...From 650 C.E. to 1750 C.E., the Indian Ocean was central to trade between major civilizations. Political power shifted from local states to European colonists, but was always centered on control over the port cities. Generally, the same goods were exported and imported throughout the period. Increased interactions led to the spread and grow of new religions, like Islam. Commerce in the Indian Ocean both changed and stayed the same politically, economically, and culturally as new influences and global powers affected the trade patterns. During the 7th century, trade was flourishing across the Indian Ocean with powerful port cities dominating the trade. The Swahili city-states on the East African coast gained political power by taxing trade at ports, mainly exporting gold and other products from the interior of Africa. These African kingdoms were the center of civilization in...
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...The 15th and 16th century global cultures impacted the development of humanity in three ways. Exploration, religion, and politics which were major aspects of the culture during the 15th and 16th centuries. Through exploration, the Europeans began taking many more slaves and bringing them back to North America. Martin Luther’s 95 Theses paved the way for secularism during the renaissance. In terms of politics, governments were shifting towards more progressive systems which eventually led to civilians being represented in choices made by their government. This emboldened the citizen to accomplish higher achievements. The Age of Exploration began in the end of the 15th century and ended in the 18th century. The Age of Exploration brought together...
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...those who were enslaved in the Americas. Of particular interest to many recent historians is the fact that black Africans have been experiencing forced settlement outside of Africa for centuries prior to the Atlantic Slave Trade. Slaves have established a presence in many different urban and rural areas of the world including, Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Europe. Ibn Khaldun has been quoted, “history is information about human social organization and that there were two basic forms of human social organization: urban and rural.” Through urban and rural settings, one can understand the development of African slavery outside of the Africa and excluding the Americas. In ancient times Africans traveled as merchants, sailors, soldiers, and adventurers across the Red and Mediterranean Seas and the Indian Ocean. Africans and Arabs long interacted in the urban areas of Egypt, the Sudan, and across the Red Sea and shared common values and customs. The Arabian Peninsula seems to have the earliest African contact, with Ethiopian traders settling on the peninsula long before the Romans came. Not much is known how these slaves were captured but they were seemingly traded along the Horn of Africa, in urban trading post set up by traders. Furthermore, during the expansion of Islam after the 7th century AD, ushered in the first large-scale movement of black Africans outside of Africa as free and as well as enslaved. A number of Africans fought along Muhammad in Arabia during Islamic...
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...webs.bcp.org Early Modern Empires (1500-1800) Introduction Before we learn about the unlikely and apparently rapid rise of The West during the 19th and 20th centuries, it’s important to understand the powerful empires of the early modern world between 1500 and 1800. Some readers may be surprised to learn about the wealth, thriving global trade, and dominant manufacturing production in Asia that held sway until at least the end of the 18th century. Throughout much of this era, Europe was, in contrast to Asia, an unimpressive backwater of small countries and kingdoms. But Europe’s “discovery” of the Americas and an ocean route to Asia, just before the year 1500, changed all that. The West gradually worked its way into the global economy and planted the seeds for its imperial rise and eventual dominance over most of the modern world. After 1500, world regions—such as West Africa, East Asia, and South America—fused together into one global trade system. For the first time in history, each region of the world now interacted with the others. For example, enslaved African labor was used in South American plantations to sell cheap sugar to Europe. Silver from Mexico bought loans for Spain, and that same silver ended up in China to buy silk or porcelain for Europeans. And so on. A new global system emerged, forged of uneven relationships, in which a small part of the world, Europe, successfully exploited the world’s human and natural resources to its advantage. This was Globalization...
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...Basically, the term ‘Diplomacy’ can be defined as the peaceful dialogue and interaction between political units and mostly between states nowadays. Actually, there are many diplomacy activity executed by the political units since long time ago and one of them known as the first peace treaty between a king of Ebla (Syria) and the king of Assyria. There are few more diplomatic activities including the rulers of Egypt and Syrian 1400 years ago. The stages of development of modern diplomacy from its origins in 15th century Europe until 20th century, there are five things which need to be accomplished including the origins of the modern state in Renaissance Italy, the role of Florentine political thinker Niccolo Machiavelli, the parallel development of the modern sovereign and their modern diplomacy, the application of modern diplomacy to the classic European and finally the characteristics of the state, international system’s nature and the role of diplomacy. After the Peace of Westphalia in 1648, the Europe shifted the diplomacy from medieval to modern. Since Peace of Westphalia had change the...
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...is a developed form of a national language, with norms fixed in writing to varying extents; the language of all manifestations of culture that are expressed in words. The concept of a “developed form” is historically variable (in different ages and with different peoples). In the age of feudalism many peoples of the world used foreign languages as their written literary languages. The Iranian and Turkish peoples used classical Arabic, the Japanese and Koreans used classical Chinese, the Germanic and West Slavic peoples used Latin, and the people in the Baltic region and the Czechs used German. The popular languages supplanted the foreign language in many functional spheres of communication during the 14th and 15th centuries in some states and in the 16th and 17th centuries in others. The literary language is always the result of collective creative activity. The notion that the norms of a literary language are “fixed” is somewhat relative (despite all the importance and stability of the norm, it changes in time). It is not possible to imagine a national culture that is rich and developed without a rich and developed literary language. This is why the problem of the literary language is very important for society. Linguists do not agree about the complex and multifaceted concept of the literary language. Some researchers prefer to talk not about the literary language as a whole but about its variations—the written literary language, the spoken literary language, the language of...
