Technological transitions

The history of the early modern world is usually treated as the story of how technology drove the rise of
the West.

- Professionalization of technical expertise

- Steady improvement in investigation and research

Climax: Industrial revolution and the birth of a modern world

Instead, there were technological innovations around the globe, that traveled far and reached different
regions.

The most well documented source of these exchanges is given by warfare manuals, followed by building,
food, clothing and ceramic technology.

The strategy to use is to follow a “global commodity” as porcelain, raw cotton, muskets…

Silver provides the link between the regions of the world.

It begins with the great silver mine of Potosi in Peru. Then China, that absorbed silver in exchange for the
textile industry, and it concludes with the import-substitution strategies of European states to absorb
foreign technologies

Technological cultures of silver-mining in the Andes

1545, Spanish discovery of a mountain of silver in the Viceroyalty of Peru

- Big town, that rivaled Paris in size and wealth

- Social and symbolic impact of technological change under Spanish rule
o Transformation of the material and social landscape, but survival of some technological
traditions

Initially, extraction of silver relied on the expertise of local Indians as encomienda laborers

- In Potosi, indigenous ovens to smelt ores

After a while, discovery of the mercury amalgamation technique.

- In Mexico, mules provided muscular energy

- In Potosi, hydraulic system and coerced labor
o Mercury work lethal after only a few weeks or months

No improvement between 1580 and 1750.

- After the collapse of prices in China in 1630s, scarce capital

Before the Spaniards, the Incas extracted silver already, but even the choice of the mines was a highly
symbolic process.

- Pan-Andean religious beliefs as vehicles of political assimilation

- Silver was valued because of its white color

For the Spaniards, value consisted in purity and weight. Catholic rites substituted indigenous religious
beliefs and forbid them.

Spanish rulers did not spend the wealth generated by their revenues in investments but instead used them
in “technologies of the court”, building luxurious buildings and church both in the Americas and in Spain.
 China’s ‘Cotton revolution’: work, gender and cosmic order

In China, silver wealth brought substantial long-term gains

- Imported silver fueled technical improvements, economic growth and a rise in consumption,
especially in the cotton industry

Before, every household had to pay taxes in cloth and all women wove. The Mongol rulers introduced
cotton from Central Asia.

- Cotton Bureaus taught people how to grow and process the new crop.

Cotton was light and fine, softer than hemp and cheaper than silk. It grew almost everywhere.

- It could be transformed in textile only in the South.

o By setting relative prices in their favor, cotton merchants became extremely wealthy
o By 1580, all taxes in kind were abolished

The advent of cotton triggered dramatic growth and also technical and social changes

- Hemp and silk lost market

- Marginalization of women’s status as the primary producers of silk textiles
o Specialist households, commercial or state workshop

Specialization and economic interdependence also brought risk and vulnerability

- More skilled workers than day-jobs by the late Ming

Fear of tradition of Confucian ideal: farming and weaving as the most honorable occupations after ruling.

Masculinization of the textile industry

- The teaching of these techniques were a way to civilize new populations

o No big effect, still the majority of the places were of men, when it became a profitable
activity

Porcelain and calico prints: Asian technologies remade in Europe

Most Chinese cottons were consumed within China and thus were not seen by Europeans as a drain on
their national wealth.

Instead porcelains and calico prints became popular among the ruling European elites and they tried to
copy, adapt or reinvent Asian luxury in Europe.

The alchemy of ‘white gold’

Chinese began producing high-temperature ceramics in the Neolithic period.

- They arrived in Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries as gifts from Asian or Islamic rulers
o Market of thousands of pieces of porcelain every year

Modular production system: division of the production into multiple components and processes

- Centralized management, design, coordination and standardization of components

- Continuous new designs and technical improvements
By the early 19th century, European factories were producing on an industrial scale a range of porcelain-
style wares. No disparagement of Chinese achievements in porcelain production.

Coping with the ‘calico craze’

Indian printed textiles offered a striking contrast

- Superiority to European techniques.

With the rise of the East India Companies in the 1600s, Indian calico-prints made their way to Europe

- No success in imitation
o Europeans still too ignorant of many key principles involved.
o Lack of main mordant in Indian process

The knowledge filtered in via the Middle East

- Armenians taught them in various European cities

1760s, new European cotton-printing technology (indigo blue).

- Process unknown in Asia

- By 1730s, the informal nature of the common knowledge base was changing, as professional
chemists, technicians and color-makers build up a scientific domain of analysis.

Beyond ‘ European exceptionalism’

Spread of belief that social progress is furthered by applying scientific understanding to the process of
production.

Many industrial innovations were initially designed to improve quality rather than increase output.

World history of technology challenged traditional views on the European exceptionalism because it also
considers the different priorities and values given by non-European societies.
 Patterns of urbanization
Growth of cities

Rise in proportion of the population that lived in cities

- Reorganization of cities
- Spread of urban attitudes and values

Which forces drove this process?

Commonalities among the 1400-1800 period:

- Europe: recovery after great plague

- China and East Europe: recovery from the Mongolian incursions

1800: rise of new major cities as New York, Shanghai, Calcutta

Urbanization in 1400-1800 modest, if compared to 19th and 20th century. But still conspicuous

- Beijing, London, Edo (Tokyo) over one million inhabitants. Biggest cities in different moment
- 9 cities between 500 000 and 1 million: Nanjing, Guangzhou, Cairo, Isfahan, Istanbul, Agra, Delhi,
Lahore, Paris

Urban growth was rapid. Sometimes created networks of cities that rise or decline together.

- Each city was connected to the rural area

o Dependence of food and human supplies

The Japanese model

Japan was isolated from the rest of the world.

- Domestic stimulation
- Foreign trade controlled

From 1450 to 1600, warring states period. Warlords created some “castle towns”.

Preconditions: unity and peace. From 1650-1700

- Population explosion
- Agricultural revolution

3 particularly large cities

- Kyoto
o Ex-capital of Japan, 350 000 inhabitants, stable
- Osaka
o Major port and commercial center
 1600, 400 000 inhabitants
o New migrants encouraged relatives and neighbors to come stay in the cities
- Edo
o Village until 1400-1590,
o 1600, Tokugawa decided it to be the capital and built the imperial palace, 350 000
Division of functions between the three cities

- Cultural center, Kyoto

- Economic center, Osaka
o Ship-building, copper refining,
o Development of the rural areas close by
- Political center, Edo
o Center of consumption, both by nobles and courtesans and by the new merchant class
o Commercialization of leisure

Osaka and Edo, urbanization of language and culture.

