AP Chapter 15 The West and the Changing World Balance

The Decline of the Old Order In 1200, the Middle East was dominated by two powerful empires, the Byzantine in the northwest and the Islamic Caliphate through much of the Middle Eastern heartland By 1400, this structure was in disarray By 1453 Constantinople fell to the Turks, effectively ending the Byzantine Empire Two centuries earlier the Islamic Caliphate had fallen to the Mongols. Arabs have never since been able to unite their entire region under their own rule

Social and Cultural Change in the Middle East By about 1300, religious leaders in the Islamic Middle East gained the upper hand over poets, philosophers, and scientist The new piety associated with the rising Sufi movement was both the cause and the result of this development In literature the emphasis on secular themes gave way to more strictly religious ideas

Continued Persian poets, writing in their own language, led the way In philosophy, the rationalistic current encountered new attacks Many Sufi scholars wrote excitedly of their mystic contacts with Allah and the stages of their religious passion which led to dramatic new statements of Islam

As the authority of the Caliphate declined, landlords seized power over the Peasantry From about 1100 onward, Middle Eastern peasants increasingly lost their freedom, becoming serfs on large estates Tax revenues declined, and Arab and other Middle Eastern traders began to lose ground The decline of the Islamic Caliphate and its economy was gradual and incomplete Middle Eastern commerce rebounded somewhat by 1400

Ottoman Turks The emerging Ottoman Turkish State soon mastered most of the lands of the old Caliphate as well as the Byzantine corner, expanding into Southeastern Europe This Empire would be more powerful, politically and militarily than the Caliphate had been for many centuries

Ottoman Empire

A Power Vacuum in International Leadership The Mongol decline, first in China, then gradually elsewhere, raised again the question of domination of international contacts and trade The end of the Mongol Empire also turned attention to seaborne trade, as the overland Asian trade routes were disrupted

Chinese Thrust and Withdrawal A rebel leader from a peasant family seized the Mongol capital of Beijing (1368) and proclaimed a new Ming-meaning “brilliant” Dynasty that was to last until 1644 This Dynasty began with a burst of unusual expansionism The initial Ming rulers pressed to secure the borders of the Middle Kingdom

Continued They reestablished influences over neighboring governments and winning tribute payments from states in Korea, Vietnam, and Tibet Soon after 1400, they adopted state sponsored trading expeditions to Southeastern Asia and beyond

Ming Dynasty

Zhenghe He was the admiral of the State fleet

Continued Zhenghe’s fleet was halted due to expenses China had long emphasized internal development, amid considerable international isolation and concern over protection against invasion from Central Asia Its leaders were suspicious of any policy that would unduly elevate commercial activity

The Rise of the West Sources of Dynamism: Medieval Vitality The strengthening of feudal monarchy provided more effective national or regional governments for much of the West The Hundred Years’ War between France and Britain stimulated innovations in military organization The growth of cities and urban economies continued to spur the commercial side of Western society

Continued The Church made its peace with such key principles of capitalism as profit seeking Technology continued to advance, particularly in ironworking-used for bells and weapons-and timekeeping

Imitation and International Problems Political stability and an openness to foreign visitors by the Great Khan helped Westerners learn of Asian technologies Internal European warfare, and merchant zeal made Western Europe an eager learner, for the Asian technologies promised to meet existing military and commercial needs

Continued The second international factor was the intensification of European problems in the existing world market and international arena Western elites had become used to increasing consumption of Asian luxury products including spices, perfumes, and jewels The West could only trade cruder goods like wood, tin, copper, honey, and salt

Continued The resulting unfavorable balance of trade had to be made-up in gold, but Western Europe had only a limited gold supply There were legitimate fears of a new Muslim threat One response to this was a series of conquests by the city-state of Venice along the eastern coast of the Adriatic

Continued A more important response was to begin exploring alternative routes to Asia that would by pass the Middle East and the feared and hated Muslim realms altogether

