Traditions and Encounters, 4th Edition (Bentley)

Chapter 22: REACHING OUT: CROSS-CULTURAL INTERACTIONS

Chapter Outline

  1. Long-distance trade and travel
    1. Patterns of long-distance trade
      1. Trading patterns between 1000 and 1500 in Eurasia
        1. Luxury goods of high value traveled overland on the silk roads
        2. Bulkier commodities traveled the sea lanes of the Indian Ocean
      2. Trading cities and ports grew rapidly
        1. Large trading cities had communities of foreign merchants
        2. Cities like Melaka: orderly, strategically located, with reasonable custom fees
        3. Mongol conquests in thirteenth century disrupted trade, but they later restored order
      3. Marco Polo (1253-1324), Venetian traveler to Asia
        1. Traveled to Mongol court of Khubilai Khan in China
        2. Back to Venice in 1295 after seventeen years in China
        3. Narrative of his travels a best-seller, inspiring many European merchants
    2. Political and diplomatic travel
      1. Mongol-Christian diplomacy across Eurasia in thirteenth century
        1. Mongols and western Europeans, potential allies against Muslims
        2. Pope Innocent IV's invitation to the Mongols to become Christians rejected
      2. Rabban Sauma's mission to Europe, 1287
        1. Sent by ilkan of Persia to win allies against Muslims
        2. Met kings of France and England and the pope, but the mission failed
        3. Ilkan Ghazan's conversion to Islam in 1295 ended possibility of alliance
      3. Ibn Battuta (1304-1369)
        1. A Moroccan Islamic scholar who served as qadi to the sultan of Delhi
        2. Later served on Maldive Islands and traveled to east and west Africa
        3. Consulted with Muslim rulers and offered advice on Islamic values
    3. Missionary campaigns
      1. Sufi missionaries (Muslim) visited recently conquered or converted lands
      2. Christian missionaries in eastern Europe after 1000
      3. John of Montecorvino: mission to convert the Mongols and Chinese, 1291-1328
        1. The first archbishop of Khanbaliq (Beijing) in 1307
        2. Translated the New Treatment; built several churches in China
        3. Baptized some Mongol and Chinese boys, but won few converts
    4. Long-distance travel and cross-cultural exchanges
      1. Cultural exchanges included science, ideas, art, and music
      2. New technology spread by travelers and facilitated their travel--for example, magnetic compass
      3. New crops introduced to sub-Saharan Africa by Muslims: citrus fruits, rice, cotton
      4. Sugarcane originated in southwest Asia and north Africa
        1. Introduced to Europeans during the crusades
        2. Sugarcane plantations spread all over the Mediterranean basin
        3. Plantations operated through slave labor, Muslim captives, and Africans
      5. Gunpowder technologies spread west from China by Mongol armies in thirteenth century
        1. Used for catapults, primitive cannons
        2. Changed warfare dramatically

