Interregional Patterns of Culture and Contact, 1200–1550

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Interregional Patterns of Culture and Contact, 1200–1550

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• Publié par: ifydesut
• Nombre de lectures: 215
• Langue: English

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PART FOUR Interregional Patterns of Culture and Contact, 1200–1550

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C HAPTER 12 Mongol Eurasia and Its Aftermath, 1200–1500 C HAPTER 13 Tropical Africa and Asia, 1200–1500 C HAPTER 14 The Latin West, 1200–1500 C HAPTER 15 The Maritime Revolution, to 1550

I klidaoRhw,hcideraloatngSheteh oRamnnadaH hadbegunbefore pstideirudkaerepiemnchears,gnloeoMheengtfthrao ruEntndlaerov,iaas empires. Beginning in 1206 with the rise of Genghis Khan, the Mongols tied Europe, the Middle East, Russia, and East Asia together with threads of con- quest and trade centered on Central and Inner Asia. For over a century and a half, some communities thrived on the continental connections that the Mongols fostered, while others groaned under the tax burdens and physical devastation of Mongol rule. But whether for good or ill, Mongol power was based on the skills, strategies, and technologies of the overland trade and life on the steppes. The impact of the Mongols was also felt by societies that escaped con- quest. In Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean coastal areas of the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Japan, fear of Mongol attack stimulated societies to or- ganize more intensively in their own defense, accelerating processes of ur- banization, technological development, and political centralization that in many cases were already underway. By 1500, Mongol dominance was past, and new powers had emerged. A new Chinese empire, the Ming, was expanding its influence in Southeast

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Asia. The Ottomans had captured Constantinople and overthrown the Byzantine Empire. And the Christian monarchs who had defeated the Muslims in Spain and Portugal were laying the foundations of new overseas empires. With the fall of the Mongol Empire, Central and Inner Asia were no longer at the center of Eurasian trade. As the overland trade of Eurasia faded, merchants, soldiers, and explorers took to the seas. The most spectacular of the early state-sponsored long-distance ocean voyages were undertaken by the Chinese admiral Zheng He. The 1300s and 1400s also saw African exploration of the Atlantic and Polynesian colonization of the central and eastern Pacific. By 1500 the navigator Christo- pher Columbus, sailing for Spain, had reached the Americas; within twenty-five years a Portuguese ship would sail all the way around the world. New sailing technologies and a sounder knowledge of the size of the globe and the contours of its shorelines made sub-Saharan Africa, the Indian Ocean, Asia, Europe, and finally the Americas more ac-  cessible to each other than ever before. The great overland routes of Eurasia had generated massive wealth in East Asia and a growing hunger for commerce in Europe. These factors animated the development of the sea trade, too. Exposure to the achievements, wealth, and resources of societies in the Americas, sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia enticed the emerging European monarchies to pursue further exploration and control of the seas.

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CHAPTER OUTLINE The Rise of the Mongols, 1200–1260 The Mongols and Islam, 1260–1500 Regional Responses in Western Eurasia Mongol Domination in China, 1271–1368 The Early Ming Empire, 1368–1500 Centralization and Militarism in East Asia, 1200–1500 D IVERSITY AND D OMINANCE : Mongol Politics, Mongol Women E NVIRONMENT AND T ECHNOLOGY : From Gunpowder to Guns

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Mongol Eurasia and Its Aftermath, 1200–1500

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