1. Ways of the World: A Brief Global History First Edition
Robert W. Strayer
Ways of the World: A Brief Global History First Edition
CHAPTER 14
Empires and Encounters
1450–1750
Copyright © 2009 by Bedford/St. Martin’s

2. European Empires in the Americas
Western European Empires were marked by maritime expansion
Spaniards in Caribbean, then on to the Aztec and Inca empires
Portuguese in Brazil
British, French, and Dutch colonies in North America
Europeans controlled most of the Americas by the mid-nineteenth century

3. European Empires in the Americas
The European Advantage
Geography
Countries on the Atlantic rim of Europe (Portugal, Spain, Britain, and France) were simply closer to the Americas than was any possible Asian competitor. They also understood winds and currents much different from monsoon winds in the Indian Ocean.

4. The European Advantage
Need
Chinese and Indians had such a rich markets in the Indian Ocean that there wasn’t much incentive to go beyond.
Marginality
Europeans were aware of their marginal position in Eurasian commerce and wanted to change it.
Rivalry
Interstate rivalry drove rulers to compete.
Merchants
Sought access to Asian Wealth
The merchant class wanted to avoid the reliance on Muslim middlemen that they found so distasteful.
Wealth
Colonies were an opportunity for impoverished nobles and commoners.
The silver mines in Mexico and Peru allowed the Spanish conquerors and other Europeans to buy massive amounts highly valuable commodities such as Chinese tea, silk, and porcelain
Religion
Crusade Zeal
Persecuted minorities looking for more freedom.
Christian saints in many places blended easily with specialized indigenous gods, while belief in magic, folk medicine, and communion with the dead remained strong. Many gravitated toward the world of their conqueror, learned Spanish, and converted to Christianity.

5. Discussion Starter: Aside from the creation of European empires in the Americas, what do you think is the most profound outcome of empire building during the early modern era?
a. The expansion of Muslim rule over non-Muslim peoples of Europe and India
b. The emergence of Russia as a multi-ethnic empire
c. The doubling of the population and size of the Chinese empire
d. The decline of the power and influence of pastoral societies on world history

6. The Great Dying
Created an acute labor shortage and made room for immigrant newcomers—colonizers and enslaved Africans
Pre-Columbian Western Hemisphere had million
No immunity to Old World Diseases
Europeans brought European and African diseases.
Morality rate of up to 90 percent among Native American populations
Native population nearly vanished in the Caribbean
Central Mexico: population drops from million to around 1 million by 1650.
Similar mortality in North America

7. The Columbian Exchange
It was the enormous network of communication, migration, trade, the spread of disease, and the transfer of plants and animals between the Old and New Worlds. This was an interacting Atlantic world connecting four continents
Massive native mortality created labor shortage.
Migrant Europeans and African slaves created entirely new societies.
American food crops( corn, potatoes and cassava) spread widely in the Eastern Hemisphere.
Potatoes especially allowed enormous population growth
Corn and sweet potatoes were important in China and Africa

10. Comparing Colonial Societies in the Americas
Europeans did not just conquer and govern established societies they created wholly new societies.
All were shaped by mercantilism-This view held that European countries’ economic interests were best served by encouraging exports and accumulating silver and gold which represented prosperity. Colonies provided their mother countries with great quantities of bullion.
Colonies should provide closed markets for the mother country’s manufactured goods.
But colonies differed widely, depending on native cultures and the sort of economy that was established
Three types of economies
settler-dominated agriculture
slave-based plantations
ranching or mining

11. Comparing Colonial Societies in the Americas
In the Lands of the Aztecs and the Incas
Spanish conquest
The mostly wealthy, urbanized, and populous regions of the Western Hemisphere.
Within a century, the Spaniards established major cities, universities, and religious and bureaucratic infrastructure.
A distinctive social order grew up, replicating the Spanish hierarchy while accommodating the racially and culturally different Indians and Africans, as well as growing numbers of racially mixed people. The society was dominated by Europeans.