  2. Crisis and recovery
    1. Bubonic plague
      1. Plague in China
        1. Crises of the fourteenth century: global climate cooled, declining productivity, famine
        2. Bubonic plague began in southwest China, spread rapidly through interior
        3. In 1331, 90 percent of population in Hebei province killed
        4. Continued through 1350s, two-thirds of population killed in other provinces
      2. Spread of plague west along trade routes
        1. Reached Black Sea in 1346, Italy in 1347, and western Europe in 1348
        2. Terrifying symptoms of the Black Death
        3. Mortality: often 60 percent to 70 percent of population, sometimes whole villages
        4. Scandinavia and India less effected; bypassed sub-Saharan Africa
      3. Population decline
        1. Chinese population dropped by 10 million from 1300 to 1400
        2. European population dropped by about 25 percent
        3. Islamic societies also devastated, slower to recover
      4. Social and economic effects
        1. Massive labor shortages led to social unrest
        2. In western Europe, workers demanded higher wages
        3. Authorities resisted change; peasant rebellions
    2. Recovery in China: the Ming dynasty
      1. Hongwu overthrew Mongol rule and established the Ming dynasty in 1368
      2. Ming centralization of government and reviving of Chinese traditions
        1. Reestablished Confucian educational and civil service systems
        2. Emperor ruled China directly, without the aid of chief ministers
      3. Mandarins and eunuchs maintained absolute authority of emperors
        1. Mandarins represented central government to local authorities
        2. Eunuchs in government could not build family fortunes
      4. Ming dynasty promoted economic recovery
        1. Repaired irrigation systems, agricultural productivity surged
        2. Promoted manufacture of porcelain, silk, and cotton textiles
        3. Trade within Asia flourished with increased production
      5. Cultural revival
        1. Actively promoted neo-Confucianism
        2. Yongle Encyclopedia, massive anthology of Chinese cultural traditions
    3. Recovery in western Europe: state building
      1. Taxes and armies as instruments of national monarchies by late fifteenth century
      2. Italian city-states flourished with industries and trade
        1. Each with independent administration and army
        2. Levied direct taxes on citizens
      3. France and England
        1. Fought Hundred Years' War (1337-1453) over control of French lands
        2. Imposed direct taxes to pay the costs of war
        3. Asserted authority of central government over feudal nobility
        4. Unlike France, England did not maintain a standing army
      4. Spain united by the marriage of Fernando of Aragon and Isabel of Castile
        1. Sales tax supported a powerful standing army
        2. Completed the reconquista by conquering Granada from Muslims
        3. Seized southern Italy in 1494
        4. Sponsored Columbus's quest for a western route to China
      5. Competition among European states
        1. Frequent small-scale wars
        2. Encouraged new military and naval technology
        3. Technological innovations vastly strengthened European armies
    4. Recovery in western Europe: the Renaissance
      1. Italian renaissance art
        1. Renaissance, or rebirth of art and learning, 1400-1600
        2. City-states sponsored innovations in art and architecture
        3. Painters (Macaccio and Leonardo) used linear perspective to show depth
        4. Sculptors (Donatello and Michelangelo) created natural poses
      2. Renaissance architecture
        1. Simple and elegant style, inherited from classical Greek and Roman
        2. Magnificent domed cathedrals such as Brunelleschi's cathedral of Florence
      3. Humanists drew inspiration from classical models
        1. Scholars interested in literature, history, and moral philosophy
        2. Recovered and translated many classical works

  3. Exploration and colonization
    1. The Chinese reconnaissance of the Indian Ocean basin
      1. Zheng He's expeditions
        1. Ming emperor permitted foreigners to trade at Quanzhou and Guangzhou
        2. Refurbished the navy and sent seven large expeditions to the Indian Ocean basin
        3. Purposes: to control foreign trade and impress foreign peoples
        4. Admiral Zheng He's ships were the largest marine crafts in the world
        5. Visited southeast Asia, India, Ceylon, Arabia, and east Africa
      2. Chinese naval power
        1. Zheng He's voyages diplomatic: exchanged gifts, envoys
        2. Also military: used force to impress foreign powers, for example, against coastal pirates
        3. Expeditions enhanced Chinese reputation in the Indian Ocean basin
      3. End of the voyages, 1433
        1. Confucian ministers mistrusted foreign alliances
        2. Resources redirected to agriculture and defense of northern borders
        3. Technology of building large ships was forgotten, nautical charts destroyed
    2. European exploration in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans
      1. Portuguese exploration
        1. European goals: to expand Christianity and commercial opportunities
        2. Portuguese mariners emerged as the early leaders
        3. Prince Henry of Portugal determined to increase Portuguese influence
        4. Seized Moroccan city of Ceuta in 1415
      2. Colonization of the Atlantic Islands
        1. Portuguese ventured into the Atlantic, colonized Madeiras, Azores, other islands
        2. Italian investors, Portuguese landowners cultivated sugarcane on the islands
      3. Slave trade expanded fifteenth century
        1. Portuguese traders ventured down west coast of Africa
        2. Traded guns, textiles for gold and slaves
        3. Thousands of slaves delivered to Atlantic island plantations
      4. Indian Ocean trade
        1. Portuguese searched for sea route to Asian markets without Muslim intermediaries
        2. Bartolomeu Dias reached Cape of Good Hope, entered the Indian Ocean, 1488
        3. Vasco da Gama arrived at Calicut in 1498, returned to Lisbon with huge profit
        4. Portuguese mariners dominated trade between Europe and Asia, sixteenth century
        5. Portuguese ships with cannons launched European imperialism in Asia
      5. Cristoforo Colombo (Christopher Columbus) hoped to reach Asia by sailing west
        1. Plan rejected by Portuguese king but sponsored by king and queen of Spain
        2. 1492, led three ships to the Caribbean Sea, believed he was near Japan
        3. Other mariners soon followed Columbus and explored American continents
Traditions and Encounters Book Cover
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