The Worlds of the 15 th Century Ways of the World Chapter 12

Paleolithic Persistence – North America  Hunting & gathering people in North America:  Had permanent settlements  Large & sturdy houses  Economic specialization  Stratified societies  Powerful clan leaders  Extensive storage of food

Paleolithic Persistence - Australia  No agriculture present despite being present nearby on the island of New Guinea  Firestick Farming:  Controlled fires to clear brush in order to simplify hunting & promote the growth of certain plants & animals  Exchanged good among themselves  Developed elaborate myths & rituals  None of the major features of the hunting & gathering people of N.A. are present

Agricultural Village Societies – West Africa  Yorba &Benin people were creating small states & urban centers  Igbo people relied on other institutions to maintain social cohesion beyond the village  Women’s associations  Ritual experts acting as mediators  Balance of power between kinship groups  All traded actively among themselves & with more distant peoples  Tracing descent changed from matrilineal to patrilineal

Agricultural Village Societies – North America  Increased tribal conflict & blood feuds led to political innovation  Loose confederation of 5 Iroquois speaking tribes  Operated by a consensus of 50 clan leaders  Primary role was to keep peace & settle disputes  Gave expression to the values of limited government, social equality, & personal freedom  Women had much authority  Descent was matrilineal  Married couples lived with the wife’s family  Women controlled agriculture  Men were hunters, warriors, & political office holders  Women selected & could depose the office holders

Major Achievements of the Ming Dynasty  Led China’s recovery from the disruption of Mongol rule & the effects of the plague by looking back to ancient Chinese dynasties  Restored the civil service examination system  Restored millions of acres for cultivation  Rebuilt canals, dams, & irrigation systems  Undertook the largest & most impressive maritime expeditions in history  Arguably the most prosperous & best governed of the major civilization of the time

Comparing Chinese Exploration to European Exploration China  Enormous fleet of several hundred large ships  Needed no military allies  No desire to convert foreigners to Chinese culture or religion  Wanted neither conquest nor colonies  Exploration abruptly ended after 1433 Europe  Expeditions of a handful of small ships  Motivated by the desire for wealth, finding people to convert to Christianity, & recruiting allies against the Muslim powers  Sought to forcefully monopolize Indian Ocean commerce & create empires in the Americas  Exploration continued & escalated after 1433

Differences among the four major empires of the Islamic world  The Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires were all of Turkic origins, while the Songhay was not  Ottoman and Safavid Empires ruled over the heartland of the Muslim world where a majority of their subjects were Muslim  Mughal and Songhay Empires ruled over regions where Muslims were the minority  The rulers of the Safavid Empire were the only ones to impose Shia Islam as the official state religion

Aztec Empire vs. Inca Empire Aztec  Smaller – controlled only one part of the Mesoamerican cultural region  No administrative system was created to incorporate conquered territories & people into Aztec culture  Extracted substantial tribute from subject populations in the form of goods  System of commercial exchange based on free markets & merchants Inca  Much larger – at its height controlled almost all of Andean civilization  Created a highly bureaucratic empire where the authority of the state directed Incan society & economy  Primarily extracted labor services from their subjects  Government played a major role in the production & distribution of goods

Interaction of people in the 15 th century  People of the 15 th century interacted largely through webs of empire  Large scale political systems linked a variety of culturally diverse people  Connections of religion linked people across vast distances & empires  Long established patterns of trade also promoted interaction & linked people