World History Lecture Notes: Week 1-3

Week 1 ● Randi Spray → g.a., mostly grading exams ● “An enterprise distinct from propaganda” ● Primary Source Analysis (15%) of grade, due any day, write a 250-500 word of a primary document in the textbook, they will be due on the week they are listed in the syllabus ○ Pick a week 3 reading, do it that week/turn it in Overseas Expansion in the Early Modern Period: Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas (1400-1600) ● The Renaissance: Did it actually happen? ● 1347-1351 → million perish from the Black Plague, but the disease exists for over 150 years and lasts well into the 1500s, there is a chance that up to 40% of Europe’s pre-plague perished, this doesn’t even include other global regions ● The Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453) ● Lancsters and the Yorks → The War of Roses (1455-1487) Week 2 ● Atlantic World Encounters: Europeans, Americans, and Africans (1500-1850) ● Renaissance Humanism: general collective belief, a belief that a person could develop his or her full human potential only by studying the “humanities” → liberal arts, literature, and history ● Johannes Gutenberg and the printing press ● Age of exploration ○ Chinese Naval Expeditions (1405-1433), Zheng He (Ming Dynasty) ○ Malacca Sultanate (late 14th century), name is a reference to Alexander the Great ■ Parameswara (Iskander Shah), Founder of Malacca ○ What was all of this exploration about? ■ Spice, and the spice trade ■ Trade routes ● Songhai Empire (1464-1591) ○ Sonnia Ali, fonder ○ Financial and political epicenter, Timbuktu , alongside the Niger river for trade ○ Timbuktu is also a center of scholarship and mathematics/astronomy ○ Last African Empire (stronghold) and with impacts before the arrivals of Euopreans in this particular area of current day Mali ○ Mansa Musa was involved with this empire (history’s richest person) ● Portuguese Maritime Empire ○ Dias (1488) ○ Da Gama (1497-1499) ○ Cabral (1500-1501) ○ Elcano (for Magellan) (1519-1522) ○ Bartolomeu Dias: ■ “Discovering” modern day South Africa and the Cape of Good Hope ■ Helps to establish Cape Town, the Cape Colony in 1488 ■ He was trying to find a way to the Indian Ocean ● Vasco da Gama follows and makes it around Africa and into modern day South Asia (early 1490s) ○ Lands in current Mozambique ○ Makes it as far as Western India, and establishes an influential trade capital for the Poroguese to come ● Contact to be established with the “spice islands” ○ Their employers were monarchs and wealthy families, the goods of the islands were enticing ● Spanish maritime Empire ○ Christopher Columbus ○ Three different voyages to the “New World” ● Accuracy of the European “discovery” narrative? ● John Cabot (late 15th century) ○ Italian ○ Participated in voyages throughout the Medetteranian Sea ○ Later sailed to the New World ○ “Discovered” Newfoundland/Canada ● Amerigo Vespucci (15th century) ○ Italian, Americas are named after him ○ Started as a cartographer ● Brazil’s importance in the Portoguese merchant empire (starting in 1519) ○ Exotic commodities ● Spanish Empire (cica 16th century) ○ Hernando Cortes (Aztecs) (1519) ○ Conquistadors → God, Gold, & Glory ○ Conquered Tenochtitlan in 1521 ○ Cosmopolitan society ● Points to consider (Conquistadors) ○ How does Hernan Cortes describe the Aztecs? Do some of his observations surprise you? How does Diaz describe Tenochitaltn? What parts of the city attract the most attention from the conquering forces? ○ What conclusions does diaz draw about Aztec civilization? ○ Does Diaz consider the Spanish to be superior? ● Points to consider (Aztecs) ○ How does the author portray Cortes and the Spanish? ○ Does he speak positively of Monteezuma? What might influence his reasons for doing so? ○ Given what we know, can we assume that his account is accurate? ● The bloody conquest of Tenochtitlan (1521) Week 3 ● Atlantic Slave Trade: people as commodities ○ The violent legacy of the Atlantic slave trade is stell felt throughout the world today. Its consequences are many: ■ Forced servitude ■ Inhumane treatment ■ Commodification of the human body ■ Systematic sexual assault ■ Biological catastrophe (diseases) ■ Religious strife (“old world” and “new world”) ■ Ecological change (agriculture