Early Modern European Nations and Empire

Empire Building – Asia vs. Africa vs. Europe
1450-1750
Early Modern Period

Empire Building – Asia vs. Africa vs. Europe
Movitation
For all, increase wealth and power
Africans/Europeans – convert nonbelievers to Christianity/Islam
Means
Force
Europeans and Asians – firearms
Africans – advent of Europeans slave trade/guns
Impediments
Europeans – lack of available territory on European continent
Not rich in resources
Needed new markets
Needed markets not ruled by powerful government
Africans and Asians
Distance
ability to set up stable and strong organizations to govern conquered people
Rivals who worked against the rules to gain either local or imperial power
Advantages
Europeans
Navies
Advanced technology
Africans
Access to European weapons
Asia
Chinese dynasties alternating with periods that saw warring states
Being part of an empire appealing to the Chinese at times
XIV. Interaction with the West – Russia vs. Ottoman/China/Tokugawa Japan/Mughal India
Varying influences
Russia
Had been mistrust toward Europeans
Europeans doing business in Russia had been kept away from ordinary
Peter embarked on Europeanization effort to modernize nation
Ottoman
Took a military approach
Although they traded with the West
desired to enlarge empire at the expense of European nations
Struck westward in an attempt to enlarge their domain
Captured Constantinople in 1453
Brought down teetering Byzantine Empire
Tried to siege Vienna, but failed
Continued fight against Holy Roman Empire in Mediterranean
Took over eastern portion
China – remained relatively isolated
Under Ming
allowed some missionaries Jesuit – but mostly shut off
Matteo Ricci and Francis Xavier
Portuguese and Spanish arrive – too big to conquer
Set up embassies and trading houses
Under Qing – shut off from west
Europeans arrived, but Beijing declined offers to trade
Shut off from technologies of Scientific Revolution
Xenophobic ideals
Considered themselves superior
Contacts limited to treaty ports
Japan – periods of isolation and acceptance
1543 - Portuguese sailors shipwrecked and washed ashore on Southern island of Kyushu
Additional visits from European traders and missionaries
Western technology – clocks and firearms
Firearms
Changed Japanese warfare from feudal to modern
Allowed Tokugawa to maintain authority
Christian missionaries
At first, Catholic missionaries protected from Buddhist resistance
Late 1580s Tokugawa shifted protection – saw Catholicism as threat
Missionaries ordered to leave
Christians persecuted and executed
Distrusted new religion
By 1630 – trade only allowed in a few cities
Japanese ships forbidden from traveling long distances
Created seclusion laws – even limited trading with Chinese
By 1640 – only Dutch and Chinese allowed to trade at Nagasaki
Kept Japanese informed of Western developments – Dutch learning
Adopted those Western traditions considered appropriate for Japanese goals
Allowed Japanese merchant class to gain influence
Set stage for pre-industrial development
Mughal India – Europeans try to control areas
Mughal emperor welcomed English East India Company in 1613
By 1800, imperialism the goal
1857 company deposed final Mughal emperor
Company disbanded – became part of British Empire in 1876
Set up factories and trading ports
British, Portuguese, French, Dutch
French/British took over most
Local princes act as allies to defend against Mughals – push out
Not limited to treaty ports
Started to try to affect local affairs
Won the right to acquire territory
British/French rivalry affected India – eventually Britain takes French land
Varying consequences
Penetrated some regions, but not others
Examples of What You Need to Know
Below are examples of the types of information you are expected to know contrasted with examples of those things you are not expected to know for the multiple-choice section.

* Neoconfucianism, but not specific Neoconfucianists
* Importance of European exploration, but not individual explorers
* Characteristics of European absolutism, but not specific rulers
* Reformation, but not Anabaptism or Huguenots
* Ottoman conquest of Constantinople, but not the Safavid Empire
* Siege of Vienna (1688–89), but not the Thirty Years' War
* Slave plantation systems, but not Jamaica's specific slave system
* Institution of the harem, but not Hurrem Sultan