1. Chapter 15
Expanding Worlds: Recovery in the Late Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries

2. Focus Questions
WHY WERE some African empires able to expand on such an impressive scale during this period?
WHAT ROLE did geographic diversity play in the Inca and Aztec empires?
WHAT STRONG new empires arose on the Eurasian borderlands?
WHY DID China turn away from overseas expansion in the fifteenth century?
WHY DID Europe begin to reach out and cross the oceans in the late 1400s?

3. Empires in Eurasia Rise of the Turks Empire of Timur the Lame
Ottoman Empire
Rise of the Turks
Empire of Timur the Lame
Adaptation of new military technologies
Invasion of the Balkans
Building of a fleet
Seizure of Constantinople (1453)
New source of wealth
Defeat of old Christian rival
System for rule

4. Ivan “the Terrible” (r. 1462-1505) Married Byzantine princess
Russian Empire
Center at Moscow
Ivan III, first tsar
Ivan “the Terrible” (r )
Married Byzantine princess
Moscow the Third Rome
State grows to encompass entire Volga region
Begins to expand to the east
Colonization
Fur trade
China Renewed: The Ming dynasty (est. 1368)
Peasant rising in 1351 and instability of Mongol elite
Chu Yüanzhang proclaims Ming dynasty
Capital moved to Nanjing
Many of the foreign advisors and former government officials retained.
Exam system and ancient traditions restored.

5. Yongle Emperor (r )
Moved capital back to Beijing
Buildt Forbidden City
Voyages of Zheng He
Muslim eunuch, representative of assimilated old foreign administration
Sets out to establish Chinese dominance and gain new tributary allies for China.
Increase knowledge of the outside world
Massive fleets and ships: 7 voyages between 1404 and 1433
Opposition by Confucian elites (loathed commerce)
Voyages ended with Zheng’s death; ships and records destroyed.
Confucian opposition, military threats to the empire, and astronomical cost of the voyages
China becomes increasingly inward-looking.

6. Empires in the Americas
Inca in South America
Rise of the Inca during late fifteenth century
Military organization, use of colonies and road building to maintain control
Ecological diversity of land
Precarious nature
Struggles within the Inca elite
Resentment of local populations
Size of the empire itself: communication problems, economic problems, etc.

7. Arose during the fourteenth century.
Aztec (Mexico)
Arose during the fourteenth century.
Based on military prowess of the Aztec military
Centered on its capital at Tenochtitlan, built in the middle of Lake Texcoco
Dependent on tribute from subject peoples, many of whom deeply resented Aztec rule
Size of the empire led to communication problems, risk of collapse if too many tributary states rose at once, etc.

8. Empires in Africa East West Ethiopia Mwene Mutapa
Both connected into Indian Ocean trade system
West
Mali Empire (13th to early 15th century)
In decline with the rise of Songhay
Wealth in gold, ivory, and slaves

9. Europe Hardship of navigation in the Atlantic
Portugal
Hardship of navigation in the Atlantic
Early exploration of the Atlantic by the Portuguese
Role of trial and error in technological development
Development of sugar plantations
Development of trade contacts with West African kingdoms
Rounding of Africa in 1488
Spain
Christopher Columbus
Voyage of 1492

10. The building of an overseas trading empire by the Portuguese was unprecedented in its connection of Europe with the Indian Ocean trading system and was a harbinger of things to come. The empires of sub-Saharan Africa and the Americas represented states not unlike earlier ones, though larger in size but still with limited outside contacts and life spans. The Ming dynasty restored native rule to China and for a time suggestion a new outward-looking view that might have challenged European traders coming into the Indian Ocean, but it turned inward instead – the consequences for all were enormous.

11. Modern ecological imperialism?
Today’s Question
Modern ecological imperialism?
Consider
The U.S., with 6% of the world’s population, accounts for over 25% of the world’s energy consumption.
This energy profligacy not only drives political policy in the oil-rich Middle East, but also makes economic growth in the less-developed world even more problematic ecologically.
Countries such as Brazil might ask why they should not be allowed to exploit their natural resources (such as the Amazon rain forest) the same way the U.S. exploited its resources earlier.
Does U.S. energy consumption constitute a new ecological imperialism, forcing the rest of the world to deal with the impact of the U.S., whether they want to or not?
Is forcing the consequences of our lifestyle a form of imperial arrogance?