Early modern Japan was becoming a commercial society, offering high rewards to entrepreneurs.

The Chinese model

China was less isolated, several urban system.

Song dynasty (960-1276) urban revolution

- Kaifeng (capital) about 1 million people

- Hangzhou, 1.2 million. Biggest city of the world

Yangzi and Yellow river provided the water needed to grow and transport the food to the big urban
centers.

The Mongol invasion stopped these development. Cut of the population in half, to return slowly around 80
millions in 1400.

Ming dynasty, doubled the population to 160 millions in 1600 and Qing, 350 million by 1800

- Introduction of maize and sweet potato

The government encouraged the growth of some cities

- 1368, Nanjing capital and administrative center of China

o Students, soldiers, civil servants
 Half a million
- 1421, Beijing capital
o Soldiers, officials and students
o Merchants, shopkeepers and artisans
 Ironwork to printing
o It remained the capital also in the Qing period.
 1600, 700 000 inhabitants
 1800, 1.1 millions
- Hangzhou remained important as a commercial city, especially for tea trade.
o Sort of Osaka
- Suzhou, Yangzhou, Guangzhou: other commercial cities and ports

Even minor Chinese cities were large by European standards

We don’t know much about immigration but sometimes was compulsory, especially when the capital was
moved for political reasons.

Some cities were multi-ethnic, with Muslims and Christian

- Commercialization of leisure

The European model

European urbanization resembles the Chinese one

- Several urban systems

- Decline in dimensions due to the bubonic plagues

In 1500 only 4 European cities over 100 000, Paris, Venice, Naples and Milan

1600, Lisbon, Seville, London, Rome and Moscow. In 1700 even more.

- Revolution in farming that made agriculture more productive

European cities were centers of conspicuous consumption by an elite that was increasingly drawn to the
court.

Other cities (Seville, Amsterdam), commercial centers.

Industry was less important that trade as an engine of urban growth.

- Printing

Migration:

- Greeks and Slavs in Venice

- Paris, young and male

It was both the rural push and the urban pull

- Freedom from serfdom, parental control, religion.

- Promised land of social mobility
 Cities centers of innovation

Immigration helped cities to spread their values more widely

The middle east and India

In 1400, the largest city was probably Cairo, 450 000

- Damascus and Baghdad

- Constantinople declining until the arrival of the Turks. Then rapid increase, especially because of
political migration.

The rise of cities in the middle east and India in this period seemed to have happened for political rather
the economic reasons. Capital of states

- Istanbul
- Isfahan
- Agra (Mughal empire), later replaced by Delhi
o General absence of merchants in Delhi
There were also big cities in other parts of the world but we have difficulties in finding reliable sources

- Tenochtitlan, Aztec empire

- Cuzco, Inca

In Africa, cities tended to be small

The colonial city

The colonial city was established to control the region or to manage the unequal trade between colony and
metropolis. They were often divided cities and stage of segregation, even though there always had been
mixing.

Most of them were ports: Mumbai, Calcutta, Havana, goa, Macao…

Two major colonial cities were not ports

- Mexico city
- Potosi
o Extraction of silver

In these cities, race was utterly important

- Social stratification based on the color of the skin

o Pigmentogracy

The physical appearance of the colonial power (generally whites) was a factor of advantage in the social
status.

Comparisons and conclusions

The agricultural revolution was a precondition for development

Some cities were market-oriented, together with the commercialization of leisure in political centers

- Differences in the way in which growth occurred. Compulsory or spontaneous immigration

Sometimes the period 1400-1800 is seen as the transition between two extremes: the industrial city and
the pre-modern city. Others say that the difference is not that big

Global migrations
China: 1403-33, Zheng He voyages in the Indian Ocean

Portugal: State support to merchant ventures in the Africa’s Atlantic coasts

Ottoman empire: Intermediaries between Arab and Venetian merchants

America: Iberian immigration and near-genocide of local population

Various migratory consequences:

1. Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia

2. New patterns of trade and mobility between Europe and Asia
 3. Importation of African to Iberia
4. Forced migration of African slaves in the plantation system
5. Collapse of American population because of European germs, wars and exploitation
6. Iberian and Dutch circum-African outreach

Every time the newcomers from Europe encountered functioning societies and they could opt for

- Coexistence
- Intermingling: marrying or associating with local women of rank to access their networks and social
capital
- Violence

Motivation for migration were mainly economic:

- Demand for furs, spices, luxury goods and mass-produced consumables (sugar, tea, coffee)

The Europeans lacked knowledge of local languages and customs and therefore needed intermediaries and
laborers (mostly forcing them) to produce.

Another category of migrants were the Europeans that struggled in their original societies and left to find
better conditions of life.

Macro-regional migrations: continuities and changes

Migration and cultural exchange are not defined by fixed continents. By the 15th century, all continents
were interconnected spaces.

Asia

China expanded and contracted during the Ming and Qing dynasties

Ming: dominant Chinese ethno-cultural group, the Han, after replaced by the Manchu Qing.

- Intensive cultural exchange

o Religious change: Buddhism coexist with Daoist and Confucianism
- Construction of the Great Wall to exclude northern intruders.
- Zheng He merchant fleet, then stopped by a conservative court bureaucracy.

Despite the restrictions, merchants continued their activities and instead settled in the insular Southeast
Asian societies.

- Long-term sojourners and definitive migration.

- Pirates

Japan:

- conquest of nearby islands

- internal migration and urbanization

Only land-based and it did not expand too much

South Asia: both mobile and immobile

 - armed Islamic migrants entered the Indus Valley (Mughal empire)
- itinerant Muslim Sufi orders
- fusion of Indic, Persian and Turkish cultures

but:

- Purity of everyday food challenged mobility

- Women restricted in the family but at the moment of the marriage they moved

Africa

East Africa:

- Trade and migration with South Asia

- Swahili as lingua franca

Mediterranean littoral

- Arab-speaking peoples

Spread of Islam, pilgrimage to Mecca, birth of trading activities along the routes

Bondage was common in Africa but categories were fluid

- Debtors
- Male war captives traded in the Mediterranean Arab world.