Secular Directions in the Italian Renaissance In 1400, Italy was in the midst of a vital cultural and political movement known as the Renaissance or rebirth The early phases of the Renaissance stressed more secular subjects in literature and art Religious art remained dominant but used more realistic portrayals of people and nature, and some nonreligious themes surfaced outright

Continued Italy was the center of initial Renaissance culture because it had more contact with Roman tradition than did the rest of Europe and because by the 14 th Century it led the West in banking and trade Active commerce and urban manufacturing gave Italian cities the wealth to sponsor new cultural activities, and contacts with some foreign scholars, particularly in Byzantium, helped revive Greco-Roman styles

Human Values and Renaissance Culture Despite its political and commercial roots, the Renaissance was first and foremost a cultural movement, launched in Florence and manifesting itself in literature and various Innovations flourished in the visual arts and music The subject matter of art moved toward nature and people, including cityscapes and portraits of the rich and powerful, whether the themes were religious or secular

Continued Other painters, beginning latter in the 14 th Century, started to introduce perspective while using new colors and other materials In architecture, favor shifted away from the Gothic to a Classicism derived from the styles of Greece and Rome

Perspective in Painting

Classic Architecture GothicClassic

Continued The wide range of Italian commerce and shipping proved to be one of the building blocks of European outreach Ambitious City-State governments encouraged new ventures, eager to collect more tax money and promote commerce as one of their explicit functions

The Iberian Spirit of Religious Mission Along with Italy, a key center for change by the 14 th Century was the Iberian Peninsula, where Christian military leaders had for Centuries been pressing back the boundaries of the Muslim state in Spain They believed that government had a mission to promote Christianity by converting or expelling Arabs and Jews and by maintaining doctrinal purity within the Church

Expulsion

Inquisition Later in the 15 th Century, this interaction led to the reestablishment of the Church run courts of the Inquisition in Spain, designed to enforce religious Orthodoxy

Western Expansion: The Experimental Phase Early Exploration By the 1400s Genoa had rediscovered the Canary Islands, the Madeira’s and possibly as far as the Azores by 1351 Once technological barriers were overcome exploration became possible: Deeper hulled ships, compass, astrolabe, better maps and map making Vasco da Gama was the first European to reach India by sea, in 1498

Madeira and Canary Islands

Vasco da Gama

Colonial Pattern A driving force behind both further expeditions and the efforts to make already discovered areas economically profitable was Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal, known as Henry the Navigator

Prince Henry the Navigator

Colonial Patterns Continued By 1439 Portugal had taken control of the Azores and had granted land to colonist Colonist brought in Western plants, animals, weapons, and diseases They set-up large estates designed to produce cash crops that could be sold the European market First sugar then cotton and tobacco They imported slaves from northwestern Africa

Political Issues in the Americas Aztec exploitation of subject peoples for gold, slaves, and religious sacrifices roused great resentment The Inca system, though far less brutal than that of the Aztecs, provided ongoing tension between central leadership and local initiative

Expansion, Migration, and Conquest in Polynesia The key Polynesia theme from the 7 th Century to 1400 was expansion, spurts of migration, and conquest that implanted Polynesian culture well beyond the initial base in the Society Islands, as Tahiti, Samoa, and Fiji are called collectively The Polynesians reached Hawaii before the 7 th Century in war canoes

Polynesian War Canoe

Polynesians Continued Subsequent migrations took place until about 1300 or 1400 Polynesians set-up agricultural clusters and fishing villages They imported pigs

Polynesian Migration

Polynesian Society Politically Hawaii was organized into regional kingdoms, which were highly warlike Society was structured into a caste system with priests and nobles at the top Commoners were viewed almost as a separate people They had no written language

Isolated Achievements by the Maori A group of Polynesians traveled southwest in about the 8 th Century and settled in New Zealand They developed the most elaborate of all Polynesian art Tribal military leaders and priests held great power in Maori society; each tribe also included a group of slaves drawn from prisoners of war and their descendants

Maori

Maori Homeland

Adding Up the Changes Technology played a role, as opportunities to copy Asian developments were supplemented by European initiative, particularly in gunnery and ship design The overall result of change affected even societies where existing patterns persisted