MOST OF HISTORY: THE FIRST HUMANS

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Berrien ISD High School World History Seminar
Series Day II Tuesday October 14th 2008 Session
I
Dr. Craig Benjamin History Department, Grand
Valley State University
2
Workshop Program Day Two

• 8.30 9.30 Session 1 - Eras 4 and 5 Global
  Overview
• 9.40-10.40 Session 2 The Mongols
  (interregional) Africa to 1500 (regional) Era
  4.2 and 4.3
• 10.50-12.00 Session 3 China to 1500, Parts A
  and B (Regional) Era 4.1 and 4.3
• 12.00-12.45 Lunch
• 12.45 1.45 Session 4 Eastern and Western
  Europe to 1500 (Regional) Era 4.1 and 4.3
• 2.00-3.00 Session 10 Era 5 The Emergence of
  the First Global Age, 15th to 18th Centuries
  (Keith Sandisons materials)

3
WHG Era 4 Expanding and Intensified Hemispheric
Interactions, 300-1500 C.E./A.D.

• 4.1 Global Expectations Crisis in the Classical
  World, World Religions, Trade Networks and
  Contacts
• 4.2 Interregional Expectations Growth of Islam
  and Dar al-Islam, Unification of Eurasia under
  the Mongols, The Plague
• 4.3 Regional Expectations Africa to 1500, The
  Americas to 1500, China to 1500, The Eastern
  European System and the Byzantine Empire to 1500,
  Western Europe to 1500

4
WHG Era 5 The Emergence of the First Global
Age, 15th to 18th Centuries

• 5.1 Global Expectations Emerging Global System
  and World Religions
• 5.2 Interregional Expectations European
  Exploration/Conquest and Columbian Exchange,
  Trans-African and Trans-Atlantic Slave Systems
• 5.3 Regional Expectations Ottoman Empire to
  1800 East Asia, South Asia/India, Russia,
  Europe, and Latin America through 18th Century

5
Transition to Modernity

• Bothe Eras 4 and 5 attempt to explain the long
  transition from the ancient world to modernity
• Era 4 begins with crisis in the classical world
  c. 300 CE - the collapse of traditional empires
  and their replacement by new political structures
  - then goes on to consider the emergence of
  extensive interregional trade networks
• Era 5 considers how this series of interregional
  networks becomes global, and the impact of
  European exploration and colonization on the
  planet
• So both eras are trying to explain the origins of
  the Modern Revolution, and that is our subject
  for this first presentation

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A Major Turning Point The Modern Revolution

• Since 1800 the world has been transformed!
• This transformation is as fundamental as
• The appearance of Agriculture
• The appearance of Civilizations
• It created the world we live in today
• We will call this transitionthe Modern
  Revolution
• We are still in the middle of it so we
• cannot see it so clearly
• We need a label that is deliberately vague!

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Some features of the Modern Revolution

• End of old, agrarian lifeways
• Rapid population growth longer lives
• Technological innovation increased productivity
• Transformed communications systems
• Increasing power of states
• Transformed lifeways, dominated by towns
• New ways of thought
• Acceleration in the pace of change

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Modern Revolution A European transition?

• The Modern Revolution is one of the most
  fundamental transitions in World History
• Traditional explanations suggest it began in
  Europe and spread to the rest of the world
• We need to see it as a global process, created by
  global changes, even if it first became apparent
  in W. Europe

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Focusing on Innovation

• How to explain the Modern Revolution?
• Focus on increasing rates of innovation
• Prime Movers? What factors can explain
  increasing rates of innovation?
• We will focus on
• COMMERCE Expansion of Commerce
• Which encouraged innovation
• CAPITALISM Emergence of more capitalistic
  societies
• Which also encouraged innovation
• GLOBALIZATION A single, global system of
  exchanges
• Which stimulated commerce capitalism

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Two levels of explanation

• Explaining change at the global level
• Accumulation Wealth, markets, populations,
  technologies had grown and spread over 4,000
  years
• Globalization Crossing the Atlantic in the 16th
  century created a single global system of
  exchanges
• Explaining change at the regional level
• European pre-adaptation European societies
  flourished in a more commercial/capitalist, world
• European centrality Europe, once a backwater,
  became the hub of a global system of exchanges

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Overview of Eras 4 and 5 The build up to the
modern revolution

• 300-1800 CE The world became
• More COMMERCIAL
• More CAPITALISTIC
• More GLOBAL
• These changes should have encouraged innovation
• In fact, in the eighteenth century the world
  remained in most ways very traditional
• The preconditions for modernity were there
• But the Modern Revolution had not yet taken off

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Two great Malthusian cycles

• Malthusian cycles The main rhythms of Agrarian
  Civilizations
• Populations rise because of innovations (e.g.
  improved forms of ploughs or irrigation)
• Population growth stimulates growth in commerce
  and urbanization and state power
• But population grows so fast that innovation
  cannot keep up
• There is overpopulation, war, conflict over
  resources, disease
• Leading to sudden, sometimes violent decline

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Malthusian cycles last 2,000 years 1)
Classical 2) Post-classical, 3) Early
Modern
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Pt. 1 The Post-classical Cyclec. 300 CE
1350 CE

• MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS
• Spread of Agrarian Civilizations
• to new areas
• Expansion of trade and commerce
• The increasing power of tributary empires
• Urbanization and commercial states
• The spread of new technologies
• Rapid Growth in Song China

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1) THE SPREAD OF AGRARIAN CIVILIZATIONS

• New regions of agrarian civilization appeared in
• S. China
• W. Africa
• Parts of S.E. Asia
• W. Europe
• E. Europe

Song Dynasty
Byzantine Art
www2.hawaii.edu/kjolly/ 151f03/1106byz.html
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The Spread of Agrarian Civilizations in
Afro-Eurasia
older regions of Agrarian Civilization
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2) EXPANSION OF TRADE AND COMMERCE Voyages of
the Vikings 800-1100 CE
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Travels of a Venetian traderMarco Polo 1271-95
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Marco Polo and his uncles set off for China, 1271
(Illustr. from 1375)
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As commerce spread, peasants had to become more
capitalistic
Rural markets encouraged rural dwellers to become
more capitalist. Many became wage-earners, or
sold produce at local markets.
A modern rural market in Lomé, the capital of Togo
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If they had little land, peasants had to seek
casual work
The Gleaners, François Millet, 1857
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Many rural dwellers began to work for merchants
from nearby towns
In these ways, peasants, were slowly turned into
wage-earners
Weaving rugs in Turkmenistan
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Impact of expanding commerce

• Increasing trade affected
• Rulers, by making them more interested in
  commerce and more supportive of merchants and
  entrepreneurs
• Merchants, by making them wealthy and more
  influential
• Peasants, by encouraging more and more of them to
  become wage-earners
• In these ways, the expansion of commerce made
  societies more capitalistic

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3) INCREASING SIZE OF TRADITIONAL TRIBUTARY
EMPIRES

• Large tributary empires had more resources than
  other states
• They used these to pay for armies the key to
  power in the pre-modern world
• There were powerful
• empires in China,
• India, Byzantium,
• Persia

The Byzantine Army, 11th C
mek.oszk.hu/01900/ 01955/html/index149.html
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Tributary Empires reached further than ever before
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4) SMALLER, MORE COMMERCIAL STATES
In Europe, Charlemagne tried to to re-create the
Roman Empire
He was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 800
CE. But he failed to create an enduring
tributary empire. Europe became a region of
small, independent states cities
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Cities and City-States
Cities multiplied in much of Afro-Eurasia, and
invested their wealth in monuments such as the
great cathedrals of Europe. Rheims Cathedral,
built between 1211 1300
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Independent city-states became important centers
of commerce and capitalism

• In areas such as W. Africa or Europe, where there
  were no large, tributary empires
• Small states depended largely on trade
• Society as a whole became more commercialized
• And early forms of capitalism thrived
• Some commercial cities, such as Venice, or Genoa
  become surprisingly powerful
• Occasionally, commercial city-states became
  powerful enough to challenge the great tributary
  empires

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A mosque in Timbuktu W. Africa
A trading post at the southern edge of the
Sahara desert, it became the capital of one of
the major states of W. Africa, the Mali empire.
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Timbuktus wealth was based on camel-borne trade
across the Sahara
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The wealth of many European city-states was based
on sea-borne trade
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Venice, a purely commercial power, dominated much
of the Mediterranean
The Doges palace, Venice (building started c.
1340)
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Remains of a Genoese colony at Sudak on the Black
Sea a terminus for trade along the Silk Roads
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5) NEW TECHNOLOGIES SPREAD THROUGH THE ISLAMIC
WORLD

• SouthernizationLynda Shaffer has argued that
• Many new crops, technologies and artistic ideas
  spread from India, in the South, to
• To China
• And to the Islamic world, from which they reached
  the Mediterranean world

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New technologies spread through the Islamic world
Muslim states controlled the hub of Afro-Eurasian
exchange networks
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6) NEARLY AN INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION IN SONG CHINA?
For long periods, China may have been the
wealthiest and most powerful empire in
Afroeurasia A civil service exam in Song era
China. China invented exams!
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China was one of the most successful of all
tributary empires

• From 221 BCE, China was often united under a
  single dynasty
• With
• huge sources of revenue, and
• weak opponents,
• Chinese states did not normally need to interest
  themselves in commerce

• The Great Wall handled most problems of defense

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In the Song era (960-1279), China was divided
between several states
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A Divided China

• The state was smaller, more like the small,
  commercial states of Europe
• Defense became more of a problem
• To defend itself, rulers had to find new sources
  of revenues
• The Song became more interested in commerce and
  in other forms of innovation
• During this period there was a burst of new
  innovations in China

Soldiers resting in front of Their barracks
Song China
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Innovation under the Song

• Paper money
• Printing (using woodblocks)
• New farming techniques and more productive
  strains of rice
• Huge increase in iron production (government
  arsenals produced 32,000 suits of armor a year)
• Gunpowder
• Silk reeling machines
• Improved communications and irrigation

Left A note of Song printed paper moneyRight
Printing plate and corresponding note
afe.easia.columbia.edu/ song/money.htm
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What if these innovations had spread

• Perhaps the Industrial Revolution could have
  started 800 years ago
• If so, it would have been led by China, not by
  Europe
• And we would probably be speaking Chinese

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Why did innovation not spread from China?