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...Due to major advances in technology in the 15th century, the expansion of European powers onto the Americas were in full rotation due to potential high profits. The major causes for the expansion of these countries were in pursuit of God, glory, and gold. The idea of exploring and discovering new areas in the name of God played a large factor in staying in compliance with the Church. By using the expansion of Christianity as an excuse to colonize the New World, the European powers gained immense power. Also, many expeditions were carried out in pursuit of gaining power, fame, and glory, reflecting upon feudalistic themes. Lastly and most importantly, what served as the basis for the expeditions into the New World was the potential of gaining large profits through colonization...
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...A caravel is a small, highly maneuverable sailing ship developed in the 15th century by the Portuguese to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean. The lateen sails gave her speed and the capacity for sailing to windward (beating). Caravels were much used by the Portuguese for the oceanic exploration voyages during the 15th and 16th centuries in the age of discovery Initially, up to the 15th century, Europeans were limited to coastal cabotage navigation using the barge (barca) or the balinger (barinel), ancient cargo vessels used in the Mediterranean of around 50 to 200 tons. These boats were fragile, with only one mast with a fixed square sails that could not overcome the navigational difficulties of Southward oceanic exploration, as the strong winds, shoals and strong ocean currents easily overwhelmed their abilities. The caravel was developed in about 1450, based on existing fishing boats under the sponsorship of Prince Henry the Navigator of Portugal and soon became the preferred vessel for Portuguese explorers. Its name may derive from an ancient boat type known as carabus in Latin and καραβος in Greek, later Arabized to qārib, indicating some continuity of its carvel build through the ages.[2] They were agile and easier to navigate, with a tonnage of 50 to 160 tons and 1 to 3 masts, with lateen triangular sails allowing beating. Being smaller and having a shallow keel, the caravel could sail upriver in shallow coastal waters. With the lateen sails...
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...With reference to all the chapters in this module trace the beginnings of the doctrine of the separation of powers The idea of the separation of powers suggest that the governance of the country should not fall to one person, for example the King, and that this therefore, in turn, prevents there being any abuse of power. On the 15th June 1215 King John was forced to sign the Magna Carta. This meant that a person would only be answerable to the “lawful judgement of his peers or by the law of the land”. This was an important step towards the separation of powers because it diminished the power of the King and the first time he was, along with the rest of the country, subjected to the laws of the land. The Magna Carta was re-issued three times during the reign of Henry III who was the successor to King John, with the final one being issued in 1225. This Charter omitted certain clauses that allowed the nobles to vote and over rule a King however, it did establish a Parliament that had some powers to overlook a King’s decision. Amongst other things it also added fixed law Courts where people would be tried by a jury of their peers, and included clauses against corruption. This was an early version of our checks and balances system where no one person has absolute rule and it continued to develop during the reign of Edward I when Parliament began to take its modern form. Kings now had to accept that their rule very much depended upon the consent of their subjects and...
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...Why did China fall behind Europe in the 15th century? In my opinion, the main reason that China fell behind Europe in the 15th century is the closing down of itself with other civilizations and the banned international trades strategies which severed the communication and connection of the Chinese people with the outside world. And in the same time the rapid growth of the European countries had boosted those civilizations in the other direction thanks to the newly discovered resources on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. I would like to explain these ideas from the following aspects: The early developments of China: China has gone through a period of rapid technological advances in the first centuries of human history thanks to its particular geographical location and the early coming together of the nations within its boundary. Although there were lots of nations fighting wars against each other, aiming to control all the territory on the land of the so-called East Asia nowadays, the Chinese empire was finally founded by the Qin and the united nation has adopted lots of governing strategies to develop the livelihood of its people not only in literature but also in science. Because of these factors, the Chinese people have invented ways to preserve the cultural and technological achievements and also have developed ways to explore the 1/7 outside world. Such decisions have been made since the Han dynasty when the empire opened up the Silk Road to the west, connecting...
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...They set up large plantations prepared with mills and refineries. By the 10th century, Arabs households had replaced honey with sugar. The production of sugar in the Islamic World was a very money-spinning business; they found a way to perfect the process of refining the crystalized sugar and molasses turning it into a very profitable commodity in the Islamic world, (Milwright, 70). The production of sugar was extremely labor-consumed from the cultivation to processing the final product. Workers had to endure the hit of the field, sharp cuts from the cane, and the burn of the boiling quarters, and job was suitable for lower class workers or prisoners of war. Evidence of sugar production at ancient sites is found in the way some structure were built, which were designed for crushing the cane, boiling the syrup, and crystallization of the liquid syrup; another evidence of sugar manufacturing was the type of ceramic remains found, thy were conical pots and bag-shaped molasses jars, probably used to capture and storage the crystallized sugar, (Milwight, 71) After sugar was produced, it value was very high and could be traded to long distances at a very high cost. Due to it high production and transportation cost, sugar was a product initially consumed by the upper classes in the Islam world and the West, until late 17th century with the...
