The Shapes of Human Communities Essay Example for Free

The Shapes of Human Communities Essay 1. In 1500, the world had all different societies, gatherers and hunters to empires, but it was different   2. Paleolithic Persistence a) gathering and hunting societies (Paleolithic peoples) still existed throughout the world but they had changed over time b) b. had new improved technologies and ideas, e.g., outrigger canoes, fish hooks, etc (had not adopted agriculture) c) exchanged goods over hundreds of miles and developed sophisticated sculpture and rock painting and northwest coast of North America developed very differently 3. Agricultural Village Societies a) predominated in much of North America, in Africa south of the equator, in parts of the Amazon River basin and Southeast Asia b) their societies mostly avoided oppressive authority, class inequalities ( forested region in present-day southern Nigeria – 3 political) c) Benin: centralized state ruled by a warrior king ,EwuareP d) Igbo : dense population and trade, and rejected kingship and state building e) Yoruba, Benin, and Igbo peoples traded among themselves and beyond 4. Agricultural village societies went through change in the centuries before 1500 a) population growth, emergence of distinct peoples b) rise of warfare as key to male prestige -creation of the Iroquois confederation c) some European colonists appreciated Iroquois values of social equality and personal freedom (even for women)agriculture,depose officeholders5. 5. Herding Peoples of the a) Turkic warrior Timur tried to restore the Mongol Empire ca. 1400 but ended up devastating Russia, Persia, and India b) his successors kept control of the area between Persia and Afghanistan for a century c) Timur’s conquest was the last great military success of Central Asian nomads d) the steppe nomads’ homeland was swallowed up in expanding Russian and Chinese empire 6. African pastoralists -independent from empires (Fulbe -West Africa’s largest pastoral society) 7. migration after 1000 c.e. ( small communities among agriculturalists) a) adopted Islam b) some moved to towns and became leaders c) jihads -created new states ruled by the Fulbe 2) Civilizations of the Fifteenth Century: Comparing China and Europe a) majority of the world’s population lived within a major civilization. b) China had been badly disrupted by Mongol rule and the plague and recovered under the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) i. Confucian learning 1) Emperor Yongle (r. 1402–1422) summarizing all the wisdom of the past and reestablished the civil service examination system (centralized government) 2) Chinese sailors and traders had become important in the South China Sea and in Southeast Asian ports in the eleventh century d) Emperor Yongle commissioned a massive fleet; launched in 1405 e) Admiral Zheng ried to enroll peoples in the tribute system f) no intention of conquering new territories, establishing Chinese settlements, or spreading culture 3) Chinese government abruptly stopped the voyages in 1433 g) Chinese merchants and craftsmen continued to settle and trade in Japan, Philippines, Taiwan, and Southeast Asia,( without government support) 3) European Comparisons: State Building and Cultural Renewal 1. a similar process of demographic recovery, consolidation etc 2. 2. European population began to rise again ca. 1450 a) state building fragmented -independent and competitive states 3. the Renaissance: reclamation of classical Greek traditions 4. began in the commercial cities of Italy ca. 1350–1500 5. . greater interest in the individual and in accurate depiction of the worl 4) European Comparisons: Maritime Voyaging 1. Portuguese voyages of discovery began in 1415 2. 1492: Columbus reached the Americas 3. 1497–1498: Vasco da Gama sailed around Africa to India 4. European voyages -small compared to Chinese ones a) unlike the Chinese voyages, Europeans were seeking wealth in Crusades against Islam 7. Chinese voyages ended; European ones kept escalating a. no political authority in Europe to end the voyages b.   rivalry between states = more exploration c. China had everything it needed; Europeans wanted the greater riches of the East 5) Civilizations of the Fifteenth Century: The Islamic World 1. Islamic world +four major states or empires. Took process of within and beyond new states 2. In the Islamic Heartland: The Ottoman and Safavid Empires 3. Ottoman Empire lasted from fourteenth to early twentieth century (huge territory) A .sultans claimed the title â€Å"caliph† and the legacy of the Abbasids (effort to bring new unity to the Islamic world 4. Ottoman aggression toward Christian (fall of Constantinople in 145 -1529 siege of Vienna) Europeans feared Turkish expansion 5. Safavid Empire emerged in Persia from a Sufi religious order -empire was established shortly after 1500 6. Sunni Ottoman Empire and Shia Safavid Empire fought between 1534 and 1639 1) On the Frontiers of Islam: The Songhay and Mughal Empires 1. 1. Songhay Empire rose in West Africa in the second half of the fifteenth century a. Islam was limited largely to urban elites. b. Sonni Ali (r. 1465–1492) followed Muslim practices, but was also regarded as a magician with an invisibility charm ( center of Islamic learning/trade) 2. Mughal Empire in India was created by Turkic group that invaded India in 1526 b. over the sixteenth century, Mughals gained control of most of India. 3. The age of these four great Muslim empires is sometimes called a â€Å"second flowering of Islam. new age of energy, prosperity, and cultural brilliance 4. spread of Islam to new areas, such as Southeast Asia 2) spread by traveling merchants, supported by Sufi holy men 6) rise of Malacca as a sign of the times—became a major Muslim port city in the fifteenth centuryMalaccan Islam blended with Hindu/Buddhist traditions (Islamic learning) Civilizations of the Fifteenth Century: The America a) Both the Aztec and the Inca empires were established by once-marginal peoples who took over and absorbed older cultures .(Both empires were destroyed by the Spaniards) b) The Aztec Empire a seminomadic people who migrated southward from northern Mexico c) Aztec Empire was a loosely structured, unstable conquest state ( population of 5–6 million d. local and long-distance trade on a vast scale (included slaves) 1) professional merchants (pochteca) became rich a. human sacrifice much more prominent in Aztec Empire than in earlier Mesoamerica 2) b. Tlacaelel is credited with the of state giving human sacrifice such importance Aztec Empire’s purpose is to maintain the cosmic order by supplying blood for the gods ocean trade in the west Atlantic/Indian Ocean picked up VII. A Preview of Coming Attractions: Looking Ahead to the Modern Era (1500–2000) A. No fifteenth-century connections were truly global. 1. those came only with European expansion in the sixteenth century 2. 1500–2000: inextricable linking of the worlds of Afro-Eurasia, the Americas, and Pacific Oceania B. â€Å"Modern† human society emerged first in Europe in the nineteenth century and then throughout the world. 1. core feature: industrialization 2. accompanied by massive population increase C. The prominence of European peoples on the global stage grew 1. , Western Europe became the most innovative, 2. spread of European languages and Christian religion throughout the world