1. The West and the Changing Balance of World Power
Chapter 15: Pgs

2. Introduction 1400s: World in period of transition
Who takes international trade role?
Italy, Spain, Portugal took leadership role
Americas couldn’t respond to European invasions
Key Question: Why did different civilizations react differently?????

3. The Decline of the Old Order
1200: ME ran by BE(North) and Arab Empire(South)
Turks take BE 1453; Mongols overthrow caliph in 1258
Social/Cultural Change in ME
Religious leaders gain power
New piety
Economic Shifts
Centralized power slows: landlords gain more power
Lower agricultural yield, less taxes, less trade
Gradual decline, not sudden like Rome

4. The Decline of the Old Order
Power Vacuum in International Leadership
Ottoman’s not an international trade leader
Mongols provide next global leader
Encourage interregional trade
Exchanges tech/ideas
End of empire turned to seaborne trade
Chinese Thrust/Withdrawal
Ming dynasty:
Push out Mongols first
Re-establish tributary links with Southeast Asia
State sponsored trade expectations
Admiral Zhenghe
led vast, unparalleled fleet

5. The Decline of the Old Order
Former eunuch: why do leaders like them as advisors
Fleet of 28,000 troops: scared local leaders
7 expeditions, dies on 7th
Did Zhenghe really discover America in 1421??
Reasons to stop exploration: threatened Confucian bureaucrats
Dislike of merchants having power
Cost
What if China kept trading? Lost chance to be world power
Little European ships no match
Follows Chinese pattern of spending money internally
West power is judged on expansion
Worked on infrastructure: population increase, manufacturing improves

6. Rise of the West Surprising? Sources of Dynamism
Awed by other bureaucracies
Church under attack
Warrior aristocrats softened life: tournaments/armor
Ordinary Europeans
Famine
Plague
Strikes/peasant uprisings
Sources of Dynamism
Europe strong
Strong regional governments
Military innovations: Nonaristocratic soldiers paid by central gov.
Growth of cities
Church content with capitalism
Tech improving

7. Rise of the West Imitation/International Problems
Tech pushes expansion
Mongol period: Europe has ideal trade access
WE not controlled, internal conflicts leads to improve tech to win battles
International factors push expansion
Interest in luxury goods
European products not in demand, must buy in gold
Fear of Muslim threat
Need to secure Western ports
Need to create sea trade since Muslims control land trade

8. Rise of the West Secular Directions in Italian Renaissance
West’s surge forward: rebirth of culture and political views of Classical Europe
Artists: Humanism
Artists/Writers: push for own reputation
Works now secular and religious
Human Values and Renaissance Culture
Focus of art changes
Subject: people, nature, portraits
Vivid, realistic statues: like classic Rome/Greece
Change mindset: look outward
Build ships, push commerce
Governments fund new ventures
Human ambition/pursuit of glory: focus on exploration/conquest

9. Rise of The West Iberian Spirit of Religious Mission
Spanish/Portuguese rulers pushing military/religious agenda
Goal of armies: push Christianity, kick out Arabs/Jews
Government enforces Church codes
Inquisition courts to enforce orthodoxy
Key: government with religious mission

10. Western Expansion: Experimental Phase
Early Explorations
Western route to the Indies
Vivaldi's from Genoa sailed off to never return
Stick to coast of Africa
Post 1430: some navigational problems solved
Compass/astrolabe from Arabs
Improved mapmaking
Geographically inaccurate map give false confidence
1498: Vasco de Gama 1st European to reach Indian Ocean

11. Western Expansion: Experimental Phase
Colonial Patterns
How to make expeditions profitable?
Henry the Navigator: motivated by science, religious, economic reasons
Islands off Africa test ground for colonialism
Large agricultural estates
Sugar, cotton, tobacco
Portuguese bring in slaves
Successful early programs led to expansion
Forces influencing expansion
Inferiorities/fears: Muslims
Energy of Renaissance merchants
Economic pressures
Population surge

12. Outside the World Network
Political Issues in the Americas
Resentment for leadership
Overextension: difficult to control
Other cultures developing: maybe surpassed
Expansion, Migration, Conquest in Polynesia
7th-14th centuries: spread eastward: Hawaii
Caste system: military leaders/priests dominate
No written language: oral history
Maori: New Zealand
Elaborate art, military/priests great power, slaves
Developed in isolation
Vulnerable to disease, inferior weapons, cultural disintegration

13. Outside the World Network
Adding Up the Changes
Master plan that Europeans would dominate or series of coincidences?
Political instability in Americas
Tech inferiority
Vulnerable to diseases
China: opts out of world trade domination
Individuals try to improve Europe’s trade deficit
Muslims have less impact on Africa
Africans don’t benefit from trade with Mongols

14. Global Connections Global Contacts Key Continuity
Muslim traders/missionaries still active
Mongols readily shared ideas
China made new contacts
1450: who would dominate was in flux
Key Continuity
Regions require trade to survive
Africa: ME
SE Asia: China/Muslim traders
WE contacts increasing
China, India, ME see Africa/Europe as consumer sources