1. Ways of the World: A Brief Global History with Sources Third Edition
Robert W. Strayer
Ways of the World: A Brief Global History with Sources Third Edition
CHAPTER 13
Political Transformations:
Empires and Encounters
1450–1750
Copyright © 2016 by Bedford/St. Martin’s
Distributed by Bedford/St. Martin's/Macmillan Higher Education strictly for use with its products; Not for redistribution.

3. I. European Empires in the Americas
The European Advantage
1. Geography
2. Need
3. Marginality
4. Rivalry
5. Merchants
6. Wealth and Status
7. Religion
8. American collaborators
I. European Empires in the Americas
A. The European Advantage
Geography: European Atlantic states were well positioned for involvement in the Americas, windfall of natural resources made colonizing European states economically stronger and started growth lasting until the 20th century.
Need: Chinese and Indians had such rich markets in the Indian Ocean that there wasn’t much incentive to go beyond
Marginality: Europeans were aware of their marginal position in Eurasian commerce and wanted to change it
Rivalry: interstate rivalry drove rulers to compete
Merchants: growing merchant class wanted direct access to Asian wealth
Wealth and status: colonies were an opportunity for impoverished nobles and commoners
Religion: crusading zeal, persecuted minorities looking for more freedom, European states and trading companies mobilized resources well, seafaring technology, iron, gunpowder weapons, and horses gave Europeans an initial advantage over people in the Americas.
American collaborators: rivalries within the Americas provided allies for European invaders, indigenous troops allied to the Spanish greatly outnumbered the small number of European soldiers.

5. I. European Empires in the Americas
B. The Great Dying and the Little Ice Age 1. Demographic collapse of Native American societies 2. Pre-Columbian Population: 60 – 80 million people 3. European and African diseases 5. Coincided with Little Ice Age
I. European Empires in the Americas
B. The Great Dying and the Little Ice Age
Demographic collapse: Global significance of the demographic collapse of Native American societies.
Pre-Columbian Western Hemisphere had a population of 60 million–80 million
European and African diseases: Geographic isolation meant the population had no immunity to Old World diseases. Europeans brought European and African diseases: mortality rate of up to 90 percent among Native American populations, native population nearly vanished in the Caribbean, Central Mexico: population dropped from 10 million–20 million to around 1 million by 1650, similar mortality in North America. Massive death created social crises.
Coincided with Little Ice Age: Epidemic spread of disease coincided with global phenomenon of the Little Ice Age: cooling temperatures sparked the General Crisis, erratic rainfall near the equator, social stresses seen in constant warfare in Europe, collapse of the Ming, and civil war in Mughal India, drought in Mexico and torrential rains in the Caribbean.

7. I. European Empires in the Americas
C. The Columbian Exchange 1. Labor shortage 2. Migrant slaves created new societies 3. American food crops 4. American stimulants 5. Exchange with the Americas 6. The Columbian Exchange
I. European Empires in the Americas
C. The Columbian Exchange
Labor shortage: Massive native mortality and Little Ice Age created a labor shortage in the Americas.
Migrant slaves: Migrant Europeans and African slaves created entirely new societies: brought European crops and animals to the Americas.
American food crops: American food crops like corn, potatoes, and cassava spread widely in the Eastern Hemisphere: potatoes especially allowed enormous population growth, corn and sweet potatoes were important in China and Africa.
American stimulants: American stimulants including tobacco and chocolate also spread to the Eastern Hemisphere
Exchange with the Americas: Reshaped the world economy: silver mines of Mexico and Peru, importation of millions of African slaves to the Americas.
The Columbian Exchange: Network of communication, migration, trade, transfer of plants and animals (including microbes) is called “the Columbian exchange:” the Atlantic world connected four continents, Europeans got most of the rewards.

