6 - 1 to 2 paragraph answers for 6 questions Modern History

Islamic World

I. Origins

· In the lifetime of Muhammad, the founder of the Islamic faith, his followers occupied the cities of Mecca and Media in Arabia

· Because of his lack of sons, upon the death of Muhammad, a split developed among his followers: 1) the majority supported one of Muhammad's closest friends, Abu Bakr, and 2) the minority supported, Ali ibn Abi Talib, one of Muhammad's sons-in-law

· The supporters of Abu Bakr eventually became the Sunni, the single largest section of modern Islam; the followers of Ali ibn Abi Talib became the Sh'ia, the radical minority of modern Islam

· Abu Bakr led an extremely successful military campaign against the Byzantine Empire and conquered all of N. Africa, Palestine and Spain

· The Islamic army's push into Europe, however, was checked in 732 at the Battle of Tours by Charles Martel

· After 732, the focus of Islamic imperialism became eastward and the old Persian empire

· The Abbasid Empire emerged in 750 A.D., centered in Baghdad, and led an amazing intellectual Golden Age

· Mustansiriya University, one the oldest in the world, was established in Baghdad in 1227 as the center of the Islamic Golden Age

· The Abbasid Empire was overthrown by the Mongols in 1258

II. Ottoman Empire

· Emerged at the end of 13th century in the eastern sections of the declining Byzantine Empire, and became the first major non-Arabic Islamic culture

· Defeated the Serbs in 1378 and began pushing northward into the Balkans

· Utilized the janissary corps extensively in the Balkans and large sections of Bosnia converted to Islam; this difference in religion became one of the long term causes of the genocide of the Bosnians by the Serbs in the 1990s

· By the 15th century the ultimate goal of the Ottomans was to capture the city of Constantinople--a gold-plated city at the junction of 7 major trade routes

· Once the city had been captured in May 1453 the goal was to push farther into Europe

· The Ottoman Empire reached its military and cultural zenith under Suleiman I (the Magnificent)--he was hated by western Europeans and the Russians

· In 1529 he laid siege to Vienna; Charles V and all of Europe sighed in relief when it failed and the Turks retreated in defeat

· Suleiman pushed northward and eastward, and the Ottomans kept pressure on the Russians well into the 19th century

· With the death of Suleiman, the Ottoman Empire began a slow and painful decline, earning the 19th century nickname, "The Sick Man of Europe"

· With the advent of WWI the Ottomans sided with the Central Powers--the losing side; at the conclusion of WWI the Ottoman Empire was divided into several modern Islamic nations

III. Safavid Empire

· The Safavid Empire emerged two centuries later than the Ottoman, and represented the eastern section of the old Abbasid Empire

· Unlike the Sunni Ottomans, the Safavids embraced the Shi'ite sect of Islam

· While the Ottoman culture focused on the Turkish language and culture, the Safavid culture centered on the ancient Persian culture and language

· Unlike the forward-thinking and modern Ottoman culture, the Safavids looked to feudalism and established an older, traditional society

· The Safavid dynasty was one of the most brief in Islamic history--it ended by the end of the 18th century

· Though Safavid dynasty has been dead for 300 years, many of its cultural goals live on in the current leadership of modern Iran; with the fundamentalist revolution in 1979, time reverted to the 16th and 17th centuries and the triumph of a Shiite society

· Time will only tell which faction of Islam will ultimately prevail and if the goal of the Shiites to establish a world-wide Shi'a society will actually occur

West African Slave Trade

I. Origins

· Can be traced to the 8th century A.D. with the arrival of Islamic settlements of N. Africa

· Muslim traders began purchasing African prisoners-of-war from African nations in W. Africa

· Muslims discovered that slavery was one of the most lucrative of all international trade

· Muslim slave trade declined with the Crusades of the 11th and 12th centuries

· Portuguese were the first Europeans to realize the potential of a slave trade in the 15th century

· Portuguese continued the Muslim practice of purchasing African prisoners of war

· Note: African Slave Trade could have never existed had not several West African nations served as the middlemen and sold their prisoners of war to the Europeans; the modern nation of Ghana was one of the key African nations in the sale of Africans to Europeans

· Europeans had no need for a large-scale labor supply until the advent of the plantation system in the Spanish section of W. Hemisphere

· In order to sooth their consciences Europeans developed the concept of White Supremacy and argued that Africans were sub-human and were inferior in intellectual and cultural issues

II. Church Support of Slavery

· Countless slave owners attempted to appeal to the Holy Scriptures to justify their actions

· Many appealed to the Mosaic Law for justification; the Laws of Moses, however, allow only for 7 years of bondage and a slave was permitted to go free--Moses clearly stipulated that lifetime and perpetual slavery was not permitted

· King Solomon was the first Jewish monarch to institute lifetime and perpetual slavery due to his massive building projects--clearly in violation to God's law

· Other slave owners looked to St. Paul and his injunction for "Servants to obey Masters."  In reality, in the book of Philemon, St. Paul clearly sided with Onesimus, the runaway slave; apparently Philemon later granted freedom to Onesimus

