Random World History Notes
(Winter 2016)

Contents:

Tiny summaries of modern world history topics, comprising the first half of a semester course. Written in January 2016. Compiled while studying for first exam, intended to stave off later forgetfulness.

But then I decided it was stupid, and I just went ahead and studied like a regular person. I got an A, if you were wondering.

Abbreviations:

  • IG: Indigenous, Indigenous person
  • N.Am: North America
  • L.Am: Latin America
  • W.Af: West Africa
  • Direction.Continental-Abbreviation: You get the pattern.

Conquest in Americas

  • The Three "Gs"
    • Refers to the primary motivations in European overseas expansion. Why set out on expensive expeditions to dangerous lands at all? The answer was threefold: Gold, god, and glory.
    • Gold: The "quinto" gave a fifth of all American precious metals that were mined to the Spanish crown. Ironically California gold was found just after Spain lost California. Spain began to rely on this wealth extraction for their economic basis.
    • God: New lands offered millions of people who could (and should) be converted.
    • Glory: Personal glory? Adventure? Conquistadors were individuals who paid to outfit themselves with armor and a horse and set out to conquer. Or power for the mother-country glory?
  • Christopher Columbus (~1500)
    • Severly underestimated the size of the Earth.
    • Our benchmark figure for the exploration of the Americas, although he did kick this round off.
  • Cortez and the Conquest of Mexico (1519-1520)
    • A Spanish conqueror, considered responsible for defeating the Aztec.
    • Had a tiny army compared to the Aztec empire, so why did they win?
      • Aztec were a tributary empire and used to taking captives in war and winning concessions. The Spanish had a background closer to total war.
      • Spanish obviously had superior weapons and armor, as well as horses/dogs.
      • The Aztecs had made ample enemies in Mesoamerica, and these IG's were willing to fight alongside the Spanish (not considering that they would suffer later under the conquerors instead.)
      • Aztecs were ravaged by disease after Cortez' initial visit, and were severely weakened upon his return.
  • Pizarro and the Conquest of Peru
    • Very much like the conquest of the Aztecs: From 1530-1533 Pizarro campaigns with 600 men and exploits IG factional differences to eventually take Inca capital at Cuzco.
    • Why did they succeed so quicky?
      • Bitter subjects of the Inca empire didn't resist much or allied with the Spanish
      • Epidemic disease had taken heavy toll, arriving in 1520's before Pizarro ever showed up.
  • Diseases of the Columbian Exchange
    • Given to Americas: Smallpox, malaria, yellow fever, influenza
    • Taken from Americas: Syphilis
    • Deaths ranged from perhaps 30% up to 100% on some islands. (Higher die-offs would later have their populations replaced by African slaves!)
  • Food and Animals of the Columbian Exchange
    • Given to Americas: Wheat, horses (reintroduced, as they had died off ages before, and becoming integral to many N.Am plains cultures.) cattle ("cattle eat people" referred to the amount of land and effort required to raise cattle being too great for farmers to survive.)
    • Taken from Americas: Tomatoes, potatoes, maize, beans.
    • Herbs and medicine: Some priests in Mesoamerica record Aztec medical knowledge into the Badianus Herbal.
  • Potosi
    • Vast silver mining complexes in Americas (Potosi itself is in Bolivia)
    • Labor, of course, was IG or African
    • Processing made it even worse:
      • Crush the ore
      • Run it through a mercury solution in a sluice, resulting reaction separates out the silver
      • But mercury is bad? Silver mining was pretty much a death setence.
  • Virgin of Guadalupe (1531)
    • Juan Diego saw the Virgin! But she had brown skin, and appeared on a hill near Tenochtitlan at a site of Aztec significance. (Shrine to the mother of gods, Tonantzin.)
    • Example of syncretism, where an old religion is blended with a new one being adopted by or imposed on a people.
  • Social race and "life chances" in the Americas
    • Mixing of races was common in the Americas, but more acceptable in L.Am.
    • Refers to a racial category being determined by social factors rather than just the color of skin.
    • For example, the naive definition yields a mestizo from a pureblood Spanish man and an indigenous Indian woman.
      • However, this child could be a creole (Spanish born in America) if raised in the Spanish household.
      • On the other hand, the child could be a mestizo or even an Indian, all depending on which part of society they're raised in.
    • "Life chances" refers to the increased opportunities that come with the correct parentage, color of skin, language, religion, and environment of upbringing in general.
  • Encomienda and Repartimento: (not beyond 1700)
    • Encomienda refers to a land-grant given to a Spanish colonist.
      • Given in particular as rewards to conquistadors after the conquest is over.
      • Receive title of encomendero, alllowed to draft IG labor
    • Repartimento was another system of mobilizing labor:
      • Every village required to provide a certain number of laborers
    • Indigenous people couldn't really refuse to labor for the Spanish, as superior military force would crush them.
  • Peonage
    • An unescapable cycle of debt whereby people are legally attached to their boss/plantation.
    • Theoretically you could get out of debt, but you never will.
    • Less fair version of indentured servitude?
  • Plantation Slavery and Urban Slavery
    • Plantation Slavery:
      • Particularly in South America and the Caribbean, slaves were mostly on plantations. Plantation zone was from the southern part of North America, down to coastal Brazil.
      • Vast majority of slaves went to these areas. North America only got 500,000 out of 12 million slaves. (1/24th)
      • Caribbean islands saw huge die-offs, and needed to import more African slaves for labor than did Mexico or South America?
    • Urban Slavery:
      • Comprised cooks, maids, other servants
      • Some more skilled labor with more prestige, despite being a slave: blacksmiths, cattle rancher, mule team runner
  • Sugar Plantations
    • Ridiculously brutal, between tropical diseases, getting cut while chopping cane, getting beat and neglected by your owners.
    • But sugar was by now considered an expensive necessity in many parts of the world.
    • Saw incredible death rates where a decent portion (like 10%?) of each plantation would turn over (die) annually.
    • Was the primary cash crop driving the Atlantic slave trade.
  • Maroon Communities
    • Communities of slaves that had escaped and were living in the relatively indigenous interior, away from coastal zones.
    • Particularly in Brazil?
  • Haitian Revolution (~1800)
    • One side of the island of Hispaniola was Spanish, the other French. The extrordinarily rich French side saw the only fully successful slave rebellion in history.
    • Led by Toussaint L'Ouverture
    • Declared republic