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...The Printing Press Introduction: The Advancement The advancement in question is the printing press, a technological innovation that profoundly altered human culture. It may be argued, in fact, that this advancement revolutionized humanity and society in a manner rivaled only by the modern advent of the Internet. Moreover, as will be discussed, these were impacts with both varied and far-reaching consequences: “Paper and printing paved the way for religious reformation and made possible popular education” (Thompson, 1978, p. 167). It is then all the more astonishing that such consequences could arise from so simple a mechanism, or that its development would be realized as late as the 15th century. What is generally considered the original version of the modern printing press is a machine consisting of several key components. A long wooden table provides the surface for setting out the paper and ink, and these are then placed under the upright frame of the press itself. Before this step, however, every stage requires exacting work. First, the type is needed, which are metal blocks with raised letters, numbers, and punctuation marks on one end. This type is then arranged to spell out the document, smeared with ink, and lowered by the frame onto the paper by means of a large and adjustable screw, supported by a cross beam (Hook, 2009, p. 46). The press is, again, hardly an impressive-looking feat of engineering. Essentially, it looks...
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...From Manuscript to Bound Book: How the Printing Press Revolutionized 15th Century Literature “The invention of printing broadcast the printed language and gave to print a degree of authority that it has never lost.”- A. Lloyd James Before the days of automated printers and wireless communication, manuscripts represented the primary but inefficient and costly way to record, obtain and share knowledge. It was not until the 15th century when Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press revolutionized the way information was stored and disseminated. The printing press quickly changed the way in which written works were manufactured and which works could be produced by allowing private citizens to publish books and other written texts at a marketable rate. Illustrated through the invention of Gutenberg’s machine, society as a whole was impacted by the way in which information was produced, and through the press’ impact on academia and on the political and religious groups of the 15th and 16th centuries. Exemplified by the restricted writing methods at the time and the constraints transcription raised on the production of manuscripts, the printing press had a significant impact on universities and the methods of medieval education. Through readily available literature, the resulting increase of literacy had a large effect on the scientific community and a shift in power for the ruling parties of the time. Ultimately, the easy dissemination of political ideas in medieval Europe led to upheavals...
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...101 2/20/2014 The history of the papacy, the office held by the pope as leader of the Catholic Church, spans from the time of Saint Peter to present day. The pope is the head of the Catholic Church. During the Early Church, the bishops of Rome enjoyed no temporal power until the time of Constantine. The fall of Rome began the middle ages (around 476 ad). The papacy at the start of the middle ages was influenced by the temporal rulers of the surrounding Italian Peninsula; these periods are known as the Ostrogothic Papacy, Byzantine Papacy, and Frankish Papacy. Over time, the papacy consolidated its territorial claims to a portion of the peninsula known as the Papal States. Thereafter, the role of neighboring sovereigns was replaced by powerful Roman families during the saeculum obscurum, the Crescentii era, and the Tusculan Papacy. A fateful event for the papacy was the donation of lands made to the pope by the Frankish king Pepin the Short in 756. The papacy had already been given lands, but it was the Donation of Pepin that came to be considered the real as well as the symbolic founding of the Papal States. The pope thus became a powerful lay prince as well as an ecclesiastical ruler. This intermingling of powers was a determining condition in the struggle between church and state that was a main theme in the history of the West in the Middle Ages. Strong lay princes attempted to direct the church just as the pope tried to establish secular as well as spiritual supremacy over...
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...Why was Socrates regarded as a man of virtue? Why was Socrates regarded as a man of virtue? Socrates: Man of Virtue (470-399 B.C.E.) Socrates proposed the theory of value in which there are two sorts of good: virtue and happiness. Both are unconditional goods. But happiness is a "self-generated" good in that it "derives its value strictly from its inherent properties;" whereas virtue is an "other-generated" good in that it derives its value from happiness, precisely from its conduciveness to happiness. Virtue is an instinct in all humanity which can be aroused through self-examination. This universal truth is accessible to everyone who thinks and question. Socrates assumes that any person with whom he talks has the resource to answer his question correctly, that is, that no specialist knowledge is required. Socrates thought that knowledge is virtue, and virtue leads to happiness. It makes sense to think that moral people know what morality is. If you know right from wrong, then you might be able to choose to do what you know to be right. It also makes some sense to suspect that our beliefs about right and wrong influence our decisions. If we believe its right to help a drowning child, then it would be fairly shocking to decide not to do so—and it would less surprising when we decide to help the child. It is quite a shocking statement to say that virtue always leads to happiness. Criminals commit crimes that hurt others to help themselves. To think that their crimes would...
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