development) ■ Rise of the insurance industry ● Enslaved peoples were often more valuable dead than alive ● Bartolome de las Casas → In Defense of the Indians ○ Spanish colonist, social reformer, and Dominican friar (16th century) ○ Present day Carribean to Brazil ○ After arriving in the Americas, de las Casas initially participated in the violence against indigenous populations, but eventually felt compelled to speak out against systematic atrocities in “New Spain” ○ “Noble savages” ○ Saying that inidiegnous populations are not fit for slave labor (above it), the need to import slave labor in the Americas grew ● Protestant Reformation ○ Martin Luther, father of lutheranism/protestant reformation ○ 95 thesis in Germany in 1517, pasted the papers on the door of the church ● Holy Roman Empire ○ Multi-ethnic complex of territories (confederation) developed in the Early Middle Ages and dissolved in 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars ○ Catholicism → Emperor and the Pope ● Chrisitan Humanism: ○ Emerged in response to abuses of power in the Catholic Church ■ Political connections over religious practice ■ Sacrament of Penance - sexual or monetary favors ■ Sale of indulgences ● If you give the church money, you are forgiven entirely of your sins ● your family member is in purgatory, so you pay a slip of paper to save their soul ● The more money you give, the faster you’ll move from purgatory to heaven, cuts down the number of years you will be in purgatory ○ Catholic Church becomes very wealthy ○ Inspired Christian intellectuals to link their scholarship to social reform ■ Desiderius Erasmus ● Chrisitanity should show people how to live good lives on a daily basis rather than provide a belief system for people to follow in order to achieve salvation ● The Praise of Folly (1509) ■ Thomas More ● Chrisitanity should serve as a guide for how people should live, instead of putting out a black and white slate of how to operate ● Utopia (1516) ○ Though this is revolutionary, Erasmus and More advocated for change within the Catholic Church, but never sought to break away from the faith. (Unlike Martin Luther) ● Empire, Religion, and Trade: Asian, Islamic States, and Chrisitan States (1500-1800) ● A “Breakthrough Experience”: ○ salvation is based on faith rather than works like how the Catholics are teaching ○ Further corruption in the Catholic Church ● 95 Theses (October 1517) to the door ○ Promote his ideas and understandings of these 95 points/revisions to the Catholic establishment ○ What needs to change for reformation in the Church ○ Your faith isn’t determined by wealth, your salvation isn’t determined by how much you contribute to the Church. ● “The Luther Affair” ○ Pope Leo X ○ The Papal Bull (1520) ○ Excommunication ● Emperor Charles V ○ Ferdinand I’s brother that he abdicates to ● Jan Hus (Hussites) (15th century) ○ Almost a hundred years earlier, he was doing the same thing as Luther in Prague ○ Burnt at the stake, and news of his wrongful death spreads ● Diet of Worms (1521) ○ Luther knows what happened to Hus ○ Council of sorts to have an open conversation about the Catholic Church ○ Unlike Hus, Luther has the support of several German princes who would attend ■ Fredrick III, guarantees him safety during the 3 day conference ■ For the third day, Luther learns of a plot to arrest him where he is secretly escaping Worms ■ The convention continues with his absence ■ The Pope, HRE, issue harsh reactions against Luther’s poininos and stands ● Edict of Worms (25 May, 1521) : Council of sorts to have an open conversation about the Catholic Church ● Rise in other heretical movements as well: ○ Ulrich Zwingli ■ Similar to aspects of what will become Protestantism ■ Zurich, Switzerland ■ Protestant activities flourish ■ Advocates for life by faith, keeps some more traditional elements of Catholicism (still a believer in communion) ● Communion is important for symbolism, instead of the physical consumption of the body of Christ ○ John Calvin ■ Founder of Calvinism ■ French in outskirts of Paris and Southern France ■ Advocate of Church reform from within, but then after the Edict of Worms he believed that the Catholic Church was beyond saving because of its corruption ■ Advocates for more protestant