WorldHistoryIChapter12FifteenthCentury.pptxWorlds of the Fifteenth Century
World History I
Changing Ways of Life
The fifteenth century saw some enormous changes in cultures worldwide.
Some cultures such as those found in most of Australia and in the far northern reaches of North America, were still hunter/gatherers, not because they were failing to progress, but because the land was providing everything they needed in abundance, so there was probably no impetus for change.
Pastoral societies continued on during this century, also, particularly in the middle east, Asia, and Africa, as before. But these types of cultures were in the minority by 1500, as agriculture continued to improve.
China
In China, the MING dynasty arose, spanning from 1368-1644. It ruled over a China that had been decimated by Mongol rule and then by Bubonic Plague.
The Ming emperors rebuilt the roads, canals and fields destroyed by the Mongols, rebuilt the government and reinstated the examination system for government workers.
Emperor Yongle even ordered the creation of an encyclopedia of 11,000 volumes, containing basically everything China knew up to that point.
Yongle also moved the capital of China to Beijing, creating a palace complex within it known as the Forbidden City, (see at right) for himself and future emperors.
This reconstruction ushered in an era of peace in China that allowed it to become the most prosperous civilization in the world by 1500.
The Chinese Treasure Fleet
Yongle also ordered a huge fleet of ships to be built that were then sent on various voyages to explore the rest of the world. The first voyage, captained by a eunuch named Zheng He, had more than 300 ships and was manned by more than 27,000 Chinese.
They traveled throughout Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and probably as far as North America. In some cases they brought back rulers who paid tribute to the emperor and in return were given gifts as and welcomed as trade partners.
When Yongle died, however, this immense fleet was left idle and eventually disappeared. Part of the reason for this was that China considered itself to be self-sufficient didn’t see the need to partner with other people.
It certainly believed its own culture to be far superior to others, and so once Yongle died, subsequent emperors saw no point in connecting with the outside world, inferior as it was to the Chinese.
Western Europe on the Rise
Like China, Western Europe had been decimated by plague, but it had at least been able to escape deprivation by the Mongol hordes. It still had many years of rebuilding before population and infrastructure returned to the pre-plague levels.
Where China continued to be one massive state, in Western Europe many separate states arose, such as Spain, Portugal, England and France. Italy was not yet a single entity, it was instead a conglomeration of city-states, and Germany was a collection of smaller kingdoms called principalities, and Russia was not even that organized at this time.
These areas all had various bureaucracies, strong taxation systems and large standing armies, and they all waged war against each other fairly constantly.
The Renaissance
Just like China, Europe had a time of positive cultural growth, in Europe’s case known as the RENAISSANCE.
During this time, European states looked towards the classic knowledge and arts of the ancient Greeks and Romans and even Islam and improved upon them.
This is the era of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and other artists. The Renaissance extended to more than painting and sculpture- history, politics, philosophy, science, etc. were studied and improved upon.
Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
Note the realism of
the painting.
Raison d'état: The Reason of the State (might makes right)
An important writing at the time was Machiavelli’s The Prince, a treatise on government and military power.
In it, he said that basically any action was allowed by a ruler if it was good for the state as whole – raison d’état, as it is known. This concept is widely taught in military academies around the world even today.
The Renaissance was especially noted for viewing and learning from the world as it really was, not simply as viewed through a religious filter.
This in turn will lead to the great Enlightenment movement which in turn will lead to some momentous revolutions, including the one that will give birth to the United States.
Voyages of Discovery
Like the Chinese, some European nations made voyages for the sake of improving trade.
Portugal explored the West coast of Africa, with Vasco de Gama making it around the tip of Africa, and eventually farther East; and of course Spain funded Christopher Columbus’ voyage to India that instead made it to North America, thus discovering the New World.
The amazing thing about these European voyages is that the ships that were taken were really small compared to the massive Chinese ships that emperor Yongle had sent out to explore the world, but they actually accomplished more. To the right is an actual sized reproduction of Columbus’ ship, the Santa Maria. Imagine sailing across the Atlantic in that dinky thing!
Sack of Constantinople
Meanwhile, in the middle east, the Ottoman Empire had continued to grow in size and strength.
In 1453, the empire seized Constantinople and destroyed what remained of Byzantium.
Now that the eastern reaches of the former Roman Empire were under Islam control, the Western reaches- Europe itself- lay open to Islamic conquest as well.
Islamic Divisions: Shia and Sunni
To the east of the Ottoman Empire, another Islamic power grew, the Safavid Empire, founded by Sufis from the Shia version of Islam, in what will become modern day Iran.
Because the Sufis were Shia, they found plenty of enemies in the rest of the Islamic states, who were Sunni.
This Shia/Sunni division continues in the nations of Islam to this day, with bloody consequences.
The Aztec Empire
In North and South America, meanwhile, two other massive civilizations reached their zeniths: The Aztecs and the Inca.
The Aztecs rose as a people around 1325, from the Mexica people of modern-day northern Mexico. They had a strong military that enabled them to create their own empire, with a capital city at Tenochtitlan.
In 1428 it allied with two neighboring city states and within a hundred years, the resulting empire had spread throughout much of Mesoamerica.
Conquered peoples were used primarily as slaves and the conquered rulers were made to pay tribute including textiles, clothing, jewelry, weapons, food, building material, paper and other goods.
Tenochtitlan
Tenochtitlan itself was considered to be one of the wonders of the world at its height- it was a walled city with palaces and temples, surrounded by bridges, canals, and smaller plots of land within the waterways that grew many different kinds of plants- “floating gardens,” the Spanish called them.
Massive marketplaces were spread throughout the city as well and contained an array of goods that seemed to encompass the entire world – if it was bought or sold anywhere on the planet, it was available at these marketplaces. Europe at the time really had nothing to compare with this empire’s cities.
Ritual Sacrifice
Human sacrifice was very important to the Aztecs, and slaves were bought and sold at marketplace to provide for this practice.
The Aztecs believed that the sun god, necessary to the survival of man, often became weak as it battled against darkness. In order to strengthen the sun god, a sacrifice of human blood was needed. Slaves and war captives were the main source for these sacrifices, so the Aztecs made sure they took as many prisoners as possible during warfare rather than simply killing their enemies.
An Aztec drawing of human sacrifices
Aztec Government
Religion and political power were strongly intertwined in the Aztec empire, as rulers and priests alike both demanded blood sacrifices to maintain the health and prosperity of the empire.
When the Aztecs conquered a civilization, they then left them alone to govern themselves for the most part, as long as the people paid tribute to the Aztec empire.
The Incan Empire
In South America, the Inca Empire spread along the Andes mountains, growing much larger than the Aztec empire. It had some 10 million subjects at its height, but it lasted less time than the Aztecs, coming along in the 1400s and being eradicated around the same time as the Aztecs, in the 1500s.
The Inca Empire had a more structured government than the Aztecs- when a city state was conquered, it was brought into the empire and its lands were taken over by a governor appointed by the emperor.
Former rulers and officials of now-conquered lands sent their sons to the capital city of Cuzco to learn the official language of Quechua, which is still spoken in many areas of South America today.
Incan Government
Incan culture required people to work at least a period of every year for the good of the government. Farmers spent part of the year working on state-run farms, craftsmen such as ceramic and metal workers created goods for the use of the government, non-skilled workers worked in construction, etc.
Interestingly, it was Incan custom that decreed if an area met with some natural disaster, the government was expected to send food and other aid.
Machu Piccu, an
Ancient Incan city
