History Notes: Period 4

1450 CE to 1750 CE

4.1 Globalizing Networks of Communication and Exchange

The interconnection of the Eastern and Western Hemispheres made possible by
transoceanic voyaging marked a key transformation of this period.

Key Terms
1. Transoceanic
Crossing an ocean or coming from across an ocean
2. Interregional
Occurring between different regions
3. Columbian Exchange
The Columbian Exchange refers to a period of cultural and biological exchanges
between the New and Old Worlds. Exchanges of plants, animals, diseases and
technology transformed European and Native American ways of life.
4. Merchant
A merchant is a person or company involved in wholesale trade, especially one dealing
with foreign countries or supplying merchandise to a particular trade.

Long Distance Trade

- New technology made transoceanic trade possible
- From this point on, empires are rising and falling based purely on economics
- Changing patterns of long distance trade included the circulation of some
commodities and the formation of new regional markets and financial centers
- Increase in Arctic exploration

Why are there so many Atlantic routes compared to Pacific routes?

Geography
The Atlantic Ocean routes are shorter than the Pacific routes.

Religion
Buddhism
Christianity
Hinduism
Islam
Increased in interregional and global trade facilitated the spread of religion and other
parts of culture as well as the migration of large amounts of people.
Religion and culture spread because of religion.

Germs
Germs that we brought to the Americas ravaged the indigenous people. The global
exchange of crops and animals altered agriculture, diets, and populations around the
planet.
Europe went to the Americas because of trade using the justification of racism.
Trade
In the context of the new global circulation of goods, there was an intensification of all
existing regional patterns of trade that brought prosperity and economic disruption to
the merchants and governments in the trading regions of the Indian Ocean,
Mediterranean, Sahara, and overland Eurasia
Merchants and governments start working together

Technology
European technological developments in cartography and navigation built on previous
knowledge developed in the Classical, Islamic, and Asian worlds.
Developments included the production of new tools, innovation in ship designs, and an
improved understanding of global wind and oceanic patterns (currents in the water)
This made transoceanic travel possible!
Pirates!

Examples
Caravel
a small, fast Spanish or Portuguese sailing ship of the 15th17th
centuries.
Carrack
A carrack or naus was a three- or four-masted ocean-going
sailing ship and was developed in the 14th and 15th centuries in
Europe.
Fluyt
a Dutch type of sailing vessel originally designed as a dedicated
cargo vessel.
Galleon
a sailing ship in use (mostly by Spain) from the 15th through 17th
centuries, originally as a warship, later for trade. Galleons were
mainly square-rigged and usually had three or more decks and
masts.
Frigates
a warship with a mixed armament, generally heavier than a
destroyer and of a kind originally introduced for convoy escort
work.
Clippers
A clipper was a very fast sailing ship of the middle third of the
19th century. They were fast, yacht-like vessels, with three masts
and a square rig. They were generally narrow for their length,
could carry limited bulk freight, small by later 19th century
standards, and had a large total sail area.
Cog
A cog is a type of ship that first appeared in the 10th century, and
was widely used from around the 12th century on. Cogs were
generally built of oak, which was an abundant timber in the Baltic
region of Prussia. This vessel was fitted with a single mast and a
square-rigged single sail.
 Transoceanic Travel
Remarkable new transoceanic maritime empires economies occurred in this period.
1. Portuguese
2. Spanish
3. French
4. English

The Portuguese
Portuguese development of maritime technology and navigational skills led to increased
travel and trade with West Africa and resulted in the construction of a global
trading-post empire

The Spanish
Cultures changed because of the Columbian Exchange.
The Columbian Exchange is not the slave trade!
Different foods were traded
As Europe became more interested in the foods in the Americas, trade increased

Search for Asian Routes - Development of Fishing Settlements

Northern Atlantic crossing for fishing and settlements continued and spurred European
searches for multiple routes to Asia

4.2 The New Global Circulation of Goods Was Facilitated by Royal-Chartered

European Monopoly Companies
These companies took silver from Spanish colonies in the Americas to purchase Asian
foods for the Atlantic markets.

