The European World, 1500-1720 Week 2: Europe and the Wider World

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The European World, 1500-1720Week 2 Europe and
the Wider World

• Giorgio Riello
• g.riello_at_warwick.ac.uk

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Lecture Outline 1. Introduction 2. The bigger
picture in 1500 3. The bigger picture in
1750 4a. Explanations The old school 4b.
Explanations Some new interpretations
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• Introduction Europe, the World
• (and Those of say No)

What is positive about this lecture is that A.
It is pain-free B. it should help you at
understanding the wider context of this course
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• Introduction Europe, the World
• (and Those of say No)

Why should we care about the Extra European?
1. A need for a scale/unit of measure
2. Avoid Eurocentrism
3. Avoid the narrative of European Modernity
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2. The Bigger Picture in 1500

• Europe
• - A Christian society
• - An Agrarian society
• - A society under threat the possible invasion
  by Turkish Muslims
• - Lack of tolerance the expulsion of Jews from
  Spain and Portugal
• - Voyages of discovery (Columbus in 1492, Vasco
  da Gama in 1498)

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2. The Bigger Picture in 1500

• China
• - An agrarian society
• A bureaucratic empire (Ming 1366-1644) role of
  examination (meritocracy)
• - Voyages of discovery (Zheng He between
  1405-1435)
• - Technical know-how navigation, shipbuilding,
  cartography superior to Muslim and Christian
  worlds

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2. The Bigger Picture in 1500

• Islamic Empires
• - they comprised people of many races and
  cultures, and covered three continents
• - A civilization in expansion since the 7th
  century
• - A civilization with three strong empires
• - 1500s Safavids established control over
  Persia
• - Mughals conquered most of India.
• - Ottomans controlled most of western Islamic
  world
• - Late-medieval Islamic world vastly superior to
  Christian world

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The Islamic World in c. 1500
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2. The Bigger Picture in 1500

• Islamic Empires
• - they comprised people of many races and
  cultures, and covered three continents
• - A civilization in expansion since the 7th
  century
• - A civilization with three strong empires
• - 1500s Safavids established control over
  Persia
• - Mughals conquered most of India.
• - Ottomans controlled most of western Islamic
  world
• - Late-medieval Islamic world vastly superior to
  Christian world

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The oldest map of America Piri Reis
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2. The Bigger Picture in 1500

• Conclusions
• polycentric and large parts of Eurasia comparable
• China and India had technological advantage
• Extensive interaction and linkages formed by
  trade
• - Potential for development throughout the world

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3. The Bigger Picture in 1750

• Islamic Empires
• - Problems of the nature of the state
• - Military factors
• - Social factors
• - Cultural factors

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3. The Bigger Picture in 1750

• China
• - 1644 Manchu invasion Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
• - Territorial expansion, especially under
  Qianlong emperor (c. 1740-70)
• - Influx of silver export of commodities
  (porcelain, luxury objects, etc.)
• - But no more overseas expansion

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3. The Bigger Picture in 1750

• China
• - 1644 Manchu invasion Qing dynasty (1644-1911)
• - Territorial expansion, especially under
  Qianlong emperor (c. 1740-70)
• - Influx of silver export of commodities
  (porcelain, luxury objects, etc.)
• - But no more overseas expansion

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3. The Bigger Picture in 1750

• India
• Weakness of the Mughal empire the challenge of
  rival internal powers
• - European (British) penetration the East India
  Company

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3. The Bigger Picture in 1750

• Europe
• - The nation states the fiscal-military State
• - The role of trade to Asia and in the Atlantic
• - Still agrarian society

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3. The Bigger Picture in 1750

• Conclusions
• - A world that more connected but still
  polycentric
• - Ongoing contact between places that hadnt been
  linked before
• - Europe and Asia largely comparable
• - Differences dont really occur until after 1750
  or 1800

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4A. Explanations The Old School

• Key explanations
• 1500-1700 as the era in which Western Europe
  brought the world under its influence
• See the discoveries as the beginning of bringing
  the world into the orbit of European civilisation
• - Discoveries is what subjected the world to the
  rule and influence of European power

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4A. Explanations The Old School

• Factors supporting this explanation
• fifteenth century developments as a phase in a
  continuum of medieval developments (J.R.S.
  Phillips The Medieval Expansion of Europe, 2nd
  ed., 1998)
• Religious factors
• - Commercial factors

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4B. Explanations Some New Interpretations

• World as a whole as the unit of analysis global
  history
• 2. Underline global developments that were part
  of the lead-up to the Industrial Revolution
• 3. See the early-modern world as a contested
  sphere, stressing action, reaction, and
  interaction (Robert Marks, The Origins of the
  Modern World (2002)

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4B. Explanations Some New Interpretations

• 4. Alfred Crosby
• - Germs, Seeds, and Animals Studies in
  Ecological History (1994)
• - The Columbian Exchange Biological and Cultural
  Consequences of 1492 (1972)
• - Ecological Imperialism The Biological
  Expansion of Europe (1986)

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Pineapples, potatoes and other plants unknown in
Europe before 1500
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Smallpox victims in the Aztec Empire
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4B. Explanations Some New Interpretations

• 5. Stress the accidents, conjunctures and
  contingencies in the story
• Andre Gunder Frank, ReOrient Global Economy in
  the Asian Age (1998)
• Dominance of Asia
• Temporary shift to Europe
• Kenneth Pomeranz, The Great Divergence China,
  Europe, and the Making of the Modern World
  Economy (2000)
• Accident Coal
• Conjuncture Silver
• Conjuncture Colonies