Economic migration:

- Students and scholars to Timbuktu

- Craftsmen and women in West Africa.

The Mediterranean world

Strictly interconnected

- Genoa, Venice, Arab, Jews, Turkish merchants

- Pilgrim tourism to East Mediterranean organized by Venice

Ottoman Empire

- Transformed the different societies adopting non-ethnic structures, Islam and Byzantine Christian
institutions.
o Culturally pluralist polity of multi-religious and many-cultured peoples
- It expanded in the Balkans and Egypt

The rise of the Safavid empire in Persia provoked the resettlement of Armenians and their diaspora. Also

- Recruitment of artisans and artists in the luxury trades: European visitors, monks and artillery
technicians.

Western Mediterranean:
 - Developed cities in the African coast attracted Jewish and Muslim craftsmen that produced for the
Ottoman and European market
- The European conquest of Iberia provoked the rise of refugee communities of Jews and Muslims

Europe and Russia

By the 1400s, the intra-European balance of political and economic power shifted from the Mediterranean
to the northwestern states.

- Atlantic economies emerged with Atlantic settlements and worldwide colonizing migration
- Long-distance migration in Eastern Europe
o Privileges granted to urban Jews and Christians to build an urban bourgeoisie

From the mid-14th to the late 17th century: population catastrophes

- Black death
- Totalitarian Catholicism
- Religious wars between Catholics and Protestants from 1517 to the 30 years war (1648)
- Habsburg-Ottoman contest in the Balkans

At the same time: rural-urban migration increased the dimensions of cities and commercial networks

Russia:

- Rivers and plains structured mobility

o Normans established in Kiev, generating the Slavic version of Orthodox Christianity
o Nobility as a trans-European mobile group, that intermingled with Mongols
o Expansion in Siberia in the 17th century

The Americas

- Nomadic in the Artic and plains

- Settled in the north

In the south, complex states and empires.

- Macro-regional and transcontinental trading and migratory networks

- Also some form of forced migration
- Roads and postal systems part of the Inca realm.

Connecting and changing global mobilities: the coming of armed Europeans

By 1500, Iberians changed global economic relations

- Import of Eurasian germs in America brought population collapse in the Caribbean and in Central
America
- Deportation of millions of enslaved men and women resulted in population depletion

4 economic developments

1. European combination of state power with merchant investment and profit strategies eliminated
unarmed trade
2. Increased demand induced numerous migration of producers
 3. Plantation system of production created a forced labor regime that constantly required new
workers
4. Europe’s rural populations without sufficient means of subsistence emigrated both involuntarily
and voluntarily

In general: enormous increase in violence

Intermediaries and mobilizing and immobilizing labor regimes

3 major types of production emerged from the state-commercial-investor imposition

- Global belt of plantation-regime production

- Globally dispersed but micro-regional mining
- Belt of fur harvesting in the north

Intermediaries

Colonizer migrants arrived at their destinations without knowledge of conditions, cultures and languages

- Men and women who mediate between societies

- Translators, negotiators and cultural brokers
- Influential “representational” go-betweens who represent Europe to the locals or “the exotic” to
Europeans.
- Landlord-stranger reciprocity: permission to valued strangers to marry local women, integrating
them into the community.

Labor regimes

Colonizers’ labor regime have usually been associated with forced migrations but it had a variety of forms

- Immobilizing resident men and women as workers

- Forcing them to move over shorter or larger distances
- Transporting them to distant extractive economies (plantation or mines)

European settler migrations and the expulsion of resident peoples

White settlers migrated to European colonizer acquisitions as agriculturalists, extending beyond coastal
enclaves. They dislodged resident peoples.

In America, before the 1830s, more Africans than Europeans came. Europeans imposed their superiority by
force and rule.

Up to about 1800, many migrants from Europe came under indentures (temporarily not free) to pay their
passage.

Involuntary exile (because of famine, criminality, political dissent, not-acceptable behaviors…)

The few and the many: a comprehensive perspective on migrations

Settlers generally were refugee-generating migrants. People moved to feed themselves, escape from the
violence of war, avoid elite-imposed tax and labor burdens… They moved with an expectation of improving
their living conditions.
In all rural regions, the land could provide only a limited amount of food. The children in surplus had to
migrate. Cities permitted increased options and ways of earning a subsistence. Cities attracted especially
young men and women seeking to become independent.

Despite the rural-urban dualism, variations between regional economies explain patterns of migration.
Physical environment and natural conditions provide a frame for settled or mobile life-coursers, while
societal and spiritual norms have an impact on migration decisions.

Craftsmen and artists needed intermediaries (usually earlier migrants) to start immediately their work.
Networks of migrants played a key role in the patterns of migration.

Patterns of warfare
Some historians speak of a military revolution but this can be considered a simplistic narrative that stresses
the decline of cavalry and the rise of infantry, artillery and fortification.

Instead, success and failure were the result of local conditions and demands.

Alongside differences, there were fundamentals to warfare throughout the period and across the world.

1. Warfare was the duty of men, although women were closely involved with conflict (mostly as war
victims, directly or indirectly
2. Low level of applied technology made patterns of warfare subjected to environmental and physical
constraints
a. Diseases
b. Limited industrial activity and low productivity of agriculture:
i. Smaller pool of potential warriors
3. Limited power sources
a. Mainly human or animal muscle, restricting the ability of moving quickly
4. No rapid communication on land or sea

Little wars and big wars

The distinction between nomadic and settled societies affected the kind of warfare

Settled: development of logistical mechanisms to support permanent specialized military units

Nomadic: raids, avoiding battles => no written sources, even if they were probably more frequent

“Little war” was also an important feature of “big war” that could undermine success.

No systematic study of little war, that should not be regarded as necessarily less effective than the big one.

- Misleading categorizations in terms of militarism or sophistication.

The military revolution

Idea: a military revolution occurred in western Europe during the early modern period from a combination
of new weaponry (gunpowder), new tactics and much larger armies.

