W.W. Norton & Company
Skip to content
Colorblind Mode:
On
|
Off
W. W. NORTON HOME
|
HELP
|
CREDITS
Western Civilizations, 3rd Brief Edition: A W. W. Norton StudySpace
Chapters
Online Reader
Western Civilizations Tours
Glossary
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
Quiz Result
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
In This Chapter
Study Plan
Author Insights Podcasts
Chapter Summary
Chapter Study Outline
Ebook
Quiz+
iMaps & GeoQuiz
Map Worksheets
Review Questions
Flashcards
Chrono-Sequencer
Interpreting the Visual Evidence
Documents
Images
Research Topics
Chapter 11
Commerce, Conquest, And Colonization, 1300-1600
Chapter Study Outline
Introduction
Slowing internal expansion
New maritime trade routes
The "Atlantic Mediterranean"
By 1600, Europe was a global power
The Mongols
The rise of the Mongol empire
Nomadic peoples of Central Asian steppes
Highly accomplished cavalry soldiers
Chingiz (Genghis) Khan (1162-1227) "the oceanic ruler"
United various Mongol tribes
Built up a large military force
Westward expansion
Incorporated Tashkent, Samarkand, and Bukhara
Mongol horde conquered southern Russia (c. 1240)
Battle of Liegnitz (1241)extent of westward expansion
Mongol forces withdraw from eastern Europe
Timur the Lame or Tamerlane (1336-1405)
Mongol successes
Size, speed, and training of cavalry
Intimidating savagery
Adapted administrative traditions of their subjects
Tolerant of other religious beliefs
Europe, the Mongols, and the Far East
Mongol control of caravan routes from China to the Black Sea
Encouraged contact with European traders
The Silk Road
Used by Europeans after the establishment of the Mongol empire
Niccolo, Maffeo, and Marco Polo
The Travels of Marco Polo
Fired the imagination of his contemporaries
Genoese most active in trade along the Silk Road
Genoese abandon Tabriz (1344)
Mongols besieged Genoese colony at Caffa, crippling commerce on the Black Sea (1346)
Black Death passed on from the Mongols to the Genoese
Westerners excluded from China (1368)
The Rise of the Ottoman Empire
General characteristics
Initially a nomadic people
Nominal Muslims
Principal beneficiaries of Mongol conquest
The conquest of Constantinople
Ottoman dynasty established as the leading family among Anatolian border lords
Extended their control all the way to the Danube (1370)
Ottomans attack Constantinople (1396, 1402)
Mehmet II conquers Constantinople (1453)
An enormous psychological shock to Europe
Minor economic impact
Europe got most of its spices and silks through Venice
Effects
Ottoman conquest did not force the Portuguese to establish new trade routes
Ottomans attempt to control Egyptian grain trade
Modest effects on Europe
New wealth poured into Ottoman society
Ottomans became a naval power in eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea
War, slavery, and social advancement
Conquest created the need for a larger Ottoman army and administration
Army and administration composed of slaves
Slaves were critical to Ottoman upper class
Provided status
Household servants and administrators
Slaves obtained through conquest and from the Ottoman empire itself
Some people preferred to live as slaves than as poor peasants
Child slaveryhelping to pay the child tax
Little social stigma associated with slavery
Muslims prohibited from enslaving other Muslims
Elite positions in Ottoman government held by slaves
ParadoxMuslims were excluded from social and political advancement
Power in the Ottoman empire open to men of talent and ability
Provided that they were slaves and not Muslims by birth
Commerce and business also in the hands of non-Muslims
Jews found a welcome refuge from the persecutions of medieval Europe
Religious controversy
Ottoman sultans were orthodox Sunni Muslims
Supported religious and legal pronouncements of Islamic scholarly schools
Ottomans captured Medina and Mecca (1516)
Ottoman ruler adopted title of caliph (1538)
Became legitimate successor to Prophet Muhammad
Tolerant toward non-Muslims
Organized the major religious groups into legal units (the millet)
Religious self-government
Protected and promoted Greek Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople
Principal religious conflicts were with Shi'ite Muslim dynasty in Persia
The Ottomans and Europe
Holy wars?