9. II. Comparing Colonial Societies in the Americas
A. In the Lands of the Aztecs and the Incas 1. Spanish conquest, early 16th century 2. Commercial agriculture and mining 3. Rise of a distinctive social order
II. Comparing Colonial Societies in the Americas
A. In the Lands of the Aztecs and the Incas
Spanish conquest: Spanish conquest of the Aztec and Inca empires (early sixteenth century): the most wealthy, urbanized, and populous regions of the Western Hemisphere. Within a century, the Spaniards established major cities, universities, and a religious and bureaucratic infrastructure.
Commercial agriculture and mining: Economic basis of the colonial society was commercial agriculture and mining (gold and silver).
Rise of a distinctive social order: replicated some of the Spanish class hierarchy, accommodated Indians, Africans, and racially mixed people, Spaniards were at the top, increasingly wanted a large measure of self-government from the Spanish Crown, emergence of mestizo (mixed-race) population, gross abuse and exploitation of the Indians, more racial fluidity than in North America.

11. II. Comparing Colonial Societies in the Americas
C. Colonies of Sugar 1. Lowland Brazil and the Caribbean 2. Arabs introduced sugar production to Mediterranean 3. Sugar transformed Brazil and the Caribbean 4. Mixed-race workforce; racial systems evolved
II. Comparing Colonial Societies in the Americas
C. Colonies of Sugar
Lowland Brazil and the Caribbean developed a different society: regions had not been home to great civilizations and didn’t have great mineral wealth until the 1690s, but sugar was in high demand in Europe. These colonies produced almost solely for export.
Arabs introduced large-scale sugar production to the Mediterranean: Europeans transferred it to Atlantic islands and Americas, Portuguese on Brazilian coast dominated the world sugar market 1570–1670, then British, French, and Dutch in the Caribbean broke the Portuguese monopoly.
Sugar transformed Brazil and the Caribbean: production was labor intensive, worked best on large scale, can be called the first modern industry, had always been produced with massive use of slave labor, Indians of the area were almost totally wiped out or fled, planters turned to African slaves—80 percent of all Africans enslaved in the Americas ended up in Brazil and the Caribbean, mostly African men imported to the New World plantations, but some women. Much more of Brazilian and Caribbean society was of African descen.
Large mixed-race population provided much of urban skilled workforce and supervisors in sugar industry. Plantation complex based on African slavery spread to southern parts of North America, but in North America, European women came earlier. Result was less racial mixing, less tolerance toward mixed blood; slavery was less harsh, sharply defined racial system evolved.

13. II. Comparing Colonial Societies in the Americas
D. Settler Colonies in North America 1. New colonial society 2. British settlers more numerous 3. England mostly Protestant 4. Traditions of self-government 5. North America gradually became dominant
II. Comparing Colonial Societies in the Americas
D. Settler Colonies in North America
A different sort of colonial society emerged in British colonies of New England, New York, and Pennsylvania. British got into the game late; got the unpromising lands, but British society was changing more rapidly than Catholic Spain. Many British colonists were trying to escape elements of European society.
British settlers were more numerous; by 1750, they outnumbered Spaniards in New World by five to one. By 1776, 90 percent of population of North American colonies was European. Indians were killed off by disease and military policy. Small-scale farming didn’t need slaves.
England was mostly Protestant; didn’t proselytize like the Catholics.
British colonies developed traditions of local self-government: Britain didn’t impose an elaborate bureaucracy like Spain, British civil war (seventeenth century) distracted government from involvement in the colonies.
North America gradually became dominant, more developed than South America

14. III. The Steppes and Siberia: The Making of a Russian Empire
A. Experiencing the Russian Empire 1. Conquests brought devastating epidemics 2. Pressure to convert to Christianity 3. Large-scale settlement of Russians (Siberia) 4. Discouragement of pastoralism
III. The Steppes and Siberia: The Making of a Russian Empire
Experiencing the Russian Empire
Devastating epidemics: Conquest was made possible by modern weapons and organization. Conquest brought devastating epidemics, especially in remote areas of Siberia—locals had no immunity to smallpox and measles.
Pressure to convert to Christianity
Large-scale settlement of Russians in the new lands, where they outnumbered the native population (e.g., in Siberia). Many natives were Russified
Discouragement of pastoralism.