But: these all had medieval precedents

Issues of coordination with the use of new weaponry, ex: musket-pile combination

- This increased the effectiveness of Western armies more than had the earlier changes to
gunpowder weapons by itself.

Gunpowder was introduced first in China and did not lead to revolutionary changes. Why should the
situation be considered different in the West?

Changes in weapons (technology) were important in so far as they were marshalled by doctrine and cultural
habit of use (technique)

Hypothesis: second period of revolution: from American Independence (1775) to French revolutionary wars
(1815).

- The rate of innovation and timing was continuous and incremental. No revolution.

Only small borrowing of European military technology in other places, effective only when fitted with
existing practices. Process of borrowing rather than transformation of the military system (as in 19 th
century Japan).

Why then Western success?

- Disunity of opponents and the ability to win local support

Ex: against big united empires, European powers did not succeed until the 1800s (China, India)

There were other complex, contingent and non-military factors that mattered more.

The Ottomans

- Highly effective system

o Sustained transformation among the centuries
- Main opponents:
o Safavids, Habsburg, Venice, Moldavia, Malta and Portugal
o Rebellions

Ottoman strength was based on the resources of a large empire

- Ideology that saw war against the non-believer as a duty

- Grand strategy and well-articulated logistical system

Janissary corps: professional soldiers recruited originally from non-Muslim war captives and later from
Greece and Balkans

- Legally slaves of the sultan but they could gain power and prestige, becoming senior officials and
ambassadors (sometimes also the grand vizier was a Janissary

Ottoman army:

- Use and organization of firearms, stronger and more reliable

Ottoman fortifications were as good as the Christian ones. They did not have the trace italienne but they
did not required them either.

The Austrian military did not match the Ottoman capabilities: reason of the early conquest of Hungary. No
clear superiority on land until the 1680s.
 - Some argue that this was because of the Ottoman focus on war with the Safavids and Moroccan
expansion across the Sahara.

Warfare at sea

The British naval mastery and the use to which it was put brought the most significant changes

- It was demonstrated both in the war of the Spanish Succession (1700s) and against the French
(1740s)
- British position challenged by the Bourbons in the seven years war.

Having more ships, Britain had an extensive and effective administrative system

- Public finances and good naval leadership

Britain’s commercial position enhanced by the protection offered by the Royal Navy, that at the same time
could wreck the foreign trade of rivals, increasing their insurance premiums.

Western navies were similar in their ships and weapons, so the difference was mainly caused by
techniques, good seamanship and superior gunnery (higher industrial capabilities).

The 18th century: which west? Which East?

West: struggle between Britain and France (and Spain) dominated. They fought in North America, West
Africa, Philippines, Europe and India. Seven Years’ War (1756-63) first global war.

East: 1750s, Manchu China finally won its struggle in Xinjiang and then started to conquer part of Muslim
Central Asia. Application of organization strategies to move food to feed the armies.

One of the key problems of warfare was the ability to deploy force at distance.

- Beyond Europe, naval strength facilitated power projection

If in 1815, Britain was the strongest state in the world ruling the most powerful empire, the situation had
been very different seventy years earlier. French won in India repeatedly and there was an internal crisis.

By the end of 18th century Britain, Russia and China were the world’s leading military powers, followed by
the naval growth of the US. The other powerful states of the early modern period were unable to respond
to changes in context.

The first global dialogues: inter-cultural relations

By 1400s, interactions among cultures had a very long history, none was really global because of the
absence of Americas.

Tibetans, Mongols and Manchus

In Tibet, Mongols were attracted by the logic of political advantage. Isolate Buddhist monastic centers
could easily slide into warfare with each other. A Mongol military intervention could give major support to
claims of supremacy. At the same time, Mongol realms were really fragile and the spiritual baggage of a
great lama could bolster one contender.

The early Ming rulers understood the importance of Tibetan Buddhism for relations with the Mongols,
although they made no effective use of this knowledge.
1578, Dalai Lama became of utmost importance for legitimization of Mongol rulers.

In the mid-1600s, the Qing dynasty invited the Dalai Lama in Beijing, but explicitly as a subordinate bearing
tribute. At the same time, they intensified their effort to control Tibet, facilitated by the decline of the
Mongols in the 1700s.

China absorbing and influencing

Chinese culture in the early Ming: victory of the long Neo-Confucian campaign for values and practices.

- 3-levels systematization of the examination system.

- All foreign rules were potentially tributaries of China

Foreign interactions

- Muslim sojourners since 700 CE, especially influencing during Yuan rule
o Contrast in being Chinese and Muslim at the same time
- By 1600 these activities had spread to the great cities of eastern China, with construction of
mosques, translation of Arab texts and centers of learning

Muhammad called a Sage, not a Prophet; Islam called a way (Dao) and mosques were depicted as centers
of teaching and study. In this way, the Way of Muhammad could be practiced even in China without
damage to the central Confucian Way.

During the Qing rule in 1700s things changed. These books started to worry high officials mainly because of
Muslim rebellions in the western provinces. However the emperor did not worry about it, considering them
as works of Muslim of China proper.

At the same time, there had been Christians in China (Eastern rites, Orthodox and Roman)

In the middle of 16th century the first Jesuits arrived in a moment where traditional values were considered
violated by lavish spending and governmental corruption. Chinese scholars were fascinated by them, both
because of their selfless commitment and the usefulness of their knowledge.

- They became pupils of many remarkable scholar-officials and even the emperor considered greatly
because of their astronomy skills, important in the management of the empire.
o Political cover for missionaries and converts in the provinces
o Birth of interweaving of Catholic and traditional Chinese practices.

Korea:

- Spread of Neo-Confucian movement that still has important echoes in today’s Korean society, in an
anti-Buddhist way

Japan:

- Remarkable Christian century

o At their arrival, Japan was in moral and political chaos. It was not a humane society.
o But in 1587, Hideyoshi compared Christians to Buddhist sects, considered them menacing
in their rejection of all hierarchy and banned the missionaries from Japan.
o From 1612, persecution of Catholicism => martyrs
o By 1640, Japanese Catholicism only hidden.
 - At the same time, interest in Chinese models of government
o Confucianism was functional to political hierarchy
o Tokugawa major patrons
 Need for new systems of education of the large samurai class
 Important scholars that attracted thousands of students
- Books, maps, telescopes and microscopes from Holland came through the isolationist policies
o Important exchanges in medicine and anatomy

Muslims among the unbelievers

No forced conversion of conquered people, especially for Christians and Jews.