Western crusader army destroyed at Nicopolis (1396)
Besieged Vienna (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries)
Battle of Lepanto (1571)
Victory for combined forces of Habsburgs and Venice
Battle did not put an end to Ottoman influence in the eastern Mediterranean
Mediterranean Colonialism
Motives for westward expansion
African gold trade
Growth of European colonial empires in the western Mediterranean Sea
Silver shortages and the search for African gold
African gold trade was not new
Catalan and Genoese merchants traded woolen cloth for gold at Tunis
Gold needed because of a serious silver shortage
Balance-of-payments problem
Too much silver flowing east in the spice trade
Could not be replaced
Gold as alternative for large transactions
Mediterranean empires: Catalunya, Venice, and Genoa
Catalunya
Colonized Majorca, Ibiza, Minorca, Sicily, and Sardinia
Expropriation and extermination of native population (usually Muslim)
Economic concessions to attract settlers
Reliance on slave labor
Venice
Venetian colonization controlled by city's rulers
Concentrated in the eastern Mediterranean
Spices and silks
Genoa
Focused on western Mediterranean
Cloth, hides, grain, and timber
More informal and family-based
More closely integrated with native societies of North Africa, Spain, and the Black Sea
Moved toward larger, fuller-bodied sailing ships
From the Mediterranean to the Atlantic
Italian merchants sailed through Straits of Gibraltar to the North Sea (c. 1270)
Canary Islands as "jumping-off point," especially for the Portuguese
The technology of ships and navigation
The Portuguese caravel
Changed to larger caravel with lateen sail
Could sail against the wind
Required smaller crews
Navigation
Quadrants in use by 1450s
Astrolabes
Compasses
Could not determine longitude until the eighteenth century
Dead reckoning
Maps and navigational charts (rutters and routiers)
Portolani
Portugal, Africa, and the sea route to India
Chronology of Portuguese colonization
Captured North African port of Ceuta (1415)
Colonization of Madeira, the Canaries, and the Azores (1420s and 1430s)
Cape Verde Islands (1440s)
Collection of gold and slaves for export to Portugal (1444)
Exploration of the Gulf of Guinea (1470s)
Portuguese reached the Congo river (1483)
Bartholomeu Dias rounded Cape of Storms/Cape of Good Hope (1488)
Vasco de Gama rounded the Cape and crossed the Indian Ocean to Calicutt (1497-98)
Portuguese reach Malacca (1511)
The Spice Islands and China (1515)
By 1500, Portuguese sailing ships sailed regularly to India
Built forts along the western Indian coastline
Total domination of the spice trade (1520s)
Artillery and empire
Increasing sophistication of artillery
Larger caravelsmore effective artillery pieces could be mounted on them
Floating artillery platforms
Battle of Div (1509)
Portuguese defeated Indian and Ottoman naval force
Prince Henry the Navigator (1394-1460)
His central place in European exploration has been debunked
Motives before 1480s
Crusading ambitions against Muslims
Establish direct links with sources of African gold production
Desire to colonize Atlantic islands
Slavery
The myth of Prester John
Neither the architect nor visionary of Portuguese exploration
Main goal was to intercept trade in African gold at its source
Atlantic colonization and the growth of slavery
Major slave markets were in Muslim hands
Few early-fifteenth-century slaves were Africans
Most were European Christians (Poles, Ukrainians, Greeks, and Bulgarians)
Mid-fifteenth-century Lisbon as major slave market for enslaved Africans
One hundred fifty thousand African slaves imported into Europe by 1505
Regarded as status symbols
Slaves mostly used in sugar mills (Madeira and the Canaries)
Europe Encounters a New World
Spanish motives: sailing west to beat the Portuguese
Discovery of Azores and Canary Islands
Belief that the Atlantic was dotted with islands all the way to China
The discovery of a New World
The Vikings in Newfoundland, Labrador, and perhaps New England (c. 1000)
Christopher Columbus (1451-1506)
Brought back no Asian spices and little gold
Amerigo Vespucci (1451-1512)
The disappointment of the New World
Spain could not hope to beat Portugal with this land mass between Europe and Asia
Vasco Núñez Balboa (1475-1517) viewed the Pacific Ocean (1513)
Magellan's crew circumnavigated the globe (1522)
The Spanish conquest of America
The New World perhaps had great stores of gold just waiting to be picked up
The conquistador
Hernando Cortés (1485-1547) subdued the Aztecs in Mexico (1519-1521)
Francisco Pizarro subdued the Incas in South America (1533)
The profits of empire in the New World
Cortés and Pizarro as plunderers
First gold deposits discovered in Hispaniola
One million natives in 1492five hundred in 1538
Cattle ranching (Mexico)
Sugar production (Caribbean)
Imported African slaves
Sugar plantations fell into the hands of a few wealthy planters
Gold mining as the initial lure
Silver the most lucrative export
The silver deposits of Potosí (Bolivia)
Profits went directly to Spanish crown
Slave labor
New mining techniques
Ten million ounces of silver per year arrived in Spain (1590s)
Effects of the influx of silver
Exacerbated European inflation
The Price Revolution
Affected Spain most acutely
Spanish prices doubled twice between 1500 and 1600
Undermined the competitiveness of Spanish industries
Spanish economy collapsed (1620s and 1630s)
Less silver flowed into Europe but prices continued to rise
Price of grain in 1650 was five to six times its level in 1500
Social dislocation and misery
Declining standard of living
Conclusion
Colonization
Portugal and Spain
The rise of French, Dutch, and English empires