III. Dominant Nations of the African Slave Trade

· Three European nations dominated the African Slave Trade from the 16th-19th Centuries

· 1) Portugal:  made 30,000 voyages and transported 4.7 million slaves (used smaller ships than later counterparts)

· 2) The Netherlands:  made 3,000 voyages and transported 500,000 slaves

· 3) Great Britain:  made 13,000 voyages and transported 2.9 million slaves

· Other European nations participated on a lesser scale

· Overall total voyages: 54, 200; number of slaves transported: 11 million

· These statistics are based on the records--it's anyone's guess how many unrecorded/illegal voyages were made

IV. Sugar, Coffee, and Slaves

· The majority of African slaves that ended in the W. Hemisphere came from central and southern Africa

· After being held in slave dungeons for up to two months they embarked on the Transatlantic voyage

· "The Middle Passage," life on a slave ship was 30-60 days of a never ending nightmare

· Slaves were chained together in sets of 10--because of the fear of rebellions, they were not allowed on the decks until the ship reached the high seas

· 95% of all slaves entering the W. Hemisphere were processed in the Caribbean

· 40.6% of the slaves remained in the Caribbean to work the sugar plantations--these slaves had a 2-4 year life expectancy

· 35.3% of the slaves were transported to Brazil to work the coffee plantations--this was the deadliest region--these slaves had a 1 year life expectancy

· 20% went to the other regions of Spanish Central and South America

· British N. America only received 4.4% of the African slaves

The Moghul Empire

· Like the word Muslim (or Moslem) the term Moghul has multiple spellings--Mugal or Mogul--all are used by different scholars around the world

· The Moghuls were the most multi-cultural dynasty in East Asian history--the Moghuls were from Central Asia and represented a mixed culture based on Mongol, Persian and Afghan traditions

· Unlike earlier dynasties in Indian history, the Moghuls were extremely different from the people they ruled, and implemented very little of traditional Indian customs into their culture

· The Moghuls were contemporaries of the Safavid Empire and mirrored them in longevity and in religion

· While most of the Indian culture remained loyal to the Hindu religion, a significant Islamic culture developed in the northwestern section of the empire--setting the stage for the religious and cultural tensions between modern Pakistan and India

· Emperors Babur and Akbar made the most positive contributions to Moghul history and are remembered fairly favorably today in Indian history; Aurengzeb (1659-1707), however, has become one of the most hated Mogul leaders due to his anti-Hindu policies

· While the Taj Mahal is recoginzed as India's greatest cultural treasure and most visited tourist attraction, the Taj Mahal represents the  Islamic era in which it was built rather than traditional Indian architecture

· With India's rapid industrialization in the second half of the 20th century, the Taj Mahal is experiencing rapid decline from industrial pollution--major steps need to be taken to keep this cultural treasure from obvious deterioration

· The Moghul Dynasty ultimately collapsed in the 19th century due to growing British interference and colonization of India

Early Modern China

I. Ming Dynasty

· The Ming Dynasty was the first Chinese dynasty established after the defeat of two centuries of Mongol domination

· Like the previous Chinese dynasty, the T'ang, the Ming regained control of an empire that extended to Russia and India and maintained extended trading relationships around the world

· During the 15th century the Ming enjoyed a brief period of naval superiority--if only that strength would have continued, the story of European colonialism would be quite different!

· During the Ming dynasty feudalism began to decline and foundations for capitalism were established

· The Ming exported an amazing diverse list of good around the world; at the top of the list was the beautiful blue and white porcelains that were copied by the Dutch and dominated European markets in the 17th and 18th centuries

· The Ming also created the Forbidden City, Chinese counterpart to Versailles, became the home to the Chinese emperors for the final five centuries of Chinese history

· The Ming Dynasty collapsed due to a series of natural disasters and from internal corruption of the bureaucracy and the inner circle of the emperor

                 II. Manchu Dynasty

· The Manchu (Ch'ing or Qing) Dynasty followed the Ming and ultimately became the final dynasty of Chinese imperial history

· It was during the reign of the Manchu that China experienced a population surge which made it the most populous empire in the world

· The Manchu was able to maintain the political boundaries established by the Ming by enlarging and modernizing their military base--one of the largest in the world at that time

· The Manchu reached their zenith in the 18th century, an era known as "The Golden Age of the Three Emperors"; by the beginning of the 19th century the quality of Chinese leadership seriously declined

· During this final dynasty the Chinese experienced one final cultural Golden age in the arts and literature

· The Manchu experienced their political decline in the 19th century; like the Ming, internal corruption, political factionalism and the Opium Wars weakened the Manchu

· The Manchu Dynasty ended in 1911 with the successful revolution led by Sun Yet-sen

How did the arrival of European explorers and Christian missionaries alter the course of history in East Asia?  Did these Europeans cause positive or negative changes? 

Several historians refer to Sulieman I (Suleyman) as "the Great" or "the Magnificent." In your opinion, does Sulieman deserve these titles? Why or why not?