12. Rise of a distinctive social order
a. replicated some of the Spanish class hierarchy b. accommodated Indians, Africans, and racially mixed people c. Spaniards were at the top, increasingly wanted a large measure of self-government from the Spanish Crown d. emergence of mestizo (mixed-race) population e. gross abuse and exploitation of the Indians f. more racial fluidity than in North America

13. Rise of a distinctive social order
Peninsulares—Spanish born peoples
Creoles-Spainards born in the Americas_
Mestizo—mixed race populations
(the product of unions between Spanish men and Indian women
Mulattoes—the product of Portuguese-African unions_
Indians-indigenous peoples

14. Colonies of Sugar V. Settler Colonies in North America
Brazil/Caribbean
British North America
Sugar plantation economy
Plantation economy- tobacco, cotton, rice, indigo
Slave labor/harsh
Slave labor/less harsh
Racial mixing took place;
In Brazil, a person of African or non-African ancestry was not considered “black,” but some other mixed-race category. The perception of color in Brazil changed with the educational or economic standing of individuals.
A sharply defined racial system (with Black Africans, red Native Americans, and white Europeans)
In North America, any African ancestry, no matter how small or distant, made a person “black.”

15. Colonies of Sugar
1. lowland Brazil and the Caribbean developed a different society        
a. regions had not been home to great civilizations and didn’t have great mineral wealth until the 1690s        
b. but sugar was in high demand in Europe        
c. these colonies produced almost solely for export

16. 2. Arabs introduced large-scale sugar production to the Mediterranean
a. Europeans transferred it to Atlantic islands and Americas          
b. Portuguese on Brazilian coast dominated the world sugar market 1570–1670          
c. then British, French, and Dutch in the Caribbean broke the Portuguese monopoly

17. 3. sugar transformed Brazil and the Caribbean
a. production was labor intensive, worked best on large scale        
b. can be called the first modern industry        
c. had always been produced with massive use of slave labor        
d. Indians of the area were almost totally wiped out or fled        
e. planters turned to African slaves—at least 80 percent of all African captives enslaved in the Americas ended up in Brazil and the Caribbean

18. 4. much more of Brazilian and Caribbean society was of African descent
5. large mixed-race population provided much of urban skilled workforce and supervisors in sugar industry    
6. plantation complex based on African slavery spread to southern parts of North America        
a. but in North America, European women came earlier          
b. result was less racial mixing, less tolerance toward mixed blood          
c. sharply defined racial system evolved          
d. slavery was less harsh

20. Connection: The European conquest of the Americas increased global connections in all EXCEPT which of the following ways?
a. It brought new crops and technologies to the Americas.
b. Although no American crops spread beyond Europe to the rest of Eurasia and Africa, the European conquest did result in the adoption of several American crops in Western Europe.
c. It resulted in the extensive mixing of indigenous American, African, and European peoples.
d. It reshaped the world economy by providing Europeans with access to large amounts of silver.

22. Discussion Starter: In terms of global history, which of the following do you consider the most profound long-term outcome of the Columbian Exchange?
a. The emergence of the Atlantic slave system
b. The exchange of crops and animals between the Americas and the Afro-Eurasian world
c. The demographic collapse of Native American societies
d. The establishment of European colonial empires

23. Settler Colonies in North America
Because the British were the last of the European powers to establish a colonial presence in the Americas, they found that “only the dregs were left.” Lands they acquired were regarded as the unpromising leftovers of the New World.
British society was changing more rapidly than Catholic Spain
British colonist were trying to escape European society
British colonist were more numerous and by 1750 outnumbered the Spanish by 5 to 1.
By % of North American colonies were European
Indians were killed off by disease and military policy.
Small scale farming did not need slaves.
Literacy Rates:
The Protestant emphasis on reading the Bible for oneself led to a much greater mass literacy than in Latin America whereas the Catholic Church was far more focused on converting the natives to Christianity.
British colonies developed traditions of local self government.
Britain didn’t impose an elaborate bureaucracy like Spain.
British civil war (seventeenth century) distracted government from involved colonies.
North America gradually became dominant, more developed than South America.

