2.  Reasons for trade and travel: › Nomads who engaged in conquest › Involuntary slave travel › Pilgrims visiting holy shrines › Three most important reasons: trade, diplomacy and missionary

3.  Two major networks: › Silk roads – lightweight luxury items like silk & gems › Sea lanes of Indian Ocean – heavy items like crops, lumber, etc.  Smaller trade route: › Trans-Saharan

4.  As trade increased major trading cities and ports grew › Filled with buyers, sellers, brokers and bankers › Khanbaliq, Melaka, Hormuz, Caffa, Cairo, Constantinople, Timbuktu › Had large communities of foreigners  Melaka was the major trade city of east Indian Ocean

5.  Early middle 13 th century, Mongol military campaigns caused major economic disruption in Eurasia  However, as they gained control, trade and travel became less risky  A strong demand for Asian products took some Europeans (like Marco Polo) to Asia

6.  Emergence of huge trading networks and establishment of huge empires created demand for diplomatic representation after 1000  Empires and countries began sending “ambassadors” to represent them in other countries

7.  All this travel encouraged cultural exchanges between societies › Things exchanged: poetry, music, science, gunpowder, citrus fruits, cotton, sugar, compass  All this interaction did several things: › Increase diets › Increase populations › Increase economic development › Mariners could sail more effectively and safely › Spread of gunpowder changed war forever

8.  1300CE – global climate change  Lasted 500 years  Meant agricultural growing season was shorter › Led to famine in some places › Greenland had to be abandoned

9.  Spread from SW China  Infected rodents  Fleas transmitted it from rodents to humans  Early 14 th cent. – Mongol military helped unknowingly spread it  1340’s – Mongols, merchants and travelers helped spread it along trade routes to west

10. Disease thrived in cities and oases Soon reached the Black Sea Italian merchants spread it from there throughout Med Sea area By 1348 – had affected most of western Europe Europeans called it the “Black Death”

11.  Usually killed 70% of populations it encountered  Sometimes it wiped out entire villages  New births usually followed  But plague would come back and do it again

12.  Areas not really affected: › Scandinavia (northernmost parts of Europe) › India (population actually grew) › Sub-Saharan Africa  It hard hit places, it took a 100 years or more to recover  China lost 10 million  Europe lost 25% of population  Egypt’s population didn’t reach former levels until 1800’s

13.  Plague devastated societies and economies  Killed the young, weak and old in high numbers  But did not spare any group  Workers, peasants, merchants, artisans, priests, rulers  Caused huge labor shortages

14.  In Europe: › Workers demanded higher wages or began moving › Gov’t froze wages and forbid workers to leave home › Landlords tried to keep peasants from moving › Unhappy workers and peasants undertook series of rebellions › All eventually put down  By 17 th cent. plague mostly died down

15.  Mid 14 th – Yuan dynasty in trouble › Economic problems › Leader assassinations › Political infighting › Bubonic plague  1368 – Yuan dynasty collapsed  Mongols all left and returned to steppes

16.  China left in political and demographic turmoil  Hongwu came to power after leading rebellion forces against the Yuan  Proclaimed the Ming dynasty (means “brilliant”)  1368-1644  Hongwu got rid of everything Mongol  Returned gov’t to traditional Chinese type

17.  Reestablished Confucian education system and bureaucracy of merit (civil service exams)  Emperors ruled directly  Insisted on absolute adherence to laws  Used “ mandarins ” to make sure local gov’ts were following policy  Also relied on eunuchs to be in the bureaucracy

18.  Economics: › Laborers rebuilt irrigation systems › Promoted production of silk, porcelain, cotton › Domestic trade in China surged › Foreign trade not pushed, but merchants actively traded with Asian islands and Japan

19.  Cultural revival: › Discouraged Mongol names and clothing › Promoted Confucian and neo-Confucianism › The emperor Yongle organized a huge encyclopedia of Chinese history, philosophy, literature  Yongle Encyclopedia was almost 23,000 manuscript scrolls

20.  Means “rebirth”  Amazing cultural flowering of artistic and intellectual creativity from 14 th - 16 th centuries  Painters, sculptors and architects got their inspiration from Greek and Roman artists  Moved back towards realism

21.  Scholars known as humanists studied classical Greek & Roman literary sources rather than medieval sources › Tried to update Middle Ages thought & ideas  Center of Renaissance was Italy  Artists studied the human body › Showed the emotion of their subjects

22.  Masaccio, da Vinci, Donatello, Michelangelo  Architects most impressive achievements were domed buildings › Brunelleschi’s Dome was most famous (Florence)

23.  Humanists were interested in the humanities (literature, history, and moral philosophy) › Very committed to Christianity › Erasmus published the first edition of the Greek New Testament in 1516 › Others tried to promote high moral standards in their own society

24. They liked the elegant, polished language of Greek and Roman writers and early church leaders Petrarch traveled Europe searching for manuscripts of classical (G & R) writings Scholars became acquainted with Byzantine scholars and their works

25.  Humanists argued that it was honorable for Christians to enter into marriage, business relationships and public affairs › People did not have to enter monasteries or convents to be good Christians

26.  Renaissance art and ideas also reflected their engagement with the rest of the Eastern Hemisphere  Painters put foreign images (silk, spices, animals) in their paintings  Princes and wealthy patrons commissioned paintings to decorate their homes, businesses, etc.

27.  The Renaissance would help lead to Age of Exploration