• After 1279, China was united again
• its governments had less need for revenues from
  commerce (eventually, they banned all foreign
  trade)
• Global communications
• were still slow,
• so Chinese inventions
• spread slowly
• The world was not yet united
• enough or commercial enough
• for an industrial revolution

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China under the Yuan, or Mongol Dynasty
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The end of the post-classical Malthusian cycle

• By early in the 1300s, there were signs of
  stagnation and overpopulation throughout
  Afro-Eurasia
• Then in 1345 the Black Death struck!

www.unf.edu/classes/ medieval/med-27.htm
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The Black Death spread through the Mongol Empire
along the Silk Roads 1347 CE
Mongol Empire
Areas of Agrarian Civilization
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Medieval military technology
The Mongols probably used a catapult like this to
fire diseased bodies into the Genoese Black Sea
colony of Caffa, from where ships carried the
Black Death to Genoa Europe
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Death seizes another victim of the Black Death
From a 14th century painting
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Pt. 2 The Early Modern Cycle c. 1350 CE
-1800 CE

• MAJOR DEVELOPMENTS
• Revolutionary changes
• European traders united all world-zones to create
  the largest network of exchanges that had ever
  existed
• Commerce and capitalism flourished in most of the
  world
• Europe found itself at the center of networks of
  exchange European commerce and science
  flourished
• But
• For the Americas, unification was a disaster
• Throughout the world, rates of innovation
  remained slow
• Most of the world remained very traditional in
  1800

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The Commercial Dynamism of European States

• Though smaller than the great tributary Empires
• W. European states needed commercial revenues and
  tended to support trade
• So, unlike the Ming dynasty in China, most
  supported trade expeditions to other regions
• With money
• And military force, where necessary
• These voyages led to the
• creation of the first global
• networks of exchange

www1.minn.net/ keithp/ships.htm
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Columbus 4 voyages 1492-1504
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The first voyage around the world Magellans
voyage 1519-22
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Exchange networks before Columbus
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Exchange networks after Columbus
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IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON POPULATIONS

• In Afro-Eurasia
• American crops allowed populations to grow
  throughout Afro-Eurasia, which stimulated
  commerce
• American foods new to Afro-Eurasia included
  maize, tomatoes, potatoes, manioc, tobacco,
  chocolate
• In the Americas
• Contact with Afro-Eurasian diseases led to
  catastrophic epidemics, in which 50-90 of the
  indigenous populations may have died
• Killers included smallpox, measles, mumps,
  whooping cough, influenza, chicken pox, and typhus

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IMPACT OF GLOBALIZATION ON COMMERCE

• The amount of commercial wealth increased in
  almost all regions
• So did the wealth and influence of merchants or
  capitalists
• In rural areas, more and more people began to
  earn wages

www.mcatmaster.com/ guilds/Merchants.htm
English Wine Merchants, 17th C
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THE POSITION OF EUROPE WAS TRANSFORMED!

• 2,000 years ago, Europe was at the edge of
  civilization
• 1,000 years ago, it was a region of new
  civilization, at the edge of Afro-Eurasian
  exchange networks
• After Columbus, it became the center of the
  largest system of exchanges that had ever existed

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Exchange networks before Columbus
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Exchange networks after Columbus
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The impact on European Thought

• Educated Europeans became aware of a whole range
  of new cultures and ways of thought
• These forced them to question former ways of
  thinking
• And ask new questions about the world
• How could knowledge be tested to prove it was
  true?
• Were there universal principles that were true of
  all parts of the world?
• These questions are the start of modern science

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Modern Science Galileo
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), argued that
knowledge can be tested by making careful use of
observation
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Science Sir Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727). Newton showed
that the laws of gravity applied to the solar
system as well as the earth. This meant that, in
principle, the entire Universe could be
understood using scientific principles discovered
on earth.
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The impact of globalization on European society

• European states, though newer and smaller than
  the great tributary empires
• Became very wealthy from commerce
• Because they fought continuously amongst
  themselves, they pioneered new military
  techniques based on gunpowder
• They became more powerful
• Commercially
• Militarily

www.xenophongi.org/.../ medievalarmor/partii.htm
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The World in 1800 How much had changed?

• The world seemed on the verge of the modern
  revolution!
• A single, global, network of exchanges of wealth
  and information
• The world was more capitalistic Commercial
  expansion
• had stimulated commerce and capitalism throughout
  the world
• had made Europe particularly capitalistic and
  powerful
• But much remained the same
• Agrarian Civilizations and Tributary empires
  still dominated
• Most people still lived as peasants
• Rates of innovation remained low

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Whats missing?

• All the ingredients for rapid innovation seem
  present
• Yet rates of innovation remain slow by modern
  standards
• What was needed to spark change?
• What changed after 1700?
• Stay tuned (particularly
• to Era 6)!