ideals, through faith not the Church ■ In 1532, participates in the Affair of the Placards ● Satirical drawings, poems, making fun of high ranking France church officials end up on prominent figures’ doors, v embarrassing ● Leads the French to work against protestantism, Clavin flees to Switzerland ■ Calvinism believes in predestination, people are damned to Hell at the start of their life and there is nothing you can do in your life to change that fate ● In spite of the Edict of Worms and fleeing, Protestantism does not grow away and starts to grow and manifest in Europe over the course of the 16th century ○ In general terms, the further North in Europe, the more likely to be a protestant religion ■ The further South, closer to Rome/Papal States, more Catholicsm ○ Counter-Reformation is the Catholic’s attempt to address their internal issues ■ Huge rise in mission work to the developing “New World” ● Council of Trent (1545-1563) ○ Embodiment of the counter reformation ○ Condemned principles and doctrines of Protestantism ○ Agreed to effect a reformation in Church with respect to discipline and administration ○ Agreed that the Church is the ultimate interpreter of scripture ■ Bible = Church Tradition, only the Church has the ability to read and determine the value of scripture, they can name people “heretics” ○ Established a clear definition of faith and good works ■ Luther: “justification by faith alone” ○ Upheld indulgences, pilgrimages, missionary activity, and the veneration of saints and relics ● Ignatius of Loyola ○ Ultimately pledged during the Catholic Church crisis, the most important things the Church could do was to gain new followers of Catholicism, through education not conquest/violence ○ Complete and utter obedience to the Pope, besides God, he is the most important figure in the Church ○ Eventually founded the Jesuit Order ● Jesuit Order in North America ○ Loyola travels far into North America in attempts to spread Catholicism, protestants will later follow the lead and engage in missionary work ○ Catholics see the future of the Church outside of Europe, not inside of it, in a direct response to Protestantism ● Mughal India (1605) ○ With the exception of the Ottoman Empire, the Mughal Empire was probably the most wealthy and influential in the world ○ Akbar I (reigned 1556-1605) ■ Builds on the cultural complexity and makes the Empire cosmopolitan ■ 3rd emperor of the Mughals ■ General and diplomat ■ Open/tolerant to a degree of all religions, he practiced Zoroastrianism ○ Shah Jahan (1628-1658) ■ 5th ruler of the Mughal Empire ■ Builds the Taj Mahal ● Built as a gift to his late wife, etc. ● Shows wealth, stability, and notion of grandeur ● Ottoman and Safavid Empires (16th century) ○ Safavids: ■ Bring Persia to the epicenter of trade, development, and later military conflict ■ The meeting point of East and West ■ Collapses in 1736, because of conflicts with the Ottomans and Europe ■ Political systems based on checks and balances ● Still a Sultan but, attempted to ■ Embraces the arts and cultural contacts ■ Military innovations, elephants, cannons, i.e. ○ Ottomans: ■ Byzantine Empire moves its capital to Constantinople ● Is falling because of the Ottoman Empire ■ Murad I (rule1360-1389) ● Third Sultan of the Ottoman Empire ● Under his leadership, they expand into Western Anatolia and eventually into Southeastern Europe (present-day Greece and Bulgaria) ● Creates the Janissaries (new soldier) a standing army (somewhat similar to the Conquistadors), convictions for the state with new tech, professional standing soldiers who are career military ○ With them, Murad is able to expand the Empire ■ Mehmed II (1451-1481) rules next ● In 1453, the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople ● Hagia Sophia becomes the Suleymaniye Mosque ■ Suleyman I (1520-1566), the magnificent ■ Conquers in European territories ■ Battle of Mohacs (1526), ottomans v Holy Roman Empire (independent Hungarian monarchy as well) ● Women/Family Structures The Protestant Reformation was one of the defining events in world history. What factors inspired so many people to support Martin Luther’s calls for religious reform? How did the Catholic Church’s response have an impact in regions beyond the European continent?