- Patterns of autonomous administration of marriage, inheritance by elders of a community.

- Exempt from military service and paid a separate jizya tax

By 1400 there were many areas where Islam had spread by peaceful means, living under non-Muslim rule.
The only requirement was to make the hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. This expansion was supported by the
Sufism. These itinerant teachers could become saints and their tombs became the sites of teaching and
celebrations or pilgrimage goals. They were bringers of a lineage that could be passed through generations.

Sufis also tried to make local practices compatible with Islam.

Neither Hindu nor Muslim: Sufis, sects and Sikhs

Between 1400 and 1800 Muslims ruled most of the northern river valleys of the Indian subcontinent but
Hindus were the vast majority.

- Contrast with the polytheist imagery of Hinduism

o Also intense dialogue: Sikh religion
- Sufism: new lines of transmission of Sufi teaching emerged, finding favor at the courts of Muslim
rulers, attracting many Hindu devotees.

Imperial patronage peak: Akbar emperor

Exchange in the vocabulary made by Sikhs, criticizing the corrupt power of Muslim judges and the fakery of
Hindu holy men. But in the 17th century, wave of Muslim orthodoxy led by the Mughal emperors

- No space for people neither Hindu nor Muslim that threatened the social order.

Text and science in the eastern Mediterranean

Scene of the most dramatic “clash of civilization” in the world of the 15th and 16th centuries

- Ottoman power settled in Constantinople and southeastern Europe

- Expulsion from Spain and Portugal of Jews

Traders from Italian ports saw Constantinople and other eastern-Mediterranean ports as their key sources
of Asian goods.

- Exchanges of goods and knowledge

o Astronomic and geographical data
o Ancient texts hoping to establish the exact date of the creation.
Web of interactions that ranged from Goa to Amsterdam

- Travel networks and merchants

Spaniards, Aztecs, Mayas, Incas

Mexico in 1518-22 as one of the greatest confrontations in the history of peoples

- Destruction of the Aztec empire and Tenochtitlan.

From that it was born the Virgin of Guadalupe

- Missionaries idea to convert the people of the Valley after 1522, leveraging on the feminine holy
powers appeal.
o Religion as the key to political control.
o They used the same feast-day and name of a local Mexican god.
- Churches built in old sacred sites and local art was used to represent the Christian divinity

This involve a great deal of local conflict and heresy executions

With the Incas and Maya there were more dramatic phases.

Inca: destruction of temples and ceremonial practices in the cities, but survival of ancient practices in rural
areas, often hidden with Christian appearances.

Neo-African cultures from Kongo to Brazil

The middle passage and the brutal work of slavery produced creole languages that are still alive and
spoken.

- Birth of religious expression of Africanized Christianities and modes of music.

This happened through various phases:

1. Portuguese connection with the kings of Kongo

a. The local kings thought that the Portuguese had unknown sources of power and therefore
converted to Christianity
b. Slave trading and raiding spread inland and provoked the collapse of the kingdom
c. Overlap of African traditional cults and Christian practices
i. Many condemned for heresy
2. In Brazil, various African practices spread both among the slaves and the whites, mainly in the form
of amulets
a. Identification of saints with powerful spirits and ancestors, especially in culturally
homogeneous communities
b. Sign of devotion and defense against a world of cruelty and danger

Europe and the world

How did these encounters affect the energetic and polycentric cultural life of Europe?

- Mostly it was mediated by printing but there were also oral cases.
- Very complicated and full of issues
 - Enormous amount of exchanges

The Columbian Exchange

The Columbian exchange consists in the biological consequences of the connections between America and
the other continents provoked by Christopher Columbus discovery of unknown and disconnected lands.

- Transfer of animals, diseases, plants and humans

From America were mainly exported consumable plants as corn, manioc and potatoes

The number of domesticated animals was higher in the old world and their transfer had both positive and
negative consequences in the ecosystem.

- At the time the focus was more on a possible recognition of a relationship between climate and the
physical and cultural landscape.

The Columbian Exchange begins in the first global age, starting in the mid-fifteenth century, and was
dominated by Spain and Portugal until the mid-seventeenth century. Elements of structural foundation:

- Italian innovation in finance that managed to rise enough capital to sustain long expeditions
- Transformation of warfare and introduction of gunpowder and new tactics
- Iberian sailing experience in the Atlantic

First generation: the initial Columbian Exchange (1492–1516)

The impact of the first Columbian expedition was limited. Objectives

- Establish a route
- Claim some areas
- Individuate possible trade agreements with local rulers

In Europe
- Syphilis
- Plants
- Minerals
- Animals

In America
- Smallpox
- A small number of Columbus’ men in Hispaniola to build a fort

At his return, his success spurred many adventurers and merchants

 Seventeen ships
o Horses, mules, pigs, goats, sheep
o Trees, fruits
 When arrived, many experienced sickness and hunger
o They tapped on the indigenous resources, forcing them to serve them
 Disastrous consequences
 They drank water filled with parasites they had no resistance to
o 2/3 of outsiders dead
 o Enormous loss of Taino population due to the invasion, the heavy
labor, starvation and sickness

Disease

The time of arrival of the disease varied depending on the nature of the disease and the mode of
transmission.

- Smallpox, measles: direct human contact

o Heavy toll in areas with no prior exposure
- Diphtheria, mumps, scarlet fever
- Typhus, the plague, malaria and yellow fever

The consequence of the introduction of these disease pathogens was a rapid decline in Amerindian
populations.
How far did these pathogens go? Difficult to determine
- Entire regions escaped
- Small population in hot, humid zones was the most vulnerable

Plants

Old World plants preferred by the Europeans took slow and tenuous root in the Caribbean islands.
- No apples, pears or cherries
- Survival of rice, chickpeas and onions, introduction of wheat, olive trees.

