Maritime Explorations and the Columbian Exchange
Economic Transformations: Commerce and Consequences
Political Transformations: Empires and Encounters
Cultural Transformations: Religion and Science
Historical Figures: Leaders, Thinkers, Explorers, Reformers
100

This Chinese admiral’s expeditions into the Indian Ocean in the early 1400s on behalf of the Ming Dynasty represented the last major Chinese maritime voyages

Zheng He

100

Over 80% of all slaves transported from Africa to the Americas between 1500-1850 ended up in Brazil or the Caribbean, largely due to the labor-intensive demands of harvesting this crop

Sugar

100

This gunpowder empire was characterized by a ruling dynasty that was Muslim and a population that was predominantly Hindu

Mughals

100

This religion was founded by Guru Nanak in South Asia

Sikhism


Grew out of Bhakti cult, emphasizing personal connection with God, rather than importance of caste, a bit like Sufi forms of Islam

100

This leader created his own syncretic state cult for the elite of his empire, combing elements of Islam, Hinduism, and Zoroastrianism, and aimed at emphasizing loyalty to the emperor himself

Akbar (r. 1556-1605)

200

Following a series of maritime voyages in the 1400s, this European country established a trading post empire in the Indian Ocean in the 1500s, using military advantages to control important ports and tax trade. By the 1600s its attempt to monopolize trade faltered and they assimilated themselves into traditional Indian Ocean trading patterns

Portugal

200

This economic theory held that governments best served their countries’ economic interests by encouraging exports and accumulating bullion. European countries subscribing to this idea thus saw colonies as beneficial because they provided closed markets for goods and supplied natural materials to the home country

Mercantilism

200

It was this Chinese dynasty that conquered Mongolia, Tibet, and Xinjiang

Qing

NOTE: Qing were non-Chinese Manchus, but embraced Confucianism and traditional Chinese bureaucratic techniques like the examination system

200

This syncretic religion combined West African traditions (drumming, ritual dancing, animal sacrifice, and spirit possession) with Christian beliefs, practices, and imagery.

Answer can include:

Vodou

Macumba

Candomblé

Santeria

200

It was this Mughal emperor, who in contrast to his predecessors, re-instituted the jizya

Aurangzeb (r. 1658-1707)

Strayer: “Thus the Mughal Empire was the site of a highly significant encounter between two of the world’s great religious traditions. It began with an experiment in multicultural empire building and ended in growing antagonism between Hindus and Muslims. In the centuries that followed, both elements of the Mughal experience would be repeated.”

Note:
Jahangir (r. 1605-1627)

Shah Jahan (r. 1628-1658)

Both much closer in rule to Akbar than Aurangzeb. Shah Jahan built the Taj Mahal

300

It was these two New World foods that provided the greatest nutritional foundation for immense population growth in Eurasia after the Columbian Exchange

Potatoes and Corn

300

This archipelago, whose first European encounter was the Ferdinand Magellan, became the heart of Spain’s trade with Asia

Philippines

300

This Muslim gunpowder empire in Persia espousing Shia Islam was a rival of the Sunni Ottoman Empire

Safavids

300

These are two Asian states that ultimately restricted the presence of European Christians

Japan (Tokugawa Shogunate 1650-1850)

Qing China after Kangxi

300

This Muslim movement in the 1700s, known by the name of its leader, argued the growing difficulties in the Muslim world, such as the weakening of the Ottoman Empire, were directly related to deviations from the pure faith of early Islam.

Wahhabi Movement

Found political backing with Muhammad ibn Saud, a founder of the Saud family of Saudi Arabia

Took especial issue with veneration of Sufi saints’ tombs, in contrast to monotheism

400

Name four major livestock transported from the Old World to the New World as part of the Columbian Exchange

Horses, cows, pigs, sheep, goats

400

As the Russian Empire expanded eastward, this region was transformed by the arrival of Russian settlers, Russification of the natives not killed by disease, and the move away from traditional hunting and gathering to agriculture

Siberia/Steppes

400

This Muslim gunpowder empire twice laid siege to Vienna

Ottoman

400

This group of Christian missionaries initially sought to accommodate Chinese culture as they attempted to spread Christianity there, such as defining Chinese practices like ancestor veneration as civil observances not incompatible with Christianity

Jesuits

Notes:

Expelled by Emperor Kangxi in 1715

Christianity in Asia aimed at elite. Jesuits brought western secular knowledge like mapmaking, technology, geography 

400

This Spanish conquistador is best known for his expeditions that led to the fall of the Inca empire.

Francisco Pizarro

Note: Hernan Cortes – collapse of the Aztec

500

This New World food, calorically dense and able to grow in warm climates, helped West African populations recover from the trans-Atlantic slave trade

Cassava/Manioc

500

This country’s East Indies Trading company controlled much of the spice trade in Southeast Asia in the 1600s and 1700s

Netherlands/The Dutch

NOTE: Ultimately, Dutch in Indonesia and British in India come to colonially administer territories rather than trading post empire of early modern era

500

This was the name for the process in which Christian communities in the Ottoman Empire were required to hand over young boys to be trained for civil administration or military service

Devshirme


NOTE: Similarly, Mughals incorporated Hindus into political and military elite

CED 3.2 “Recruitment and use of bureaucratic elites, as well as the development of military professionals, became more common among rulers who wanted to maintain centralized control over their populations and resources.”

500

In what year did Martin Luther write his 95 theses, sparking the Protestant Reformation?

1517

500

This mathematician and astronomer wrote On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres, published in 1543, which argued the earth revolved around the sun, an initial breakthrough in the Scientific Revolution



Nicolaus Copernicus

Other important contributors:

  • Galileo (1564-1642): Improved telescope

  • Newton (1642-1727): Theory of gravity, a natural law unifying all bodies