17. III. The Steppes and Siberia: The Making of a Russian Empire
B. Russians and Empire 1. Imperial expansion 2. Rich agricultural lands, furs, minerals 3. Long-term Russian identity problem 4. Colonization experience different from the Americas
III. The Steppes and Siberia: The Making of a Russian Empire
B. Russians and Empire
Imperial expansion: With imperial expansion, Russians became a smaller proportion of the overall population.
Rich agricultural lands, furs, and minerals helped make Russia a great power by the eighteenth century.
Identity problem: Became an Asian power as well as a European one. Long-term Russian identity problem; expansion made Russia a very militarized state, reinforced autocracy.
Colonization experience: Different from the Americas: conquest of territories with which Russia had long interacted, conquest took place at the same time as development of the Russian state, the Russian Empire remained intact until 1991.

18. IV. Asian Empires
A. Making China an Empire 1. Qing dynasty, 1644– Nomads of the north and west 3. China evolved into a Central Asian empire 4. Impoverished Central Asia
III. The Steppes and Siberia: The Making of a Russian Empire
B. Russians and Empire
Qing dynasty (1644–1912) launched enormous imperial expansion to the north and west.
Nomads of the north and west were familiar to the Chinese: 80-year-long Chinese conquest (1680–1760), motivated by security fears; reaction to Zunghar state.
China evolved into a Central Asian empire. Conquered territory was ruled separately from the rest of China through the Court of Colonial Affairs: considerable use of local elites to govern, officials often imitated Chinese ways, but government did not try to assimilate conquered peoples, little Chinese settlement in the conquered regions.
Russian and Chinese rule impoverished Central Asia, turned it into a backward region

21. IV. Asian Empires
B. Muslims and Hindus in the Mughal Empire 1. Mughals united much of India between 1526 and Emperor Akbar, r. 1556– Mughal toleration provoked reaction among some Muslims 4. Aurangzeb’s policy provoked Hindu reaction
III. The Steppes and Siberia: The Making of a Russian Empire
B. Russians and Empire
Mughals united much of India between 1526 and The Mughal Empire’s most important divide was religious.
Emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605) attempted serious accommodation of the Hindu majority: brought many Hindus into the political-military elite, imposed a policy of toleration, abolished payment of jizya by non-Muslims, created a state cult that stressed loyalty to the emperor, Akbar and his successors encouraged a hybrid Indian-Persian-Turkic culture.
Mughal toleration provoked reaction among some Muslims: Emperor Aurangzeb (r. 1658–1707) reversed Mughal policy, tried to impose Islamic supremacy, Aurangzeb banned sati (widow burning), music, and dance at court, various vices, destruction of some Hindu temples, reimposition of jizya.
Aurangzeb’s policy provoked Hindu reaction

23. IV. Asian Empires
C. Muslims and Christians in the Ottoman Empire 1. Ottoman Empire transformed Turkish life 2. Long conflict between Sunni Ottomans and Shia Safavids,1534 – 1639
IV. Asian Empires
C. Muslims and Christians in the Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire was the Islamic world’s most important empire in the early modern period: transformed Turkish social life, Turkish women lost freedoms and status.
Long conflict (1534–1639) between Sunni Ottomans and Shia Safavids

25. IV. Asian Empires
C. Muslims and Christians in the Ottoman Empire 3. Significant cross-cultural encounter 4. Christians in the Balkans 5. Jewish refugees – more opportunities 6. Devshirme 7. Threatened Christendom 8. Some Europeans admired Ottoman rule
IV. Asian Empires
C. Muslims and Christians in the Ottoman Empire
3. Cross-cultural: The Ottoman Empire was the site of a significant cross-cultural encounter: in Anatolia, most of the conquered Christians converted to Islam; in the Balkans, Christian subjects mostly remained Christian.
4. Christians: In the Balkans, many Christians welcomed Ottoman conquest: Ottoman taxed less and were less oppressive, Christian churches received considerable autonomy, Balkan elites were accepted among the Ottoman elite without conversion.
5. Jewish refugees: Jewish refugees from Spain had more opportunities in the Ottoman Empire.
6. Devshirme: tribute of boys paid by Christian Balkan communities: boys were converted to Islam, trained to serve the state, the devshirme was a means of upward social mobility.
7. The Ottoman state threatened Christendom
8. Some Europeans admired Ottoman rule: philosopher Jean Bodin (sixteenth century) praised Ottoman religious tolerance, European merchants evaded papal bans on selling firearms to the Turks.