24. Change: The differences among colonial societies that emerged in the Americas after European conquest can be accounted for through all EXCEPT which of the following factors?
a. The number of Europeans who settled in a region
b. The type of economy that took shape in the region
c. The rejection of slave holding in the early 1600s by Portuguese and Dutch rulers
d. Whether a Protestant or Catholic power settled a region

25. The Steppes and Siberia: The Making of a Russian Empire

26. After under Russian or Chinese Rule
Chinese conquests, together with the expansion of the Russian Empire, transformed Central Asia.
Eurasia Before
After under Russian or Chinese Rule
The region had been the cosmopolitan crossroads, hosting the Silk Road trade network.
Welcomed all of the major world religions.
Generated an enduring encounter between the nomads of the steppes and farmers of settled agricultural regions.
Became the backward and impoverished region known to 19th and 20th century observers.
Land-based commerce took a backseat to oceanic trade.
Indebted Mongolian nobles lost their land to Chinese merchants.
Nomads no longer were able to herd their animals freely and fled to urban areas where many were reduced to begging.
The incorporation of the heartland of Eurasian nomads into the Russian and Chinese empires eliminated the nomadic pastoralists who had been the strongest alternative to settled agricultural society since 200 B.C.E.

28. Russians and Empire
A small Russian state centered on Moscow began to emerge ca. 1500
Moscow began to conquer neighboring cities
Three centuries grew into a massive empire
Early expansion into the grasslands to south and east was for security against nomads
Expansion into Siberia was a matter of opportunity (furs) not threat

29. Cossacks were bands of fiercely independent warriors consisting of peasants who had escaped serfdom as well as criminals and other adventurers. They helped to expand Russia into Siberia.

30. Experiencing the Russian Empire
Conquered people had to take an oath of loyalty to the Russian ruler.
payment of tribute
intermittent pressure to convert to Christianity
devastating epidemics killed large populations
the influx of Russian settlers
loss of hunting grounds and pasturelands (for the nomads) to Russian agricultural settlers, which disrupted the local economy and left local populations dependent on Russian markets

31. Russians and Empire
With imperial expansion, Russians became a smaller proportion of the overall population.
Rich agriculture lands, furs, and minerals helped make Russia a great power by the eighteen century.
Became an Asian power as well
Russian Identity
Expansion made Russia a very military state
Reinforced autocracy
Colonization experience was different from Americas
Conquest of territories with which Russia had long interacted
Conquest took place at the same time as development of Russian State
The Russian empire remained intact until 1991.

33. Asian Empires
A. Asian empires were regional, not global.     1. creation of Asian empires did not include massive epidemics     did not fundamentally transform their homelands like interaction with the Americas and Siberia did for European powers

34. Asian Empires Making China an Empire
The Chinese vastly enlarged the territorial size of the country and incorporated a number of non-Chinese people
A great military effort was undertaken to provide security for the huge region.
Conquered regions were ruled separately from the rest of China through a new office called the Court of Colonial Affairs
Like other colonial powers, the Chinese made active use of local notables.
Chinese or Qing officials didn’t seek to assimilate local people into Chinese culture and showed considerable respect for the Mongolian, Tibetan, and Muslim cultures of the region.

35. B. Making China an Empire 1
B. Making China an Empire 1. Qing dynasty (1644–1912) launched enormous imperial expansion to the north and west 2. nomads of the north and west were very familiar to the Chinese a. 80-year-long Chinese conquest (1680–1760) b. motivated by security fears; reaction to Zunghar state 3. China evolved into a Central Asian empire 4. conquered territory was ruled separately from the rest of China through the Court of Colonial Affairs a. considerable use of local elites to govern b. officials often imitated Chinese ways c. but government did not try to assimilate conquered peoples d. little Chinese settlement in the conquered regions 5. Russian and Chinese rule impoverished Central Asia and turned it into a backward region

