1. Reaching Out: Cross-Cultural Interactions
Chapter 22
Reaching Out:
Cross-Cultural Interactions

2. Patterns of Long-Distance Trade
Silk roads
Sea lanes of Indian Ocean basin
Trans-Saharan caravan routes
Rapid growth drive development of trading cities, emporia
Nomadic invasions cause local devastation but expand trade network
E.g. Mongols in China, 13th c.

3. Travels of Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta

4. Political and Diplomatic Travel
Trade requires diplomatic relations after 1000 CE
Mongols, Christians recognize Muslims as common enemy, 13th century
Pope Innocent IV invites Mongols to convert to Christianity
Mongols counter-offer: Christians accept Mongol rule or face destruction
Is this considered a good omen?

5. Marco Polo Example of long-distance travel
Traveled to China with merchant father, uncle
Enters service of Mongol Khubilai Khan
Returns to Venice after 17-year absence
Experiences recorded by fellow prisoner in Venice-Genoa conflict
Great influence on European engagement with far east

6. Ibn Battuta Islamic scholar, worked in governments on extensive travel
Strict punishment meted out according to sharia
Lashes for drinking alcohol, hand amputations for theft
Unable to convince women of Maldive islands to cover breasts

7. Missionary Travelers
Sufi missionaries travel throughout new Muslim territories, CE
Christian missionaries accompany, follow Crusaders
Roman Catholic priests travel east to serve expatriate communities
John of Montecorvino travels to China in 1291
Translates Biblical texts, builds Churches

8. Cultural Exchanges Encouraged by long distance travel
Songs and Stories – troubadours
European scientists consulted with Muslim and Jewish counterparts on understanding of natural world
The magnetic compass from China facilitate navigation, travel

9. Spread of Crops Citrus fruits, Asian rice, cotton Sugarcane
Muslims introduce crystallized sugar to Europeans
Demand increases rapidly
Sugarcane plantations on Mediterranean islands
Europeans use Muslim precedent of having large populations of slaves work on sugarcane plantations

10. Gunpowder Technologies
Muslims, Mongols spread gunpowder
From China
Primitive artillery
Technology reaches Europe by 1258

11. Bubonic Plague Bubonic Plague spreads from south-west China
Carried by fleas on rodents
Mongol campaigns spread disease to Chinese Interior

12. Spread of Plague Mongols, merchants, travelers spread disease west
1346 Black Sea ports
1347 Mediterranean ports
1348 Western Europe

13. Symptoms of the Black Plague
Inflamed and discolored lymph nodes in neck, armpits, groin area
Buboes, hence Bubonic
60-70% mortality rate, within days of onset of symptoms
Extreme northern climates less affected
Winter hard on flea population
India, sub-Saharan areas unaffected
Reasons unknown

14. Plague Symptoms

15. Population Decline (millions)

16. Social and Economic Effects
Massive labor shortage
Demand for higher wages
Population movements seeking better conditions
Governments attempt to freeze wages, stop peasants moves
Riots result
Put down, but disruption

17. Recovery in China: The Ming Dynasty
Yuan dynasty collapses 1368, and Mongols depart en masse
Hongwu
Impoverished orphan raised by Buddhist monks, works through military ranks, becomes Emperor
Proclaims new Ming (“Brilliant”) dynasty,

18. Ming Centralization Reestablished Confucian educational system
Begins tradition of direct rule by Emperor
Use of special groups to aid rule
Reliance on emissaries called Mandarins to ensure local officials follow imperial law
Heavy reliance on eunuchs
Sterile, could not build hereditary power base
Centralized structure lasts through collapse of Qing dynasty in 1911

19. Economic Recovery
Conscripted labor to repair, rebuild irrigation systems
Promoted manufacturing of porcelain, silk
Cultural revival
Attempt to eradicate Mongol legacy by promoting traditional Chinese culture
Emperor Yongle commissions 23,000-roll Encyclopedia

20. State Building in Western Europe
Europe: regional states and conflict
Holy Roman Empire survives in name alone
Hundred Years War ( )
Sources of income from new taxes
Italian states: direct taxes and long-term bonds
France: sales, salt, and hearth taxes
England: hearth, head, and plow team taxes
Establish large standing armies
French Louis XI ( ) had army of 15,000

21. Spain Fernando of Aragon marries Isabel of Castile, 1469
The “Catholic Kings”
Unites most powerful houses of Iberia
Major political and economic alliance
Completes reconquista, and expands power beyond Iberian peninsula to Italy
Funded Columbus’ quest for western route to China

22. The Renaissance French for “rebirth” (of classical culture)
14th-16th centuries
Art, sculpture, architecture
From Greek and Roman—not medieval predecessors
Italian artists use linear perspective
Work with real human anatomy and musculature
Leonardo da Vinci ( )
Architecture: reinvention of domed cathedrals
Imitation of Roman domes

23. The Humanists Use classical (Greek and Roman) models
Update medieval moral thought
Humanities: literature, history, moral philosophy
Renaissance humanists deeply devoted to Christianity
Erasmus publishes key Greek-Latin edition of New Testament 1516
Also devoted to rediscovering classical Latin texts, often ignored in monastic libraries

24. Humanist Moral Thought
Inspired by Latin writers such as Cicero
Reject imperative of monastic lifestyle in favor of morally virtuous life while engaged in the world
Marriage, business, public affairs
Reconciliation of Christianity ethics and values with rapidly changing European society and economy

25. Europe Interest in the Larger World
Artists express wide interest in Byzantine, Asian worlds
Extend to ideas
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola ( ) attempts to reconcile Plato, Aristotle, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Zoroastrianism
Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486)
Overall failure, but speaks to desire

26. Exploration and Colonization
China and Western Europe

27. China Ming dynasty hesitant to have large foreign populations
Mongol experience
Allowed small populations in port cities
Yongle engaged Admiral Zheng He to mount seven massive naval expeditions,
Placed trade with China under imperial control
Demonstrate strength of Ming dynasty

28. Voyages of Zheng He Massive fleets, massive ships
Nine-mast treasure ships
Four decks
Largest ships in world
Asia, India, Ceylon, Persian Gulf, East Africa
Start with diplomacy…
Suppresses pirates
Voyages end
Imperial ministers fear Zheng He
Mongols in north attacking

29. Chinese and European Exploration, 1405 – 1498

30. European Exploration in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans
Motives: profit, missionary activity
Portuguese early leaders in Atlantic exploration
Search for sea route to Indian Ocean basin
Prince Henrique (Henry the Navigator) seizes Strait of Gibraltar, 1415
Begins encouragement of major Atlantic voyages

31. Colonization of the Atlantic Islands
Madeira, Azores Islands, etc.
Investments in sugarcane plantations
Exploration of west African coast
Dramatically increases volume of slave trade
Ultimately, some 12 million Africans deported to Americas for slave labor

32. Indian Ocean Trade
Attempt to avoid using Muslim middlemen in trade with east
1488 Bartolomeu Dias sails around Cape of Good Hope (Cape of Storms)
Vasco de Gama sails this route to India and back
Portuguese gun ships attempt to maintain trade monopoly
Beginnings of European imperialism in Asia

33. Christopher Columbus Search for western sea route to Indian Ocean
Portuguese consider his proposal impractical, reject
Fernando and Isabel of Spain underwrite voyage, departs in 1492
Missionary sub-text
Makes landfall in San Salvador
Believed reached islands off coast of Asia
Finds natives (“Indians”)
Four voyages in total