Title: HIST2321 IDST2372
1Reaching Out Cross-Cultural Interactions (19)
- Why are the travels of Ibn Battuta considered
among the classic works of travel literature and
what can they tell about the 14th century?
2Reaching Out Cross-Cultural Interactions
- Patterns of Long-Distance Trade
Travel and trade from the 12th to the14th century
C.E.
3Reaching Out Cross-Cultural Interactions
- Long-Distance Trade Travel
- Patterns of Long-Distance Trade
- Trading Cities
- Marco Polo
- Political Diplomatic Travel
- Mongol-Christian Diplomacy
- Rabban Sauma
- Ibn Battuta
Marco Polo Picking Pepper, 14th Century C.E.
4Patterns of Long-Distance Trade
- Silk roads
- Sea lanes of Indian Ocean basin
- Trans-Saharan caravan routes
- Development of trading cities, emporia
- Nomadic invasions cause local devastation but
expand trade network - E.g. Mongols in China, 13th c.
5Marco Polo (1253-1324)
- Example of long-distance travel
- Traveled to China with merchant father, uncle
- Enters service of Mongol Kublai 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
6Reaching Out Cross-Cultural Interactions
- Sources From The Past
- Ibn Batutta on Customs in the Mali Empire
- When it is Friday, if a man does not come early
to the mosque he will not find a place to pray
because of the numbers of the crowd - - Ibn Batutta in Black Africa
7Political 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
8Diplomatic Travellers
- Rabban Sauma
- Nestorian Christian Priest sent to Pope by
Mongols in Persia, 1287, regarding proposed
attack on Jerusalem - Did not win European support
- 1295 new leader of Persia accepts Islam
- Ibn Battuta (1304-1369)
- Islamic scholar, worked in governments on
extensive travel - Strict punishment meted out according to sharia
- Lashes for drinking alcohol
9Missionary Travelers
- Sufi missionaries travel throughout new Muslim
territories, 1000-1500 CE - Christian missionaries accompany, follow
Crusaders - Roman Catholic priests travel east to serve
expatriate communities - John of Montecorvino
Tombstone of Catherina Vilioni, a Venetian (d.
1342), found in Yangzhou, China.
10Reaching Out Cross-Cultural Interactions
- Sources From The Past John of Montecorvino on
his Mission in China - Indeed if I had but two or three comrades to aid
me, it is possible that the emperor khan himself
would have been baptized by this time! - - John of Montecorvino
11Travel trade, twelfth to the fourteenth century
12Cultural Exchanges
- Narratives, Stories
- E.g. European troubadours take Muslim love songs
- European scientists learn from early Muslim,
Jewish scientists
13Reaching Out Cross-Cultural Interactions
- Long-Distance Trade Travel
- Long-Distance Travel Cross-Cultural Exchanges
- Cultural Exchanges
- Spread of Crops
- Sugarcane
- Gunpowder Technologies
14Spread of Crops New Technologies
- Citrus fruits, Asian rice, cotton
- Sugarcane
- Muslims introduce crystallized sugar to
Europeans - Demand increases rapidly
- Europeans use Muslim precedent of having large
populations of slaves work on sugarcane
plantations - Gunpowder Technologies
- Muslims, Mongols spread gunpowder
- Technology reaches Europe by 1258
15Bubonic Plague
- The Little Ice Age, c. 1300 CE
- Decline of agricultural output leads to
widespread famine - Bubonic Plague spreads from south-west China
- Carried by fleas on rodents
- Mongol campaigns spread disease to Chinese
Interior - Spread of Plague
- Mongols, merchants, travelers spread
disease west - 1346 Black Sea ports
- 1347 Mediterranean ports
- 1348 Western Europe
16Symptoms of the Black Plague
- Inflamed 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
- Social Economic effects
- Massive labor shortage
- Demand for higher wages
- Population movements
- Governments attempt to freeze wages, stop serf
movements - Riots result
17Population Decline (millions)
18Economic 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 Yong-le commissions 23,000-roll
Encyclopedia
19Recovery in Western Europe State Building
- China centralized Empire
- Europe regional states
- Europe develops new taxes
- Italian states bonds large standing armies
- France salt tax, sales tax
- England hearth tax, head tax, plow tax
- French Louis XI (1461-1483) had 15,000 man army
- Spain - Fernando of Aragon marries Isabel of
Castile, 1469 - Major political economic alliance
- Completes reconquista, expanded beyond Iberian
peninsula to Italy - Funded Columbus quest for China
20Reaching Out Cross-Cultural Interactions
- Crisis Recovery
- Recovery in Western Europe State Building
- Taxies and Armies
- Italian States
- France England
- Spain
21The Renaissance, 14th-16th centuries
- rebirth of classical culture Italian artists
use perspective - Work with real human anatomy musculature
- Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
- Michelangelo (1475-1564)
- Architecture domed cathedrals Roman dome
Michelangelo Pieta, 15th Century Italian
22The Humanists
- Humanities literature, history, moral philosophy
- Renaissance humanists deeply devoted to