China

  • Yellow and Yangtze rivers
    • Yellow is the ancient homeland of the Chinese
    • These two rivers define the homeland of the Han Chinese
      • Peripheral areas: Manchuria (NE,) Mongolia (N/NW,) Tibetan Plateu (W,) Xinjiang (NW, where China merges into central Asia; Muslim minority)
  • Manchu rule and dyarchy: (1644-1912)
    • Qing dynasty! Manchus from Manchuria invade the Ming dynasty (who took over after the Mongols), which had become corrupt and wasteful. (And had lost the "Mandate of Heaven")
    • Although they're not Han Chinese, they don't undo the traditions and rule in a Chinese way. Plus they oversee a time of prosperity, and these things win them some support.
    • Saw height of dynasty in roughly its first 100 years.
  • Confucianism
    • Confucius lived in 5th century BCE
    • Provides blueprint for society from family up to government
    • Filial piety: Family duty and loyalty. (Also loyalty to superiors in the same vein.)
    • 5 basic relationships: Ruler/subject, husband/wife, father/son, sibling/sibling, friend/friend (the only one that is ‘equal')
    • Most Asia accepted Confucianist concepts, and persists in many ways.
    • Civil Service Exams: Created a merit-based bureaucracy (have to succeed on exams to be a bureaucrat) and improved government efficiency. (All administrators across greater China are trained in the same ways.)
    • Slow to change and conservative.
  • Quianlong Emperor (mid 1700's)
    • Grandson of Kangxi, emperor mid 1600's, who expanded into the West and the South.
    • Added Vietnam, Burma, Nepal and Xinjiang to empire
    • Ruler during height of Qing dynasty and oversaw a wealthy and well organized land.
  • Canton System: Refers to the way China tried to control trade with the West, forcing it all through the port of Canton (Guangzhou in South China.)