Key Terms
1. Mercantilism
The belief in the benefits of profitable trading; commercialism.
2. Joint-Stock Companies
A company whose stock is owned jointly by the shareholders.
3. Colonial Economies
Colonial economy refers to the result of both foreign commerce and dynamically
growing local economies. Each colonial region developed its own peculiar economy.
Staple export economies, using unfree indentured or slave labor, developed in the
southern colonies.
4. The Triangular Trade
The best-known triangular trading system is the transatlantic slave trade, that operated
from the late 16th to early 19th centuries.

Markets
This was controlled by transoceanic abilities
Regional markets continued to flourish in Afro-Eurasia by using established
commercial practices and new transoceanic shipping services developed by
European merchants
Merchants
European merchants role in Asian trade was characterized mostly for transporting
goods from one Asian country to another market in Asia or the Indian Ocean region.

Commercialization
Commercialization and the creation of a global economy were intimately connected to
new global circulation of silver from the Americas.

Joint-Stock Company
Influenced by mercantilism, joint-stock companies were new methods used by
European rulers to control their domestic and colonial economies and by European
merchants to compete against one another in global trade.

Monopoly Companies
The new circulation of goods was facilitated by royal-chartered European monopoly
companies that took silver from Spanish colonies in the Americas to purchase Asian
goods for the Atlantic markets. Regional markets continued to flourish in Afro-Eurasia
by using established commercial practices and new transoceanic shipping services
developed by European merchants.

The Atlantic System

The Atlantic system involved the movement of goods, wealth and free and unfree
laborers and the mixing of African, American, and European cultures and peoples.

Diseases
The new connections between the Eastern and Western Hemispheres resulted in the
Columbian Exchange. European colonization of the Americas lead to the spread of
diseases - including smallpox, measles, and influenza - that were endemic in the
Eastern Hemisphere among Amerindian populations and the unintentional transfer of
vermin, including mosquitoes and rats.

Food
American foods became staple crops in various parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia. Cash
crops were grown primarily on plantation with coerced labor and these goods were
exported mostly to Europe in this period.
TAKEN TO EUROPE:
Potatoes
Maize
Manioc
Sugar
Tobacco
 Animals, Trees, and Grains
Afro-Eurasian fruit trees, grains, and domesticated animals were brought by Europeans
to the Americas, while other foods were brought by African slaves.
BROUGHT TO AMERICAS:
Horses
Pigs
Cattle
Okra
Rice

Deforestation
European colonization and the introduction of European agriculture and settlements
practices in the Americas often affected the physical environment through deforestation
and soil depletion.

4.3 The Expanded Spread and Reform of Existing Religions Created Merged Varying
Belief Systems and Practices
The increase in interactions between newly connected hemispheres and intensification
of connection within hemispheres expanded the spread and reform of existing religions
and created syncretic belief systems and practices.

Key Terms
1. Hemispheres
A half of the earth, usually as divided into northern and southern halves by the equator,
or into western and eastern halves by an imaginary line passing through the poles.
2. Belief Systems
A belief system is a set of mutually supportive beliefs. The beliefs of any such system
can be classified as religious, philosophical, ideological, or a combination of these.
3. Sufi
A Muslim ascetic and mystic.
4. Ottomans
A Turk, especially of the period of the Ottoman Empire.
5. The Reformation
A 16th-century movement for the reform of abuses in the Roman Catholic Church
ending in the establishment of the reformed and Protestant Churches.
6. Sunni vs. Shi'a
- Different politically
- The Prophet died
- The Shi'a wanted the power to stay within the Prophet's family, the Sunni want it
to be the close friends of the Prophet
7. Vodun
Another term for voodoo.
8. Sikhism
A monotheistic religion founded in Punjab in the 15th century by Guru Nanak.
 9. Buddhism
A religion and dharma that encompasses a variety of tradition, beliefs, and spiritual
practices largely based on teaching attributed to Gautama Buddha, commonly known
as the Buddha ("The awakened one").
10. Literacy
The ability to read and write.