Introduction of sugar cane, perfect for that climate

- Caribbean became major exporters of the European market
o Importation of African slaves
o Deforestation for sugar processing

In Europe
- Tomatoes, pineapples and avocado
- Manioc, maize, potatoes
- Beans and nuts
Different speeds of acceptance of American foods, evaluation of medical use for local diseases.
- Ex: quinine as treatment to control malaria

- Tobacco: initial medical use but after smoking spread in Europe

Animals

No American animal became popular in Europe except for the turkey

On the contrary, America was “invaded” by Old World animals.
- Horses, cattle, goats, sheep and pigs

Consequences: damage to native crops and crisis of traditional Taino agricultural practice. Especially pigs,
led to the destruction of the crops and replacement with forage.

People
European and African migration to the Americas was transformative
The sugar cane industry extracted a high human cost and this pushed Spanish to purchase slaves from
Portuguese in Africa.

The discovery of a mountain of silver in Potosi contributed to both Spanish migration to America and
attempts by the English and French to gain access to the riches.

High death rate both in the original crossing and as result of heavy labor. The consequence was a constantly
rising demand for slaves.
- Each city in Spanish and Portuguese America contained a substantial number of Africans, slave and
free.

Asian migration to the pacific coast of America from Mexico to Peru.

- Spanish outpost in the Philippines
o The silver mines of Mexico and Potosi provided the foundations for the commerce

Amerindian population of around 53,9 million people. The rate of population decline falls as one moves
southward into the highest elevation basins and puna grasslands.
- Decline of 93% between 1520 and 1620

Migrants carried religion, social structure, marriage and kinship patterns, languages and though patterns
with them.
Even if there were some taboos regarding intergroup marriage, the increase in migration led to the slow
but inexorable rise of mixed populations.
- Still high human cost

Positive side: new animals and food plants introduced into the Americas provided assistance to human
labor and additional forms of nutrition
- Increasing supply of foodstuffs were productive on marginal lands
- Medical plants and knowledge
- Transformation of the mind

The slave trade and the African diaspora

African diaspora = large forced migration in history both in length of time and the numbers of people
involved.
- Human tragedy

Importation of African labor was vital to the development of the European occupied Americas
- Sugar plantations, tobacco, cotton and mines
African forced migrants outnumbered European migrants
- Massive cultural movement

Historiography of the slave trade and the African Diaspora

Volume of the slave trade

- Quantitative issue
How the slave trade worked in Africa and the impact it had on the continent
- African military history, understanding the processes by which people were enslaved and
transported
How and in what ways African culture moved from Africa to the Americas
 - What African cultures were most significant in which areas, where they went in the Americas and
their cultural impact
o Big range of different populations
o Atlantic creoles
o Muslim and Christian African slaves

The slave trade

Africans proved capable of defending their coast after an initial surprise

- Portugal agreed to engage in peaceful trade in all commodities
o They purchased slaves, as there already was an established institution of local slavery
 War prisoner
 Rules about who could be enslaved and who not

2 modes of purchase of slaves

1. Shipboard trade
a. No permanent presence of Europeans
2. Factory trade
a. Small colonies on the coast to manage the trade and to station merchants and soldiers
i. Sometimes fortified to protect the trading interests from rivals and pirates

The most fruitful area was the Gold Coast (today’s Ghana) and Angola

Enslavement and sale

Most slaves that Europeans acquired were purchased from African sellers
- Sale of munitions in such a way as to force otherwise reluctant African leaders to acquire weapons
to defend themselves from rivals
o Gun-slave cycle

The direction, the volume and quality of European trade goods suggest that they were not so vital to
African economies. They were mostly luxury goods and weapons.
Many African states were able to leave and enter the slave trade while continuing trade in other
commodities.
How did you became a slave?
- Warfare
- Bandits and highway robbers
- Judicial action by courts through fines or to settle debts
Historical circumstances were determinants in the ways people ended up in slavery

The volume of the trade and its impact on Africa

Estimate of total volume of African slaves bound to America from 13 to 15 millions

- Regionally diverse but relatively steady through most of the period

Purpose: provide labor force into the Americas.

- Mainly adult males, but also some women

Consequences: strong impact on the size and demographic structure of the population

- Reduction of the male-female ration

- Loss of productive adults => higher levels of labor to support the large number of dependents
 o Underperformance of agriculture and industry, to be compensated for by imports

Non-demographic impacts more difficult to establish

- Rise in militarism

Middle Passage

Slave voyages routinely killed some of their cargoes. Even if well-managed voyages, with proper provision,
sanitation and ventilation might cross with little mortality, they still were uncomfortable.

The length of the voyage was an important factor in determining how difficult the middle passage could be
for slaves

- Brazil only one month

- Caribbean 3 months on average

The longer the voyage, the higher the mortality

The voyage was traumatic, even if it helped form very tight bonds of friendship. However the process of
bonding depended by the ethno-linguistic diversity of the slaves on board.

- Risk of revolts on board, often prompted also by the slaves’ military service in Africa

Life and labor in the Americas

The majority of the Africans transported to the Americas came to produce sugar

- High death rate from accident and disease

- Low rates of reproduction

Constant need of new workforce

Where labor was lighter, the self-sustainability of the slaves arrived earlier

Social groups and identity

The slave trade delivered Africans to the Americas from many cultural groups and regions of Africa

- Waves in which the trade was dominated by people from one region

Cultural diversity was the norm in most European colonies in the Caribbean

- Africans appear on records with indications of their nation or country that relate to the African
region from which they originated
- The most common national activity was funerals
The constant reinfusion of newcomers helped African cultures to maintain a strong presence in the heavy
labor sectors of the economy. At the same time, second generation and onwards already belonged to a
different cultural pattern and interaction.

- Tendency for people to marry within their own nation

Languages:

- The colonial language became the lingua France for the estates and would become the native
language of American born people
- Children would learn the colonial creole language as a native language

Second generation unions would not have the same cultural or linguistic restraints of the first-generation

Music tends to fall into the hands of a limited number of particularly skilled and talented individuals who
support themselves by receiving the patronage of the rest of the community

- They needed to adapt to the many African cultures that were represented

These individuals also included elements drawn from the music of their European and Euro-American
masters in order to gain greater rewards

Religious life

Most Africa followed traditional religions, even if several large regions had come to embrace Islam and
Christianity. Traditional religions were formed and altered through a process of continuous revelation.

