Chapter 14, 15 ,16 - The Big Picture

The Early Modern Era   1450-1750
 

It's refreshing to see that Strayer, in his book, continues to recognize the Euro-centric way of looking at history, and he deliberately reminds us that other civilizations and Empires were developing concurrently with Europe. This group of chapters attempts to highlight the Islamic and Chinese societies as well.

As the European Empire was exploring the Atlantic trade route in the Americas, heading towards modernity and the scientific and industrial revolutions, the Empires of Russia, China, Mughal and Ottoman Empires were continuing older patterns of development.
The global trade in silver, even more than spices had, contributed to new and improved shipping lanes by which the world populations continued to interact, and exchange goods, services and ideas. Later the trade in furs, textiles and spices joined with silver as major commodities in demand.

Another popular commodity that linked the world in global trade was the Atlantic Slave trade. Between 1550-1850 some 11 million people from African society were forcibly shipped across the Atlantic. The profits were substantial and enriched both Euro-American and European societies. Sadly, a form of racism began to be associated with black slaves and Africa. Muslims for centuries used sub-Saharan Africa as a source for slaves, and as a Tunisian scholar, Ibn Khaldun, wrote,  black people were "submissive to slavery , because Negroes have little that is essentially human and have attributes that are quite similar to those of dumb animals".

  In Europe, slavery and racism went together. British traders justified there brutal treatment of Africans because they did not view them as men, but as brutes and inferior to whites, thus relieving themselves of guilt for their unimaginable treatment of Africans.

More than anything the global interactions of empires, with regard to slave trading, solidified the trade routes from The Americas, Africa , Europe and the Middle-east.

In addition to trade in material goods along these global sea routes, we see the globalization of Christianity, which up till now was limited to Europe. By 1500 Christianity had spread from Spain and England to Russia , Egypt, Ethiopia, southern India and central Asia. There were Catholics in western Europe and Orthodox Christians in Russia.

Catholic Portuguese and Spanish explorers viewed their outward expansion as a continuing of the Crusades. For example, when Vasco da Gama landed in India in 1498, he came, "in search of spice and Christians", and when Columbus arrived in the Americas, he was hoping to export to Spain, gold, cotton, and aloe wood. He also hoped the indigenous people "might become Christians". 

Colonization and Religious imperialism went hand and hand in the early modern era.

Unlike Chinggess Khan and the Mongols, there was no religious tolerance when European Christian explorers were conquering the Aztec and Inca empires. Convert or die. Period. Much like Charlemagne, in Medieval Europe, as he swept through territories with a sword in one hand, and a Bible in the other, converting the population from their heathen ways.

Christianity was unable to achieve the same success in Asia and China, in large part because they were not a conquered people as the Native Americans or the indigenous people of the Americas.

There was more political stability in China under the Ming Dynasty between 1368-1644, and the Qing Dynasty between 1644-1912, which prevented Christianity from taking root, thus inhibiting wholesale conversion. The societies of Asia where content with their affiliation with Buddhism and Daoism, Confucianism and Hinduism, which was flourishing on their own continent.

Also, East Asian and Afro-Asian societies were steadily growing with the expansion of Islam.
Islam-ization spread slowly as a result of Holy men, scholars and travelers who spread the word of Allah. Unlike the spread of Christianity, which was a product of conquering armies.

Changing and blending of traditions continued in India with a form of Hinduism known as "bhakti".  There was also another blend of Islam and Hinduism, known as "Sikhism",  which further eroded the caste system, and was popular among peasants and commoners.

While Religion was rooting itself in societies around the world in the early modern era, Europe was preparing for a Scientific Revolution between 1650 and 1850.

No longer would man just seek answers to probing questions about the "world" by reading scriptures from Religious scholars or, the theories of  Philosophers. The careful observation of events and systems, controlled experiments, and the formulation of general laws became the new ideology.

Some of these revolutionaries were Copernicus from Poland, Galileo from Italy, Descartes from France, and Issac Newton from England.

Obviously this was heretical to the church and fostered revolutionary thought in some societies. It also, unfortunately, reinforced racial and gender inequality as science was used to rationalize western accomplishments.

The industrial revolution was a result of the new technologies that spawned  from scientific innovations. Science became the symbol of Modernity.

An important feature of science in society was the creation of
"zones of intellectual autonomy". These zones were Universities located in Paris, Oxford, Cambridge and Salamanca, which were free from the critical eyes of Church and State.

When Copernicus published his book, "On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Bodies", organized religion reacted in opposition. Church dogma taught that the earth was the center of the universe, and not the sun, as Copernicus theorized.

In Medicine too, the human body's mysteries were being uncovered and  demystified as the human body was dissected in autopsies of cadavers. This led to a better understanding of the skeleton and circulatory systems.

With the improvement in printing and book making , knowledge could be shared by more and more thinkers and scholars in the 18th century. This period is known as the "enlightenment" and  became the mantra of progress. The human condition could be improved by science and intellect, and not, just by tradition or Divine intervention.

Man's modality for living also came under scrutiny as the biologist, Charles Darwin's books, The Desent of Man, and The Origen of Species (1859 & 1871) began circulating around the globe, causing a revolution in thought about how man evolved. 

In the field of political-economy, writers like Karl Marx, who lived from 1818-1883, espoused a view of world history as one of change and struggle. He observed that change came as a result of clashes, between slave  and slave owner, between nobles and peasants, between capitalists and workers. He theorized that this struggle was the engine that led to the transformation of society, and the evolution of human civilization.

All civilizations and societies, including, China, Japan, Islam and Africa, continued to borrow each others cultures, as trade routes provided the vehicle for the exchange of ideas, culture, religion, and technology which thrust the globe headlong towards "Modernity".