Chapter 13

B. Chinese Expansion

1. Ming dynasty (1368-1644) – replaces the Yuan (Mongols)

a. Expansionist – Into Mongolia, Korea, Vietnam, Tibet

b. State sponsors commercial ventures to India, Middle East, Africa

c. Age of Expansion (1405 – 1423)

--Seven major sea expeditions by Zheng He (Zhenghe)

--Voyages to India & Africa

--Voyages end (1433)

d. Chinese return to isolation – back to tradition…internal economy was doing well…saw little need for outside trade

--Still trade in Asian area – Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia

--This opened opportunities for Western traders

VI. Western Europe Begins to Awaken

A. Began with relative stagnation, 14th, 15th centuries

1. Food supplies insufficient – famines were a constant threat after 1300…no agricultural innovation

2. 1348, Black Death – bubonic plague

a. Spread along trade routes…through nomads, sea routes

b. 30-40 percent of European population dies; led to labor shortages; payincreases

The Black Death“This scourge had implanted so great a terror in the hearts of men and women that brothers abandoned brothers, uncles their nephews, sisters their brothers, and in many cases wives deserted their husbands. But even worse…fathers and mothers refused to nurse and assist their own children.”

B. Signs of Rebirth…Decline of Feudalism

1. Feudal monarchies became increasingly centralized, they provided effective government…cities grow

a. Power of aristocracy began to decrease

2. Hundred Years War – military innovation…longbows, gunpowder, cannon, peasant armies

Battles of Crecy & Agincourt

3. Iberia – Spain & Portugal

a. Regional monarchs were strengthened through Reconquista – driving out the Muslim occupiers

--From 11th cent. military leaders had been fighting

--Regional monarchies began to from 1400

--Castile and Aragon allied through marriage in 1469;they undertook a Christian mission to expel Muslims and Jews from the Iberian Peninsula

C. European Trade Problems

1. Trade imbalance

a. Demand for Asian luxury products led to a gold shortage by 1400…Europeans did not have goods that were in demand in Asia, therefore they had to use gold to acquire the desired Asian goods.

b. This gold shortage threatened Europe with economic collapse.

2. Trade was also threatened by the Ottoman Empire

a. ****This provided an impetus to find other ways to bypass the Muslim-dominated trade routes****

--This eventually led to European exploration.

Contact with Asia came throughthe Mongol Empire!!!!!!!!!

D. Worldly Shift of the Italian Renaissance

1. Italy takes the lead in the 14th century…WHY?

a. “Rebirth” of classical thought facilitated by wealth of Italian city-states and contact with Byzantine Empire

--Italy led Europe in both trade and banking.

2. Religious art & literature was the focus…becomes secular

a. Personal fame for artists, writers more important

3. City-states support new commerce and the arts

E. Renaissance Society and Culture

1. Renaissance mostly a cultural, not political, movement

2. Humanism – emphasis on the individual and the human spirit based on the classics

3. Painters

a. Renaissance artists were patronized by the Church and the wealthy

b. Innovations include use of perspective and greater emphasis on the human form

c. Great Renaissance artists include Michelangelo, Raphael, and Leonardo da Vinci

La Pieta-

Michelangelo

Sistine Chapel

Michelangelo

The center of

Renaissance art was

Florence!

The Annunciation- BotticelliExample of

Perspective

VII. Exploration and Colonization

A. Why did Europeans Explore?

1. The Crusades

2. Contact with Mongols

3. Spice trade dominated by Muslims and Venice

4. Last land route vanished with fall of Byzantines.

5. Fear of the Muslims

6. High prices caused Europeans to seek alternate trade routes

7. Compass

8. Astrolabe

9. Development of deep-draft, round-hulled vessels (caravels) allowed greater amounts of cargo to be transported and allowed the use of cannon.

NewTechnology

China by way of the Muslims

B. 14th century explorers

1. Canary Islands, Madeiras, possibly the Azores

2. Spanish expeditions along west African coast

C. Beginnings of Colonization

1. Azores, Madeiras, and Canaries exploited

2. Prince Henry of Portugal led the way

a. Land grants offered to colonists

3. Pattern of Development

a. Cash crops for European markets

--Sugar, Cotton, Tobacco

--Slaves used

Canary Islands

Places Outside theEuropean & Asian WorldDuring the Postclassical

Era

Aztecs & Incas…internalproblems created

opportunities for externalintervention (after 1400)

Polynesiansmigrate toHawaii!!!

Maoris settle inNew Zealand…perhaps

as early as the 8th century.

Global Connections:1450 & the World

Muslim traders andmissionaries continued to be

active, but the Mongols introduceda new set of contacts.

Global leadership wasin question in 1450!

The Mongol decline returned attentionto trade in the Indian Ocean.

African merchantscontinued to rely

on interactions withthe Middle East.

WesternEurope’s

position wasstrengthening.

Southeast Asiawas increasingly

drawn into trade andmissionary activity.