Chapter 14

Chapter 14 Empires and Encounters

In China, Russia, and the United States alike, the legacy of early modern empire building continued to provoke both debate and action as a new millennium dawned. Between 1450 and 1750 is when Europeans and Africans came into contact with one another for the first time in world history. Russians constructed what was then the worlds largest territorial empire, making Russia and Asia as well as Europe. Thus the early modern era was an age of empire.

            Western Europe was distinctive because they were initiated by maritime expansion and because the conquered territories lay an ocean away from imperial heartland, rather than adjacent to it. The Spanish focused their empire building efforts in the Caribbean and then in the early sixteenth century turned to mainland, with stunning conquest of the powerful Aztec and Inca empires.

            The societies that developed within the American colonies drove the process of globalization and reshaped the world economy of the early modern era. The silver mines of Mexico and Peru fueled both transatlantic and transpacific commerce, which encouraged Spain’s unsuccessful effort to dominate Europe, and enable Europeans to buy the Chinese tea, silk, and porcelain that they valued so highly. The plantation owners of the tropical lowland regions needed workers and found them by the millions in Africa.

Chapter 8 Commerce and Culture

Commerce and Culture

            Eurasia also gave rise to one of the worlds most extensive and sustained networks of exchange among its diverse people. Known to scholars as the Silk Roads, a reference to its most famous product, these land based trade routs linked pastoral and agricultural people as well as the large civilization on the continents outer rim.

            Outer Eurasia consists of relatively warm, well-watered areas, very sustainable for agriculture. This provided a great place for civilizations like China, India, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean. Silk Road trading networks prospered most when large and powerful states provided security for merchants and travelers.

            Later on as the supply of silk increased, its many varieties circulated even more extensively across Eurasia trade routes. The demand for silk increased greatly as it became a symbol of high status. It also increased the demand when silk became associated with the sacredness of expanding religions like Buddhism and Christianity.

           The Silk Roads linked Eurasia societies by land, while Sea Roads or sea based trade routes likewise connected distant people all across the eastern Hemisphere. Like the Silk Roads, oceanic trade grew out of a lot of environmental and cultural diversities of the region. The transportation cost was lower as well on the Sea Roads, this is because boats could bring larger quantities at a time than a camel.  A major turning point in African life occurred when the camel was introduced to North Africa. 

Rome: From City-State to Empire

Rome

            Rome became an enormous imperial state that encompassed the Mediterranean basin and included parts of continental Europe, Britain, North Africa and the Middle East. Although Rome’s central locations in the Mediterranean basin provided a convenient launching pad for the empire. It was the army that built the empire solely because they were well trained, well fed, and well rewarded.

            The problem was how big can the empire gets with maintaining all control of those areas. That was a problem for Rome, How does one ruler control Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. This did not stop Rome from continuing to expand.

            Rome was originally ruled by a king, Roman aristocrats around 509 B.C.E. threw off the monarchy and established a republic in which the wealthy class dominated. With this political system and these values, the Romans launched their empire building enterprise. This process took about 500 years. 

Eurasian Empires

Eurasian Empires

            An empire is basically a state, within I larger civilization. The term usually refers to more aggressive and powerful states that conquer and take over to gain more area and respect. This is direct correlation to the movie troy or Sparta because they are an empire that defends and attacks other countries.

            The classical era in Eurasia was when the second large wave of civilizations erupted. Each one started out by establishing cultural values, political systems and ways of organizing the society.

            The Persians constructed an imperial system that drew upon previous examples, such as Babylonian empires. They also centered on an elaborate cult of kingship in which the monarch could only be approached through an elaborate ritual.

            The immense wealth and power of the Persian Empire were reflected in the construction of elaborate imperial centers, particularly Susa and Persepolis.

            The Greeks were very expansive people. The Greeks expansion took the form of settlement in distant places rather than conquest and empire. The most distinctive feature of the Greeks civilizations, were in the extent of popular participation in political life that occurs within the city-states. 

First Civilization

First Civilization

Civilization was a huge phenomenon around the world. I think this is because everyone was used to traveling with the land, following the animals and seasons. This showed up in six different major locations around the world.

Norte Chico was one of the first and it was very distinctive because its cities were smaller that those in Mesopotamia, and show less evidence of economic specialization. It also showed lack of defensive walls, this was very odd because archeologist have discovered no evidence of warfare.

Not all agricultural societies or chiefdoms developed into civilizations. This is a huge question with scholars because if they didn’t become a civilization then what were they?

Some cavitations focused on many different things such as some would focus on creating huge irrigation projects to develop and expand societies.

Warfare and trade also aloud these civilizations to be created. Trade would give the other societies the products and necessities to others that had no access to them for the same in return. This was very helpful to all civilizations.

First People

First People

With in the Centuries, us humans have successfully adapted to all environments without benefit of farming or animal husbandry. Instead early ancestors used a technique commonly know as gathering and hunting. Were the society would go gather berry fruits and what every they could find, along with hunting animals for food as well.

For the first 150,000 years or possibly more of human experience was within African stories. Africa was the sole place that humans originated an the human revolution took place.Human Migration out of Africa led first to the middle east and from there it went westward into Europe about 40,000 years ago., and eastward to Asia.

Australia was populated with about 300,000 people in 1788 when the first Europeans arrived there. When arrived these people have already developed over 250 languages. This is astonishing knowing they had no idea of any outside world from Australia. This was very similar to Spain when Columbus came over because they had idea of another landmass such as North America.