Midterm: ID’s and Short Essay Questions

Make creative, thorough, and wide-ranging comments about 5 of these IDs:

William McNeill

Immanuel Wallerstein

Martin Luther – significance of his thought for the post 1500s world (498, 506, 511)

Role of Ideology / Missionizing Religions

Line of Tordesillas

Spanish Manila Galleon Trade (514-515, 521)

Russian-Chinese Fur Trade (494, 530, 548, 559-560)

Silver Sink (526, 529)

British East India Company (530, 579-583)

Sea Otter Pelt Trade along the Eastern Pacific

The Drug Foods

 

 

 

Short Essay Questions:

Name one monarch that reigned between 1500 and 1700. Describe how this figure represented the elements of empire during this time: increased centralization, territorial expansion, growth of a military and civil bureaucracy involving tax collection and spending much of those taxes on state armies, ideological coherence even while ruling over multiethnic and multilingual populations, etc.

Why are the 1500s considered a major turning point in world history?

What is Jared Diamond’s main argument? What do you consider its strengths? What do you consider its weaknesses?

Why did Europeans seek a pathway to Asia?

 

Mehmet

Mehmet the II was known in Europe for the style of the painting shown above. He wanted to “Attract” Europeans to Ottoman culture. He was educated by famous scholar Aksemseddin. Mehmet spoke seven languages fluently. His goal was to influence the trends in Europe and everywhere. He invited famous painter Gentile Bellini from Europe. This picture would be replaced and admired all over Europe. He had interests in philosophy, science, literature architecture. He took the name “conqueror” (fatih) after the conquest of Constantenople (Istanbul). He was building a nation that would “lead” innovation. New Roman Empire.

Mehmet Rules in the 16^th through the 17^th century, the Golden age of the empire. Ottoman Empire began in 1299 and ended in 1921. Their rule of 800 years reveals how empires rise and fall. The ottomans developed the millet system each religious group was organized into a “millet”. Each millet elected its own religious figure to lead them. “Millet comes from the Arabic word for “nation”, indicating that the Ottomans considered themselves the protectors of multiple nations. The leaders of the millets were allowed to practice their religions, tax their followers, and even institute their own law. Islamic law (Shariah) only had jurisdiction over Muslims in the Ottoman Empire. It was assessed at three rates, for the wealthy, those of medium status, and the poor. The rates were four, two, and one gold pieces respectively. Ottoman practice in 16th-century Palestine, as recorded by the registers, differs from this in two important respects. Furthermore, the Jizye was levied from households not individuals.

Mehmet

Martin Luther Trip

I know Martin Luther was on the first half of the course but I went to a museum yesterday in Berlin, Germany that had a lot of neat stuff about him. I included pictures of Luther and maps of voyages below since it relates to our class.

This map was made after the journeys of Columbus, Vasco de Gama, and Vespucci. Printed maps from Germany and Italy spread the new findings on these voyages. You can’t see it clearly on this photo but there are arm pillars that illustrate the territorial claims of the Portuguese crown.

 

This is the Edict of Worms which pronounced an imperial ban on Luther and was declared an outlaw and stripped of any honor. All of his writings were forbidden.

This is the New Testament that Luther translated into German. It was printed in September that is why it is called September Testament.

The Haitian Revolution by Roxana Ramirez

Toussaint Louverture

1938- Lawrence Jacob

 

Haiti was a French colony known as Saint Domingue with majority of its population being African slaves. It was a plantation society and was one of the richest of all European colonies in the Caribbean producing sugar, coffee, and cotton that accounted for 1/3 of France’s foreign trade. The Enlightenment ideas promoted by the French revolution of freedom, equality, and popular sovereignty, appealed to the peoples throughout Europe and the Americas. Haiti was the second independent nation state in the Americas. The revolution lasted thirteen years and left a devastating economy but it has been one of the most successful slave revolts in history. The Haitian Declaration of independence was a rejection of France, European colonialism and racism.

In Haiti, the economy was flourishing before the revolution. At the top of the social pyramid were the plantation owners, officers, merchants and poor whites, below them were the African mixed race people, and below them were slaves (Panorama, P.595). The free slave labor and mass production of sugar, coffee, and cotton lead to great wealth for the French but once the slave population heard about the French rebellion they decided they wanted to fight for their freedom the same way. There was no desire for there to be equality for African slaves because they weren’t acknowledged as men with rights. Haiti became a slave-free nation but although their revolution was a victory, they could no longer produce the way they used to because they had destroyed the plantations and couldn’t export much to build their economy back up

Coal in Britain (Natalie H.)

Coalbrookdale by Night (Philip James de Loutherbourg 1801)

Before the industrial revolution in Britain coal was only mined at the surface or in shallow mines. However as inventors created new engines eventually the steam engine (Samuel Crompton) the use for coal increased. They were able to mine deeper and in larger areas for coal with the use of these engines. Britain produced more coal than any other country. Abraham Darby also found another way to smelt iron with it that would make it less brittle than the previous method, and he did this by coking it. Iron could be used for military weapons, farm equipment, and many other things. The above painting is of the Madley Wood Furnaces which at one time were owned by Coalbrookdale. They were one of several in the area that extracted coal and Iron ore.

A Court for King Cholera (John Leech in Punch 1852)

The industrial revolution caused pollution from the use of coal as energy. It contaminated the air and water in cities. The poor work and living conditions as well all contributed to the epidemics of diseases such as typhus and cholera.  Physicians at the time didn’t correlate the coal pollution with lung disease instead blaming it on one’s lifestyle. This image depicts the crisis of public health in the city during the revolution.