Examples of Spreading Religion

1. The Sufi contributed to the spread of Islam.
2. The continuing importance of Sufi practices contributed to the further spread of
Islam in Afro-Eurasia as believers adapted Islam to local cultural practices.
3. There's a split between the Sunni and Shiite.
4. The political rivalry between the Ottomans and Safavids intensified the split
between the Sunni and Shi'a.
5. The churches became corrupt, so they were reformed.
6. The practice of Christianity continued to spread throughout the world and was
increasingly diversified by the process of diffusion and the Reformation.
7. Geography is important because it incites anger between people. Like the
Mughals, Ottomans, and Safavids. Really intensified the split between the Sunni
and Shi'a.
8. The political rivalry between the Mughals, Ottomans, and Safavids intensified
the split between Sunni and Shi'a.
9. The merge of Christianity and African religions made Vodun.
10. Vodun developed in Caribbean in the context of interactions between
Christianity and African religions.
11. Hinduism and Islam created Sikhism.
12. Sikhism developed in South Asia in the context of interactions between
Hinduism and Islam. Sikhism is currently the world's fifth largest religion.
13. Buddhism declines in South Asia, but it goes North. Wouldn't have the Dahli
lama.
14. While the practice of Buddhism declined in South Asia and Southeast Asian
islands, different sects of Buddhism and Buddhist practices spread in Northeast
Asia and mainland Southeast Asia.

To spread religion, one would need literacy.

The spread of religion spread literacy.

4.4 New Forms of Social Organization and Modes of Production

Although the worlds productive systems continued to be heavily centered on
agricultural production throughout this period, major changes occurred in agricultural
labor, the systems and locations of manufacturing, gender and social structures, and
environmental processes.

Key Terms
1. Little Ice Age
The little ice ages is a period between about 1300 and 1870 during which Europe and
North America were subjected to much colder winters than during the 20th century.
 2. Northern Hemisphere
The north half of the Earth.
3. Demographic Growth
How population changes specifically how it increases.
4. Manufacturing
To make something on a large scale.
5. Agricultural Production
Vegetable and animal production that is made available for human consumption and
animal feed.
6. Semi-coerced Labor
Basically slavery.
7. The Columbian Exchange
A period of cultural and biological exchanges between the New and Old Worlds.
Exchange of plants, animals, diseases and technologies transformed European and
Native American ways of life.
8. Chattel Slavery
The most severe form of slavery.

Little Ice Age

14th to 19th century
Temperatures went down
Agriculture changed
Settlements got closer in the Northern Hemisphere
Adapting to it
Lots of more crops and smarter agriculture practices
Changed the ways crops were grown

Tradition Agriculture Changed

- Happened due to the Columbian Exchange
- Commercialization made people want MORE
- With more agriculture came more land for crops, and with more land came more
need for LABOR
- The economy grew thanks to the DEMAND for peoples needs

Peasant Labor Intensified in Many Regions

- Transfers of goods and slaves were also happening through the Indian Ocean
- Settlements in Siberia
- India produced cotton
- Silk produced in China

Slavery in Plantation
- Plantations changed the slave need in the Americas
- Slaves were shipped to the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean
Colonial Economics in the Americas = Coerced Labor
- Chattel Slavery
- Indentured Servitude
- Encomienda and Hacienda systems
- Spanish adaptations
ita
- The Spanish adaptation of the Inca m

Political and Economic Centers Changed

New form of elites developed in Spanish Americas and Creoles. Higher standing
than natives, because they had Spanish blood
Both conquests and global economic opportunities contributed to the new
political and economic elites
Examples of NEW elites:
The Manchus of China
Creole elites in Spanish America
European g entry
Urban commercial e ntrepreneurs in all major port cities in the world

Political and Economic Elites

- Challenging the structure/system
- The power of existing political and economic elites fluctuated as they confronted
new challenges to their ability to affect the policies of the increasingly powerful
monarchs and leaders
- EXAMPLES
- The zamindars in the Mughal Empire
- The nobility in Europe
- The daimyo in Japan

Population Growth
Even with decimated populations, with agricultural revolutions or changes,
population grow
Even in areas such as the Americas, where disease had ravaged the population
- was restored by the 18th century and surged in many regions, especially with
the introduction of American food crops throughout the Eastern Hemisphere

Roles - Reclassified
Because of global economics centered in European areas, European families
lesen
Women get mens roles
Gender and family restructuring occurred. New forms of coerced and
semi-coerced labor emerged in Europe, Africa, and the Americas affected racial
classifications and gender roles

EXAMPLES:
The smaller size of European families
Creole elites in Spanish America