Japan

  • Four main Japanese Islands
    • Hokkaido (the northern one)
    • Honshu (the big one)
    • Shikoku (that other one)
    • Kyushu (the southern one)
  • Tokugawa Policy of Isolation
    • Tokugawa dynasty (1600-1867) wanted to maintain stability by minimizing relations between Japan and the outside world. Even if Europeans didn't conquer Japan outright, they might ally with and influence the daimyo (artistocracy)
    • Early 1600's: Japanese forbidden to go abroad on punishment of death; Prohibited foreign merchants from trading; Forbade import of foreign books; Controlled construction of large ships; Carefully controlled trade through Nagasaki.
    • Japan was never totally isolated, however, and gradually opened back up.
  • Japanese Social Hierarchy
    • Traditionally, the Shogun held the real power while the Emperor was the "divine head of state" and theoretical leader.
    • Then there were Daimyo, aristocratic landowners
    • Samurai, the only people allowed weapons, fought loyally for a Daimyo
      • Were a nonproductive, extractive class living off of peasant food in exchange for military services
    • Then followed the artisan and peasant
    • Merchants occupied a lower class, and were looked down upon
    • And finally the Eta, or untouchable, lived segregated lives and did the least desirable tasks.
  • Centralized Feudalism (Tokugawa Japan)
    • This was a feudalist system, where power was distributed among a number of local bosses. So how did the Shogun centralize it?
    • Daimyo had to attend court in an "alternate attendance" system, and so every other year had to live in Edo at the Tokugawa court.
      • Further, their families had to live at Edo always as a sort of permanent ransom.
      • The Shogun could keep an eye on Daimyo and keep them busy and ‘out of trouble'. Plus, they were spending all their money.
      • In exchange, the Daimyo live comfortably at court.
  • Dutch Studies
    • After 1630's, Dutch merchants trading in Nagasaki became Japan's principle source of outside information.
    • Some Japanese learned Dutch to communicate with these merchants, and their studies were known as "Dutch learning."
    • In 1720, Tokugawa lift the ban on foreign books

Islamic Empires & India

  • Shi'ite rule in Safavid Empire
  • Suleiman the Magnificent
  • Devshirme and the Janissaries
  • Religious Tolerance in the Ottoman Empire
  • Akbar the Great, style of rule
  • Shah Jahan and the Taj Mahal
  • Aurangzeb
  • British East India Company
  • The Sepoys

Europe

  • European Social hierarchy
  • Royal absolutism
  • Louis XIV, grandeur, Versailles
  • Peter the Great's westernization of Russia
  • English constitutional monarchy

Revolutionary Thinking

  • Scientific Revolution
  • Copernicus
  • Galileo
  • Newton
  • Immanuel Kant
  • Jean Jacques Rousseau
  • Voltaire
  • Enlightened Absolutism
  • American Revolution and Enlightenment

French Revolution

  • Tennis Court Oath
  • Robespierre and the reign of terror
  • Napoleon's reforms
  • Resistance to Napoleon and nationalism
  • 100 days and defeat of Napoleon

More Revolutionary Thinking

  • Conservatism
  • Liberalism
  • Adam Smith & The Wealth of Nations
  • Nationalism
  • Romanticism

Industrial Revolution

  • The Industrial Revolution and changes in daily life
  • Karl Marx, Marxism
  • Labor theory of value
  • Emigration, Pull Factors, Push Factors
  • Failed revolutions of 1848 in Europe
  • Irish famine

Imperialism in India

  • The "civilizing mission" and Social Darwinism
  • Social Darwinism
  • British East India Company
  • Sepoy Uprising
  • Indian National Congress

Imperialism in China

  • Opium Wars
  • Lin Zexu
  • Provisions of the Unequal Treaties
  • Taiping Rebellion
  • Self-Strengthening Movement
  • Boxer Rebellion

Imperialism in Japan

  • Commodore Perry
  • Meiji Restoration
  • Industrializatin in Meiji Japan
  • Meiji Constitution and Ito Hirobumi
  • Sino-Japanese War
  • 1904/05 Russo-Japanese War

Imperialism in Africa

  • Scramble for Africa
  • Leopold II of Belgium
  • British Rule in Kenya
  • French Rule in Senegal
  • Monoculture in Colonial Africa

Essay Question

Describe life in Igboland before the arrival of the Europeans in terms of family relations, material culture, and political organization. What kind of man was Okonkwo? How did life change in Igboland with the arrival of the British? What happened to Okonkwo? Was it possible for someone like Okonkwo to survive such change?