense devastation
-Retained control of land between Persia and Afghanistan with elite Turkic/Persian culture
-Rulers patronized the arts

WEST AFRICA:
-Pastoral peoples such as the Fulbe, remained independent from established empires
-Lived in communities among agricultural peoples while paying a grazing tax and believing themselves culturally superior
-Adoption of Islam propelled religious jihads which expanded Islam and gave rise to new states

Eliza Pillsbury and Amy Vaughan

7/11/2016 20:53:15

This pretty much matches our answer! We decided to organize it in terms of

1) Recovery from Mongol rule and Black death
a. Politically
b. Culturally
2) Maritime expeditions

This structure seems complicated but it might help us remember some of the important details. What do you think?

Eliza Pillsbury

7/11/2016 21:00:56

Whoops, this is supposed to be a reply to Sofia's answer for MQ4.

Ashton Haq

7/11/2016 22:42:17

MQ6: In what ways did European maritime voyaging in the fifteenth century differ from that of China? What accounts for these differences?

- Size of fleets: European explorers captained 3-4 ships with less than 200 sailors while Zheng He had hundreds of ships and thousands of crew members.
- Motive: Europeans sought wealth from Asia/Africa, wanted to convert foreigners to Christianity and potentially have them as allies against Islamic Empire. China had no competitors, no strong need for resources, and no drive to colonize regions or convert ppl to Chinese culture.
- Outcome: China lost support for expeditions and terminated them. Europe’s voyages were less promising at first but eventually led to world power.

And I think Cassie talked about the second part of this question above!

Bingham

8/11/2016 09:43:18

I like this BPQ. In what ways did European maritime voyaging in the fifteenth century differ from that of China? What accounts for these differences?

Chinese exploration was undertaken by an enormous fleet composed of several hundred large ships, while European explorations were undertaken by expeditions made up of a handful of small ships.
European motivations for exploration included the desire for wealth from trade, the search for converts to Christianity, and the recruitment of possible Christian allies against the Muslim powers. China, by contrast, needed no military allies, required little in the way of trade, and had no desire to convert foreigners to Chinese culture or religion.
The Europeans sought to monopolize by force the commerce of the Indian Ocean and violently carved out empires in the Americas; the Chinese fleet sought neither conquests nor colonies.
China ended its voyages abruptly after 1433; the European explorations continued and even escalated.

In terms of why China's explorations were so different from their European counterparts, the fragmentation of political authority in Europe, unlike China's unified empire, ensured that once begun, rivalry alone would drive Europeans to the ends of the earth.
Much of Europe's elite, including merchants, monarchs, the clergy, and nobles, had an interest in overseas expansion; in China, by contrast, the emperor Yongle was the primary supporter of the Chinese voyages of exploration, and after he passed from the scene, those opposed to the voyages prevailed within the politics of the court.
The Chinese were very much aware of their own antiquity, believed strongly in the absolute superiority of their culture, and felt that, should they need something from abroad, others would bring it to them. The Europeans also believed themselves unique; however, in material terms, they were seeking out the greater riches of the East, and they were highly conscious that Muslim power blocked easy access to these treasures and posed a military and religious threat to Europe itself.

Amy and Eliza

8/11/2016 18:22:41

Continuations (500-1000 CE):
-Global significance of Islam/Islamic threat to European Christendom (esp. Byzantium)
-Nomadic peoples continued to form ephemeral empires that extorted resources from agricultural civilizations
-Existence of pastoral societies and agricultural villages
-Power of China
-Fragmentation in Europe, although independent states had advanced
-Greco-Roman tradition in Europe
-Confucianism was still prominent in China

New/Surprising (1400-1500 CE):
-Islam split into four different empires, Ottoman, Safavid, Songhay, Mughal
-Mongols grew into sizable empire that unified Eurasia, with significant impact in China, Russia, and Persia
-Trade shifted to East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Indian Ocean
-European Renaissance (renewal of Greco-Roman principles)
-Beginnings of overseas exploration and expansion
-Increased social status of merchants in China
-Black Death was first disease to affect all of Eurasia which proved to be a continental setback (decrease in population, decrease in trade, weakened serfdom)

PLEASE leave suggestion! This is all we came up with so far.

Amy

8/11/2016 22:25:36

BTW, this is BPQ4: Looking Back: What would surprise a knowledgeable observer from 500 or 1000 C.E., were he or she to make a global tour in the fifteenth century? What features of that earlier world might still be recognizable? (compare/contrast world of 500-1000 C.E. to that of 1400 C.E.)

Amy and Eliza

9/11/2016 19:46:23

BPQ1: Assume for the moment that the Chinese had not ended their maritime voyages in 1433. How might the subsequent development of world history have been different? What value is there in asking this kind of “what if” or counterfactual question?

Alternative History:
-China would be the world’s leading maritime power
-Europe would not have been able to overcome Chinese fleets in Indian Ocean or establish a presence in the trade that allowed them to become wealthy.
-European trade would have had to push across the Muslim world to get to China, which could have led to greater Muslim influence over Europe
-Failure in Indian Ocean would have made European elite less likely to fund further naval expansion projects, like that of Columbus
-China would have “discovered” the Americas
-Americas would have experienced the spread of Chinese influence instead of that of Europe and Christianity
-Europeans would have had to push across the Muslim world to get to China, which could have led to greater Muslim influence over Europe

Counterfactual questions like this one are useful in that they make you consider the contingencies (two events that have to happen in order for the next event to occur) of world history that wouldn’t have lined up had a certain event gone a different way. They also require prior knowledge of a subject’s tendencies to be able to predict realistic alternatives to such contingencies.

A question from Amy: I remember in class we talked about how China was not really interested in colonization in distant lands so much as they were just curious about them. Would this have meant that the Chinese most likely wouldn't have impacted the natives (culturally, economically, politically) as much as the Europeans did? I mean, this question is all about speculation so I suppose anything is possible...

Bingham

9/11/2016 21:41:52

Nicely thorough answer guys.

Amy, I think it's safe to speculate that Chinese influence would pale in comparison to the catastrophe of European intrusion. Sure, some American societies might well have seen a benefit to the adoption of Chinese culture and learning, but it would have been unlikely that it would have been imposed by the Chinese - just wasn't their style.

Amy and Eliza

9/11/2016 22:29:34

BPQ3: What common patterns might you notice across the world of the fifteenth century? And what variations in the historical trajectories of various regions can you identify?

Population growth:
-(Eurasia) Recovery from Black Death
-(Americas) Caused by advancing agriculture
Oceanic expansion:
-China had a massive fleet, but ended it
-Europe had much smaller fleets, but China’s abandonment of naval expeditions allowed European efforts to escalate
-First interaction b/w the Americas and Europe
Importance of trade:
-Local trade between Australian villages
-Local and regional trade in Aztec and Inca
-Long-distance trade in Eurasia centered in East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Indian Ocean
Expansion of Islam:
-Through interaction with agricultural societies, pastoral peoples such as the Fulbe often adopted Islam
-Variation of expression within 4 Islamic empires
Cultural flowering:
-Italian Renaissance increased values of individualism, capitalism, and secularism
-Ming Dynasty renewal of Confucianism
-Increasing expansion of Islam
New fluctuations of human society:
-dwindling of pastoral, agricultural village, and Paleolithic peoples
-expanding of empires and civilizations
Stronger states:
China, Islamic world, Inca/Aztec versus fractured Europe, Igbo/Iroquois

It's really late, but I figured maybe someone in the morning could comment? Are we on the right track with this question, or is this too specific to certain regions?

Bingham

Welcome class of 2019. 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.

Snapshot in Time, the 14th century

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