36. Muslims and Hindus in the Mughal Empire
1. Mughals united much of India between 1526 and 1707    
2. the Mughal Empire’s most important divide was religious: 20 percent of the population were Muslims, while most of the rest were Hindus    
3. Emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605) attempted serious accommodation of the Hindu majority        
a. brought many Hindus into the political-military elite          
b. imposed a policy of toleration          
c. abolished payment of jizya by non-Muslims          
d. created a state cult that stressed loyalty to the emperor          
e. Akbar and his successors encouraged a hybrid Indian-Persian-Turkic culture      
4. Mughal toleration provoked reaction among some Muslims        
a.   Emperor Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707) reversed Mughal policy, tried to impose Islamic supremacy          
b.   Aurangzeb banned sati (widow burning), music and dance at court, various vices          
c.   destruction of some Hindu temples          
d.   reimposition of jizya      
5. Aurangzeb’s policy provoked Hindu reaction

37. Muslims and Hindus in the Mughal Empire
Akbar—realized that Hindus made up the majority of the population of the Mughal Empire and let them keep their faith; incorporated many Hindus into the political-military elite of the empire; supported building of Hindu temples; imposed a policy of toleration retraining the more militantly Islamic ulama; removed the special tax on non-Muslims; and promoted a state religious cult that drew on Islam, Hindus, and Zoroastrianism.
Aurangzeb—reversed Akbar’s policy of accommodation. He forbade the Hindu practice of sati, banned music and dance at the court, as well as banning gambling, drinking, prostitution, and narcotics. He destroyed some Hindu temples; reinstated the special tax on non-Muslims; and posted “censors of public morals” to large cities to enforce Islamic law

39. Muslims, Christians, and the Ottoman Empire
Taxes were lighter and oppression was less pronounced under Ottoman rule.
Christian communities were granted considerable autonomy in regulating their internal social, religious, educational, and charitable affairs.
A large number of these Christians—Balkan landlords, Greek merchants, government officials, and high-ranking clergy—became part of the Ottoman elite without converting to Islam.
Jewish refugees fleeing Christian persecution in a Spain recently “liberated” from Islamic rule, found greater opportunity in the Ottoman Empire, where they became prominent in trade and banking circles.

40. Muslims, Christians, and the Ottoman Empire
1. the Ottoman Empire was the Islamic world’s most important empire in the early modern period 2. long conflict (1534–1639) between Sunni Ottomans and Shia Safavids 3. the Ottoman Empire was the site of a significant cross-cultural encounter a. in Anatolia, most of the conquered Christians converted to Islam b. in the Balkans, Christian subjects mostly remained Christian 4. in the Balkans, many Christians welcomed Ottoman conquest a. Ottoman taxed less and were less oppressive b. Christian churches received considerable autonomy c. Balkan elites were accepted among the Ottoman elite without conversion

41. Muslims, Christians, and the Ottoman Empire
5. Jewish refugees from Spain had more opportunities in the Ottoman Empire 6. devshirme: tribute of boys paid by Christian Balkan communities a. boys were converted to Islam, trained to serve the state b. the devshirme was a means of upward social mobility 7. the Ottoman state threatened Christendom 8. some Europeans admired Ottoman rule a. philosopher Jean Bodin (sixteenth century) praised Ottoman religious tolerance b. European merchants evaded papal bans on selling firearms to the Turks c. Ottoman women enjoyed relative freedom

42. Ottoman Empire
Balkan Christian communities were required to hand over a quota of young boys, who were then removed from their families, required to learn Turkish, usually converted to Islam, and trained for either civil administration or military service in elite Janissary units. The empire itself represented an enormous threat to Christendom in general. The seizure of Constantinople, the conquest of the Balkans, Ottoman naval power in the Mediterranean, and the siege of Vienna in 1529 and 1683 raised anew “the specter of a Muslim takeover of all of Europe.” The last Ottoman incursion into the Austrian Empire was pushed back with French and Polish help, marking the end of a serious Muslim threat to Christian Europe.

43. Comparison: How did Western European empires in the Americas differ from empires elsewhere in the world during the early modern era?
a. Only Western European empire building in the Americas produced empires that that featured the mixing of diverse peoples.
b. Only Western European empire building in the Americas was facilitated by collapse or displacement of indigenous populations.
c. Only Western European empires in the Americas conquered substantial new lands instead of increasing their effective control over lands already under their control.
d. Only Western European empires in the Americas were initiated by maritime expansion.

44. Discussion Starter: Is this chapter too Eurocentric?
a. Yes
b. No