Week 7
Shipworms
NOT a worm - mollusk that eats wood
• Since the middle ages, Dutch windmills etc diking water to keep the sea out (everything below sea level) - land reclamation
• shipworms from Asia come to Netherlands on ships - they EAT the dikes!!!! Cause flooding (INVASIVE SPECIES)
◦ Divine retribution?
• "A plague from the sea"
• Technocratic reading of shipworms - call for new designs, understanding the shipworm - eventually won out over providential idea - but EXPENSIVE
Papiamento
nat'l language of Curaçao (and Aruba), constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands - reads like Portuguese (NOT Dutch-based) but w/ African influence, words and grammatical patterns
◦ These islands not great for sugar BUT worked as trade nexuses!!
◦ Portuguese creole languages all over
◦ A sephardic Jewish connection? Diaspora to the low countries, toleration in Amsterdam in particular --> many early residents of Curaçao were these Jews
Globalization of potatoes
◦ Potatoes feared and seldom eaten in Europe before 1700 - shared heritage with deadly nightshade - genus Solanum, which also includes tomato and eggplant
◦ Assertion that the potato accounts for 1/4 of the growth of the Old World - population and urbanization - big suspicious number - BUT potatoes v important
◦ IMPORTANT - they contain all important vitamins and nutrients - superior to previous staple crops, higher calories, easy to grow (between growing seasons, grow well in cool weather, don't increase nitrogen in the soil), easy to store, good fodder for livestock, low labor input
◦ Spread around much of the world!
◦ BUT potato diet --> vulnerability
‣ Great potato famine - lack of genetic diversity among potato crops --> all became diseased --> massive immigration to the US
Aeolipile
hero's engine 1st century AD, basically a steam engine
‣ Used for curiosity, automata (opening temple doors, etc.)
Pronounce it: "Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie"
Mataram
• 1600s: Rise of Mataram in Java - Sultanate of Mataram - reconstitution of Javanese state w/ power base in central Java
◦ On the flag - the Kris - traditional sword of the Malay archipelago (wavy knife)
‣ NOT just a weapon of war - magical and ritual implements
◦ Mataram at its height in the 17thc - Sultan Agung
‣ Mixed legacy
• Institutionalization of Japanese Religious Syncretism (Kebatinan or Kejawen)
• Decline of Mataram after his death
• Retreat from sea and trade - openly contemptuous of it --> couldn't keep the Dutch out bc the navy had been neglected
‣ Today's remnant of Mataram - Yogyakarta - "devolved sultan-led special region"
Slavery in Ancient Greece
◦ Ancient Athens
‣ 1/3 population enslaved, often captured in war
‣ Even poor peasants would often have several enslaved
‣ Less enslaved ownership by numbers than in Rome (rich owning 50 vs rich owning 1000 etc)
‣ Major economic underpinning, allowed leisure for owners
Tabinshwehti
King of Burma 1530-1550
Based out of their small landlocked principality in the Sittaung valley, Tabinshwehti and his deputy Bayinnaung began their military campaigns in 1534 against the Mon Kingdom of Pegu, and had conquered the wealthier but disunited kingdom by 1541. He then leveraged the coastal kingdom's wealth, manpower and access to Portuguese mercenaries and firearms, and extended his rule to the ancient capital of Pagan (Bagan) in 1544. However, his attempts to build an East-West empire fell short in Arakan (1545–47) and in Siam (1547– 49). He actively courted the support of ethnic Mons of Lower Burma, many of whom were appointed to the highest positions in his government and armed forces. His chief queen and chief primate were Mons. He moved the capital to Pegu (Bago).
Gerbert of Aurillac, aka Pope Sylvester II
Key early figure in the "medieval renaissance" - studied arabic, greco-roman math, astronomy, etc. in Muslim cities in Spain --> consorting with demons?
war making, state making, protection, extraction
Sikhism
◦ founded in the 15thc, aspects of Islam and Hinduism
◦ Guru Tegh Bahadur 1675 martyred under Aurangzeb for protecting Kashmiri hindus
◦ No monasticism
◦ Eventually, policy of defensive militarism (the soldier saint)
◦ Khanda symbol, incl chakram - throwing weapon, steel circle (see Xena Warrior Princess)
◦ Largest religion in India by district in 2011, overrepresented in military police etc.
• A quilombo is a Brazilian hinterland settlement founded by people of African origin, and others sometimes called Carabali. Most of the inhabitants of quilombos, called quilombolas, were people who had escaped enslavement.
◦ The largest quilombo - Quilombo Dos Palmares: 1690s around 20,000 inhabitants
◦ 24-year Dutch occupation of NE Brazil spurred quilombo development
‣ NE Brazil: Sugar plantations in humid coastal zone, rugged semi-arid interior provided refuge
Hakka People
◦ New World Upland crops and the Hakka people of southern China
‣ Histories of discrimination and massacre
‣ VERY quickly picked up on new crops - sweet potato, corn, peanuts, etc that could be grown in less hospitable environments
‣ Significant influence on modern China and outside Chinese influence - at least 23 Hakka heads of state of various countries
‣ Tulou (lit. "earth building") - circular or square shared housing - deals w insecurity
Calico and Chintz
• One major consumer demand: Indian printed cotton textiles (calico and chintz) - fabric took Europe by storm!!! (First became clothes when handed down to maidservants?) - they'd had embroidery and dyed clothing, but nothing like this before
◦ Began sending designs back to India for craftspeople to make to English/Euro taste
◦ British EIC - selling Indian textiles over much of the world - heyday of the Indian textile industry mid 18thc
◦ British protectionism - the Calico Acts 1700-21 - imported garments had begun to out-compete local fabrics and textiles --> tariffs, 1721 Calico Act banned the sale of most cotton textiles in England (but tremendous amount of smuggling) - various bans and resctrictions, duties, etc lasted into the 19thc
Why did Capsicum peppers evolve heat?
to ensure dispersal by birds who can't taste the heat (mammals digest the seeds, so they don't want mammals to eat them, but can't be toxic or birds would die)
Formation of VOC
Dutch gov't granted it a 21-year monopoly on overseas trade in 1602, lasted until 1799...
