CH 12 15TH CENT

CHAPTER 12:

THE WORLDS OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY

The Shapes of Human Communities

• In 1500, balance between all types of societies was different from what it had been in 500.
• Australia and North America
• still had gather and hunter societies
• interacted with neighbors 
• both developed very differently 
• agriculture/farming
• The Igbo and the Iroquois
• Igbo 
• dense population and trade
• purposely rejected kingship and state building
• relied on title societies, woman’s associations, and hereditary ritual experts to create a stateless society
• Iroquois 
• speakers had become fully agricultural 
• maize and beans
• around 1300
• warfare triggered the creation of the Iroquois confederation
• Central Asia and West Africa
•  Turkic warrior Timur (Tamerlane) tried to restore the Mongol Empire ca. 1400
• Timur’s conquest was the last great military success of Central Asian nomads
• African pastoralists remained independent from established empires for several centuries longer 

Civilizations of the Fifteenth Century: Comparing China and Europe

• by 15th century most of world lived in major civilization
• Ming Dynasty China
• Europe
• State Building
• Cultural renewal
• population started to rise
• Maritime Voyaging
• Portuguese voyages of discovery began in 1415 
• 1492: Columbus reached the Americas 
• 1497–1498: Vasco da Gama sailed around Africa to India

Webs of Connection

• Large-scale political systems 
• brought culturally different people together
• Religion divided and united
• Christendom
• divided into Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy
• Buddhism linked people
• China
• Korea
• Tibet
• Japan
• parts of Southeast Asia
• Islam good at bringing its people together
• Patterns of trade evident

What to Come

• Modern human society emerged first in Europe in the nineteenth century and then throughout the world
• prominence of Europe grew on global stage over last 500 years

(MY THOUGHTS...) I found this chapter to be very interesting. It was cool to see everything we have been reading coming together to lead us into the modern era. Strayer did a really great job bringing all his ideas and concepts of the pre-Modern Era together for this chapter. All major civilizations come together and form the world as we know it today.