Christianity - Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) publishes critical
Greek-Latin edition of New Testament - Also devoted to rediscovering classical Latin
texts, often ignored in monastic libraries
23Humanist Moral Thought
- Rejection of monastic lifestyle in favor of
morally virtuous life while engaged in the world - Marriage, business
- Reconciliation of Christianity with rapidly
changing European society economy - Renaissance Europe the larger world
- Artists express interest in Byzantine, Asian
worlds
24Exploration Colonization
- 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, 1405-1433 - Placed trade under imperial control
- Demonstrated strength of Ming dynasty
- Successful, but aborted as Mongols presented new
threat in the north
25Chinese European voyages of exploration,
1405-1498
26European Exploration in the Atlantic 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
27Colonization of the Atlantic Islands
- Madeiras, 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
28Indian Ocean Trade
- Attempt to avoid using Muslim middlemen in trade
with east - 1488 Bartolomeu Dias sails around Cape of
Good Hope - 1497-1499 Vasco de Gama sails route to India
back - Portuguese gunships attempt to maintain trade
monopoly - Beginnings of European imperialism in Asia
29Reaching Out Cross-Cultural Interactions
- Crisis Recovery
- Recovery in China The Ming Dynasty
- Hongwu
- Ming Centralization
- Mandarins and Eunuchs
- Economic Recovery
- Cultural Revival
Ming Vase, 1368 - 1644
30Recovery in China The Ming Dynasty
- 1368 Yuan dynasty collapses, Mongols depart
- Ming Dynasty founded
- Emperor Hongwu, orphan raised by Buddhist
monks, - works through military ranks
- Proclaims new Ming (Brilliant) dynasty,
1368-1644
Emperor Hongwu
31Ming Centralization
- Reestablishment of Confucian educational system
- Execution of minister suspected of treason,
begins tradition of direct rule by Emperor - Reliance on emissaries called Mandarins
- Heavy reliance on eunuchs
- Sterile, could not build hereditary power base
- Centralized structure lasts through Qing dynasty
to 1911
32Reaching Out Cross-Cultural Interactions
- Exploration Colonization
- The Chinese Reconnaissance of the Indian Ocean
Basin - Zheng Hes Expeditions
- Chinese Naval Power
- End of the Voyages
Chinese Voyages of Trade Exploration, 1405-1498
33Reaching Out Cross-Cultural Interactions
- Zheng Hes Expeditions treasure ship (four
hundred feet) Columbuss Santa Marie
(eighty-five feet) Illustration by Jan Adkins,
1993
34Reaching Out Cross-Cultural Interactions
- European Exploration in the Atlantic Indian
Oceans
35Reaching Out Cross-Cultural Interactions
- Exploration Colonization
- European Exploration in the Atlantic Indian
Oceans - Portugese Exploration
- Colonization of the
- Atlantic Islands
- Slave Trade
- Indian Ocean Trade
- Christopher Columbus
36Christopher Columbus
- Search for western sea route to Indian Ocean
- Portuguese consider his proposal impractical,
reject it - Fernando Isabel of Spain underwrite voyage,
departs in 1492 - Makes landfall in San Salvador
- Believes he has reached islands off coast of Asia
- Consequences of discovery of Western Hemisphere
- Reconfiguration of global networks of power,
communication, exchange
37Key Words Terms (19)
- Ibn Battuta, 1304-1369 14th c. trading cities
Marco Polo, 1253-1324Mongol-Christian
diplomacyEnvoy Rabban Saumacrop citrus , rice,
sugarcanegunpowder technologiesThe Little Ice
AgeBubonic Plague, 14th c. Emperor Hongwu
Ming Dynasty The Yongle EmperorYongle
EncyclopediaWestern European state-building
- Unification of Spain, Fernando Isabel
Reconquista The Renaissance Leonardo da Vinci
The HumanistsMichelangelo Buonarotti
Desiderius Erasmus Zeng He's Ming
ExpeditionsPrince Henry the Navigator
Christopher Columbus, 1492 Vasco da Gama, 1498
38Unit III Summary
- The Indian sub-continent did not experience
centralized imperial rule, but participated fully
in the larger hemispheric zone of cross-cultural
communication exchange. - The early medieval era was a crucial period for
the development of western Europe Christianity
preserved elements of Roman society established
a foundation for cultural unity. - From 1000 to 1500C.E., nomadic peoples overran
settled societies established vast
transregional empires from China to eastern
Europe. - Increased maritime trade in the Indian Ocean
promoted intense cross-cultural communications. - Rapid political development in sub-Saharan Africa
western Europe was underwritten by demographic
growth, increased agricultural production
political development. - The 14th and 15th c. brought war, plague,
global climatic changes to the eastern
hemisphere. - Recovery, however, brought expansion laid the
foundations of a new era in world history, as
European voyages brought the worlds various
peoples into permanent and sustained
communication with one another. - The period from 1000 to 1500 C. E. set the stage
for the modern era of world history.