◦ Initial advantages:
‣ high capitalization
‣ permanence (bureaucracy)
• Unlike family or individual partnership businesses, last long after founders
‣ state-level powers
‣ out-competes EIC in SE Asia
◦ In the end:
‣ VOC dominates insular SE Asia
‣ EIC Dominates S Asia
◦ Some superlatives (many questionable)
‣ First multinational corp in the world (? EIC)
‣ First company to issue stock?
‣ First corporate logo
‣ Largest and most valuable corp in hist? Debatable
‣ 18% avg dividend payments for over 100 years
‣ 1669 - over 150 merchants ships, 40 warships, 50,000 employees, 10,000 soldiers, 40% dividend (HUGE dividend --> Dutch Golden Age)
Example of effects of the AST on African Societies (controversial issue)
Ashante Empire (in what is now Ghana)
‣ Expansion from inland to the coast to get access to trade w/ arms manufacturers
‣ Strong military
‣ Communication networks - "Ashante talking drum" can reproduce spoken language, can send messages over 200+ mile distances (earshot to earshot)
‣ Slavery a tradition, variation in the welfare of enslaved people (wealth, intermarriage, etc to sacrifice) - matrilineal system
‣ Election of kings senior female of the kingly lineage nominated eligible males
Globalization of cannabis
• Another major psychoactive substance, spread by sufi networks, that globalized at a much slower pace... CANNABIS
◦ Intro'd to Iraq 1230ish by Sufi mystic travelers
◦ Probably originated somewhere in central Asia
◦ Used for fiber or to alter the mind? Or pharmacologically?
◦ Herodotus on cannabis use among the Scythians! "The Scythians howl in their joy at the vapor-bath"
◦ Use in Sufi rituals - seen as a way of reaching the divine - but one of the least studied phenomena in Islam
◦ Al-Khadir "The Green One" - prominent figure in folk Islam, controversial thesis that he was the patron saint of cannabis
◦ Also used in Hinduism by Brahmin holy men
◦ Non-European-mediated routes of diffusion - generally poorly known
◦ Incredibly globalized! And varying legality/enforcement due to global war on drugs
Wages and the Industrial Revolution
Loooong lag time for wages to increase - population is booming, use of cheap labor
◦ Working conditions and wages
‣ Factory work became less skilled, more monotonous
‣ Conditions dirty, dangerous, unhealthy
‣ Long hours, poor pay, women and children paid less than men
‣ Owners required workers "clock in" and limited breaks to increase production
For what military technology was the Kingdom of Mysore famous?
Rockets!!!!
Aurangzeb (1658-1707)
‣ Considered the last effective Mughal emperor
‣ 158mil subjects, 10x revenue of Louis XIV of France
‣ Imperial overreach? TOO long reign? Lived to be 89 - Wars of Succession
‣ The Mughals did not follow primogeniture - first born not inherently the heir - sons would have to prove themselves in battle
‣ Consequently, each time a ruler died, a war of succession between the brothers for the throne would start - continual civil war
• Faruqui Princes of the Mughal Empire - arguing that actually this system allowed princes to prove themselves as administrators, build loyalty and alliances
‣ But bc Aurangzeb lived so long, his sons were old! And he had grandsons! Messy
Intolerance? Controversial debate - definitely abandoned his predecessors' pluralist and tolerant policies, BUT historians now saying that he wasn't so bad, building temples etc
• Probably somewhere in between
Williams Thesis
• Williams Thesis (Capitalism and Slavery 1944)
◦ Slavery helped finance the Industrial Revolution in England. Plantation owners, ship builders, and merchants connected with the slave trade accumulated vast fortunes that established banks and heavy industry in Europe and expanded the reach of capitalism worldwide.
◦ Eric Williams himself - 1st prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago (also a soccer player)
◦ Hotly debated - some claim that the domestic investment wasn't that huge, lower profits, etc. (but how accurately can you count these things? indirect effects?)
Victor Lieberman's "Strange Parallels"
Victor Lieberman argues that over a thousand years, each of mainland Southeast Asia's great lowland corridors experienced a pattern of accelerating integration punctuated by recurrent collapse. These trajectories were synchronized not only between corridors, but most curiously, between the mainland as a whole, much of Europe, and other sectors of Eurasia. Lieberman describes in detail the nature of mainland consolidation and dissects the mix of endogenous and external factors responsible.
◦ Most econ historians - not much at all until the late 1800s, but more recently Margaret Jacob (and others) disagree - argues for critical importance of knowledge in Eur's econ transformation, giving the culture of applied science its due
Tell me your favorite map from this quarter, and why!
can't believed you picked the best map as your favorite, that's crazy