Global Impact: Britain and China in the First Opium War (Abigail Fachtmann)

Destroying the Chinese War Junks in Anson’s Bay, Jan. 7th 1841, Edward Duncan, 1843

The First Opium War between Britain and China represented a new era of free trade and globalized economic relations, albeit without full inclination from all participants. Into the nineteenth century, Chinese tea was extremely popular in Britain but British goods were not appealing to China. Following the zero sum game of the capitalist world economy, Britain could not abide with importing Chinese goods without exporting their own. They found their profitable export in opium which British merchants bought from Bengali producers in India and sold to Chinese consumers at high prices. Opium addiction skyrocketed and Britain gained the economic upper hand over China. The Qing decided to confront this unwanted trade by seizing British opium imports, but Britain militarily retaliated with greater force. This “gunboat diplomacy” resulted in the unequal treaties that forcefully opened the Chinese market and allowed for British occupation of certain Chinese ports.

Global Beginnings of Britain’s Textile Industry (Abigail Fachtmann)

India cotton textile for European market, 1750-1800

Before it dominated the textile industry during the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century, Great Britain was limited to wool production. Britain and other northern European countries could only get cotton from South Asia, particularly India. India’s cotton textiles proved to be extremely appealing with their bright colors and intricate designs, resulting in skyrocketing demand much to the dismay of English competitors of other fabrics. The above image shows a bedspread most likely customized for the British market as British customers favored flowering patterns on white backgrounds. Indian textiles, such as the one shown, grew to be so popular that the British government legislated higher tariffs out of fear for their own national industry. This restriction contributed to entrepreneurs looking for new, efficient ways, e.g. manufacturing machines with alternative sources of energy, to develop their own textile industry.

Revolution in Latin America

Incentive for Latin American Revolution began with Napoleon’s invasion of Spain and Portugal, which had forced both kings to flee. Without any authority from Spain available, control of the Spanish American cities were taken by local officials. However, the size of Spanish American made it difficult for territories and cities to have constant communication with one another, which would cause the separation of the viceroyalties into distinct and separate spheres. In terms of goals and incentives, creole leaders of the regions announced that they were the ones who had built the new empire, as opposed to the peninsulares, who were the whites born in Europe. However, they had agreed it was necessary to “keep in place” the poorer, lower classes beneath both of them. Thus, even though the creoles wanted release from the Spanish authority, they did not want a bottom up revolution. This is the reason why, succeeding the wars of independence, women, “Indians, and free blacks still possessed little participation in public life.” Notably, women in the Latin American revolution fought alongside men.

Liberalism: An Ideology for the Capitalist World Economy (631-32)

John Stuart Mill

Destroying the Chinese War Junks in Anson’s Bay, Jan. 7th 1841

First Anglo-Chinese War (First Opium War) marked the globalization of economy, large-scale economic movement inspired liberal ideas

Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill, Ferguson: government should practice laissez-faire, society will work best when each looks out for own interest

Rise of middle class, embraced liberalism and the freedom away from governmental regulations, level playing field created when government does not favor groups

Liberals were unsure about the independence revolutions, feared that it would veer to be too dogmatic or too radical

“…liberalism championed legal protection of private property, representative government, an independent judiciary, scientific and technological progress, economic decision-making based on rational calculation rather than static tradition, and international commerce unfettered by state tariff barriers.”

Liberalism in some aspects contradictory in itself: “…industrialists tended to stress the inviolability of private property and free trade, whereas the poor and unenfranchised warmed to the promise of political equality.”

 

Liberalism and John Stuart Mill (Jorge Maldonado)

Liberalism as both a political and economic ideology arose in the early 19th century. It is the idea that people should be able to do whatever it is that they want as long as it is not hurting anyone else. Namely, that trade should go on without tariffs, private property should not be reallocated by the government, and that the government in general should only exercise its power when protecting someone. Above is an engraving of John Stuart Mill (by Perine and Giles, no date), an English political philosopher from the 19th century. He stated that mankind should only interfere with the liberty of action of another when acting in self-defense. Its broad doctrine was adopted and specialized by many. To the industrious, it meant that their private property (factories) and what goes on in them should be no one’s business but their own, while to the poor, it meant that they had a chance at political equality.

History of Racial Mixing in America (Jorge Maldonado)

The discourse around America as a multicultural nation has been raging for centuries. It is no secret that racialization in America has deep roots within the caste system employed by the Spanish after their colonization of the Americas. In this system, different mixes of White, Black, and Indian had different names according to their proportion. Above, we see Juarez Juan Rodriguez’s 18th century painting of a particular caste titled, “From a Spanish man and an Indian woman a Mestizo boy is produced.” Of course, the Spanish put themselves at the very top and the rest were readily assembled in a hierarchy, an ideology that persists into today’s America. This social framework did not go unchallenged, with many people such as Wendell Philips and Randolph Bourne heralding the United States’ multiculturalism and mixing as the next step in the humanity’s cultural evolution. This progressive thought, however, received intense backlash by Whites, sparking the creation of a White narrative where race-mixing between Whites and non-Whites would result in cultural and genetic suicide. Although the foundational thought for a successfully culturally conglomerate America is out there, it remains to be seen whether it will be implemented by Americans.