Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a German monk and a theologian during the 16th century and he is considered to be the leader of the Protestant Reformation. Luther did not agree with some of the factors of Roman Catholicism and publicly opposed the Church for its corruption. He specifically opposed indulgences, the Pope’s authority, and that doing good work on Earth will lead to your salvation after death. Luther specified his opposition to the Church in his 95 theses, which quickly spread around Europe due to the printing press. Refusing to recant his 95 theses Luther was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. He translated the New Testament into German so even peasants were able to understand the Bible since up to that point it was only in Latin. Luther’s Protestant Reformation was significant as it lead to a split within the Roman Catholic Church and spurred new religions, such as Lutheranism.

 

Mehmed II

• Display of Power and Control
• Similar in Cesar as dominating Powerhouse

Akbar The Great

Akbar the Great ruled from 1556 to 1605 and was the Emperor of the Mughal Empire. Akbar the Great is known for his religious tolerance. Akbar himself was a Muslim but he believed that all religions and faiths had spiritual insights to offer. He frequently hosted scholars and theologians from different religions. He also abolished the taxes Hindus had to specifically pay and gave the Sikhs land for their temple. Akbar, however, proclaimed himself a king of kings also know as a padshah.

 

Shah Isma’il of Safavid Empire

Shah Ismail Hatayi (unknown Venetian artist in medieval Europe)

The declaration of Shi’ism as the state religion of Iran in 1501 by Shah Ismail (unknown artist, Safavid era)

Queen Elizabeth I

Immanuel Wallerstein, World Systems Analysis: An Introduction (2004)

Core / Periphery

• The Core spreads out to Periphery (colonies)
• It extracts resources from the periphery which it then sends back in the form of manufactured products for sale   / Leads to underdevelopment of the periphery
• This system was often kept in place through violence, expropriation and exploitation / Plunder was at the core of the system

Three Main Time Periods

• 1500s:
• The beginning of globalization and capitalism / Inherent in this process is unequal extraction
• The core / periphery system is characterized by plunder and then underdevelopment for the periphery

• 1789: The French Revolution and the Start of a Geoculture
• (To the French Revolution I would add the English Revolution, the American Revolution)
• Ideology of liberalism: equality and freedom for Europeans  / the upwardly mobile merchant class and the working-class developed an effective voice to demand political representation
• Academic disciplines created to study and further exploit colonial populations: Anthropology, Orientalism, etc.
  • Foucault calls those “knowledges designed for the production and evaluation of Man, ‘the disciplines’ ” (Ferguson, Ch. 1, 30)
• Nationalism buttressed by racism and exploitation of people and resources in the colonies / growth of state power

1960s:

• Student movements called for a different social and epistemological order within the academy and within society (Ferguson, 38)
• Strongest base in the universities / Decolonization and Civil Rights movements worldwide
• Geoculture and its structures of knowledge were questioned and overturned
  • The cultural center was reconfigured in terms of diversification rather than standardization…instead of homogeneous national identity, it changed to heterogeneous absorption…modern difference and transnationalism were henceforth engaged. (see Ferguson, ch. 1, page 30)
• Omi and Winant argue that “ethnic movements changed the meaning of race within the United States and reorganized the protocols and identity of the state according to that changed meaning.” (Ferguson, ch. 1, page 36)

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?