- Traditional religion was not automatically bounded by a fixed set of revelations, nor by a ethno-
linguistic community
o A deity could travel to other communities
- This revelation system also shaped how Christianity and Islam were received.
o If they worked, they were accepted as religion and therefore included in the spiritual
baggage of the community

This religious understanding was brought to America by Africans

- In time, these revelations resulted in conversion to Christianity

o Vodou, calinda and other religious manifestations continued underground

Resistance

The desire for quick profits, especially when supervision was in the hands of intermediaries for overseas
owners, often led to ruinously harsh conditions with high mortality and morbidity rates for malnutrition,
sleep deprivation and accidents

Slave sought to escape from this demanding regime by running away or by engaging in low-level resistance,
violence and refusal to cooperate

- Day-to-day resistance
o Slow work
 o Breaking tools
o Disrupt of production
- Armed resistance
o Sometimes revolutionary action
 Small village-sized communities in inaccessible areas
 Sometimes big villages with significant military potential
 Pernambuco, regular state, 30 000 residents

On occasion revolts do appear to have had teking over the colony as a goal:

- Jamaica revolt of 1760

- Haitian revolution from 1791 to 1804, gaining independence

Silver in a global context

Silver was the most important substance in the world prior the ascendance of the gold standard in the
1850s.

During the early modern period, silver constantly flowed into China, even if the situation was different
earlier.

13th century: silver and silver-backed paper money substituted copper-based coins. At the same time, the
unification of trade across Afroeurasia under the Mongols led to the export of Chinese silver in reaction to
powerful demand-side forces in Muslim states

- Relocation of silver from low-value markets within China to high-value markets around the globe

15th century: Chinese fiscal crisis, massive issuance of paper money supposed to be backed by silver

- The official silver reserves were not adequate to maintain confidence in this context
 Private merchants and local governor increasingly relied upon physical silver itself
 Market value of silver in China surged to double silver’s value in the Mediterranean world

Japan had traditionally imported silver from China from the 11th century to the 15th century because of the
absence of significant silver mines

China’s exportation of significant quantities of silver to the Mediterranean to Japan and elsewhere
contrasts with China’s successive massive silver imports

In the 16th century, the world’s greatest silver mines were discovered in Mexico and Peru, leading to a
pattern of American silver exports to China.

Example of arbitrage at work

At the same time in the 16th century, the important silver mines discoveries in Japan inverted the
traditional Asian trajectory.

Visualization of supply and demand mechanism

If an induvial spends more than their income, then they must either surrender savings or borrow to make
up the difference.
Similarly, if a region’s imports exceed the region’s exports, residents of the net-import region must
surrender coins in order to pay for purchases.

Monetary-sector outflows are effects, while trade deficits are causes.

According to this formulation, direct supply-and-demand analysis is confined to flows of non-monetary

items. It supports the idea that the flow of Chinese luxury goods posed a serious balance-of-payments
problem for the West.

Evidence from global monetary history contradicts this traditional trade-deficit explanation, since “money”
did in fact flow across borders in response to non-monetary trade imbalances.

4 monetary substances: gold, silver, copper, shells

1. Geological forces led to endowments of three natural-resource substances concentrated in specific

locations around the globe.
2. Proportion of any particular monetary substance destined for relocation to a specific end-market
location depended upon the extent to which concentrations of human beings expressed ability and
willingness to purchase that particular monetary substance. Ex: no demand for gold in China, in
India some places accepted only gold and others only silver
3. Distinct trade routes connected production-site concentrations to specific concentrations of end-
market demand that were distinct for each monetary substance

These substances never travelled in tandem, they were sometimes exchanged for each other.

At the time there was no distinction between real and monetary items.

So, the exchange of silver can be considered as the exchange of a non-monetary item, since silver imports
were exchanged for non-silver exports. This does not consist in the financing of a deficit, because silver is a
good like others.

The unified theory of prices

The price of each monetary substance is treated in the same fashion as the price of any non-monetary
substance.

- Creation of an abstract Ration Unit of Account Money as virtual currency to value items
- Inventory supply = number of units of a good owned by a party
o Production supply = increases inventory holdings
o Sales supply = diminish inventory holdings
- Inventory demand = number of units of a good that the party demand
o Purchase demand = increases inventory holdings
o Consumption demand = diminish inventory holdings

These functions together determine prices of all goods expressed in terms of abstract RUAMs

Hydraulic metaphor:
This happen in a closed market

Any ownership exchange can be viewed from the perspective of inventory-depleting sales supply.

Application of the Hydraulic Metaphor to the history of silver

Silver was exported from China to western Asia in the 13th century. The paper monies pushed silver out of
China. Chinese fiscal crises led to hyperinflation that destroyed Chinese paper-money system.

 Overvaluation of silver within China in respect to the rest of the world

o Central-European silver exports passed through Ottoman empire until China.

Silver and the birth of globalization

Inventory demand for silver within China continued to expand, causing its market value to soar. At that
moment, silver mines were discovered in Spanish America and Japan.

 Local and regional governmental units started to require payments in the form of silver, followed
by the central government
 Arbitrage possibilities for merchant around the world
American silver flooded eastward through Baltic trade routes, the Mediterranean, the Persian gulf and
overland trade routes.

- ¾ of Spanish American silver flowed across the Atlantic Ocean

o Pacific ocean routes till Panama, where it passed overland till the Atlantic ocean and
exported from Vera Cruz
- Some passed from the Pacific ocean, passing from Acapulco to Manila (Spain never managed to
control this route)

Beginning of inflation, because of the worldwide decline in value of silver monies. Arbitrage completed,
diminishing profits. This trade cycle prompted the Columbian exchange especially regarding plants.
By 1700, new 50% price premium in China compared by the rest of the world, later offset in the 1750s.

This process provided an incentive to the surge in global silver production. Durable and non-consumable,
silver stock accumulated among time. Elimination of arbitrage gains simply means that above-normal
profits had been squeezed out. Normal profits continued to go on, mostly because of decay.

Chinese trade was balanced in the sense that imports of silver, opium and other items were offset by
various Chinese exports.

Distinct forms of silver

It is also fundamental to conceptually sub-divide each intrinsic substance according to distinct perceptions

There were different forms of silver:

- Silver bullions
o It was needed a professional to assess bullion purity
- Silver coins
o None of these assessment problems
o After Mexican war of independence of 1808, production of bad quality new Mexican coins
 Quickly rejected by Chinese sellers
 Request of Carolus dollars
o Arbitrage possibilities between Mexican coins and Carolus dollars

Export of silver bullions from China in exchange for Carolus dollars

In the 19th century, China had another crisis: new possibility for arbitrage exporting Chinese silver bullions
to the rest of the world

Plantation societies
The plantation complex was initiated in Europe, then exported to the semi-tropical regions of the Americas.
It involved Asia as a source of capital and laborers and it focused strongly on Africa. It was definitely a
global phenomenon.

The development of the plantation system was the imperative force behind the growth of the Atlantic slave
trade, especially during the mature period.

- British and French Caribbean, Bahia and Pernambuco in Brazil, Virginia and south Carolina in the US

The plantation was a highly distinctive innovation

- Most complex and semi-industrial form invented in the early modern period
o Creation of highly specialized and differentiated ‘factories in the field’ that provided
enormous wealth to their owners and misery and impoverishment to workers
o It developed and expanded even into the 20th century

Characteristics:

- Reliance on forced labor

o Brutality and absence of regulation over planter excesses
It added relatively little to European and North American economic well-being but it sure contributed to
African underdevelopment

Definition of plantation

Large agricultural enterprise in a tropical country, managed for profit, that produced an export crop for slae
in Europe and elsewhere, and which had a labor force that was hierarchically stratified.

Labor force made by enslaved population. The population relied on fresh importation of people from the
Atlantic slave trade.

The Brazilian model

Production of luxury crops: tobacco, cotton, indigo, coffee, rice and sugar.

- Element of feudalism: workers were owned. Fear of the bargaining power that free laborers might
have, especially in the critical harvest period.

At first Brazilians used indigenous labor but demographic decline encouraged them to replace them with
Africans. Lower mortality rates and relatively low cost of shipment. Africans could be worked hard in ways
that were impossible for Indians. African slaves who survived 3 or 4 years of seasoning became experienced
and productive plantation operatives.

Brazilians, made good money from sugar planting, but the lack of access to credit led them to
indebtedness, especially because of their unsustainable modes of living.

- They borrowed from local and European merchants

o Their places were then taken by English, French and Dutch planters, who were better
connected into the North Atlantics
 The Dutch learned the techniques of sugar cultivation and passed this to the French
and the English of the Caribbean

Brazil fazendas, did not employ modern management models but they had low costs rooted in an efficient
slave trade.

The Barbados Model

By the early 17th century, the potential for profit from the production of sugar was clear. Demand for sugar
was high. Sugar moved from being an elite form of consumption to a product that ordinary people could
afford.

The Barbadian planters moved away from the dispersed system common in Brazil to a system in which they
integrated the growing and processing of sugar cane.

- Development of a form of labor organization that could produce large enough quantities of sugar
to bring wealth sufficient for substantial reinvestment
o Ganged labor with lockstep discipline and whip use
- Access to the vast resources of the London capital market
- Economies of scale

Social hierarchy based around military honorifics. It required violent white men in order to work. Veterans
of Nine Years’ War and Spanish succession war.
 - Slaves suffered chronic bad health because of the treatment

The switch to the integrated plantation and gang labor caused many revolts, put down with maximum
ferocity. Such repression worked. The level of violence exercised against Africans dramatically increased as
the size of slave labor forces grew.

Planters used strategies of divide and rule and spiritual terror.

The Atlantic slave trade

The large integrated plantation ate up its workers

- Slaves only become the dominant export trade in Africa in the late 17th century
- Europeans were able to buy captives from Africa because Africans were willing participants in the
trade
o Very complicated and risky, although it offered large potential profits
o Need to plan the purchase and passage of slave with great care before the harvest
- Sale in America enhanced social alienation and psychological distress
- The continued addition of people fresh from Africa did allow slave communities to retain African
cultural practices

The mid-eighteenth century plantation: economic performance

Incredible economic performance, especially the French ones

- Mainly because of the extent the state supported private initiative

o Good roads, irrigation systems

American land and products gave Western Europe a vital extra edge through ghost acres

- Increase in the food supply

Technical innovation in finance and insurance that resulted from long experience with the difficulties of
long distance trade in slaves and goods.

The Plantation system was profitable, productive and capable of both diversification and technological and
managerial improvement.

- The abolition of the slave trade put a stop to the expansion of wealth in the British West Indies

Planters and slaves

Two social types

Slave:

- Work in a sugar cultivation

- African or African descent
- Black
- Poor
 - Expected to be obedient

Planter:

- white
- rich
- They saw themselves to be at the top of a harmonious social hierarchy
- Saw by Europeans as irreligious, philistine and barbaric

Slavery was a negotiated relationship between one group who had most of the power and slaves, who
faced large handicaps but had a few weapons of their own that they deployed to weaken planters’ control.

Slave culture was influenced by their twin identities: coerced workers and unwilling migrants. They tried to
recreate in the Americas what they had left behind in Africa.

- Their number and their long persistence in American plantation societies made their cultural
influences upon all aspects of plantation society in the Americas deep-rooted and long lasting

Reactions against the plantation system

For most of the early modern period the occasional complaint about the horrors had no effect on
metropolitan European opinion.

By 1800, the abolitionist movement still had some years to go before slavery came fully under attack

- Rise of scientific racism played a role in the demonization the planter class

Revolutionary age had mixed implications for slavery

- American revolution: positive event for planters and negative one for slaves
- French revolution led to the Haitian revolution and the implosion of the greatest plantation system
in the Americas

But overall, in 1800, the plantation system and the institution of African slaver was far from dead, even if
they were not as strong as they had been

- Industrialization provided a different model of economic enterprise to

- Slaves had shown their resistance to slavery (Haiti)
- Humanitarianism

Christianity in Europe and overseas

Christianity in 1400