CL World History Benchmark I

Global exchange of plants, crops, animals, people, and diseases (deadly in west) across Atlantic

European animals and diseases to America (destroyed Native populations), American foods/crops to Europe, Asia, Africa

Permanently alters human geography and natural environment, improved nutrition, disease immunity

Explored for fishing, land hunger, discovery of Azores and Madieras Islands, and to get land to plant sugarcane

Explore and colonize new territories in order to expand trade networks, establish successful trading post empire, and acquire valuable resources, such as gold, silver, and spices.

Spread Christianity and convert non-Christian peoples

Argued capitalism would ultimately improve society as a whole

Attacked practices of Roman Catholic Church (indulgences, vernacular, authority) and wrote Ninety-Five Theses to spread his ideas (importance of printing press)

Indulgences: pay to get into heaven

Vernacular: Bible needs to be translated

Authority: return to biblical text for authority

Inspired events in Europe like Protestant Reformation

Series of treaties signed that ended Thirty Years’ War

European states to be recognized as sovereign and equal, religious and domestic affairs protected

Seven Years’ War followed (opposition to French expansion)

Spanish conquistadores brought down empires with better weapons, looted treasures, enslaved, abused, and killed Natives

Aztecs: brought down by Hernan Cortes, stole treasures

Incas: brought down by Francisco Pizarro, stole treasures

Taino: brought down by Spaniards and disease, forced into labor, Encomienda system

Portuguese got land to plant sugarcane (major cash crop)

Maritime routes to Asia with silk roads, prices and profits up (Indian pepper, Chinese ginger, African gold, ivory, slaves)

Exploited by Spanish and Portuguese for gold mining and sugarcane plantations

African slaves worked to produce sugar or molasses with sugar mill

Spanish conquistadores

Aztecs: Mexico, brought down by Hernan Cortes who conquered capital Tenochtitlan, stole treasures

Incas: Peru, brought down by Francisco Pizarro who conquered Atahualpa and took the empire for Spain, stole treasures

Trade routes between the Americas and Europe

European manufactured goods (guns) sent to Africa

Cash crops bought in America and sent to Europe

Slaves bought and sent to American plantations (Middle Passage)

Posed as male King of Kingdom of Ndongo (Angola) in Africa, Ndongo power declined after her death

Resisted Portuguese influence, made temporary alliance with Dutch in unsuccessful attempt to expel Portuguese

War captives, criminals, people expelled from clans were enslaved

African slaves sent to the West were treated much more brutally and there was much more of it

Visited the West (“the Indies”) and witnessed the abuse and exploitation of the Natives

Went to court in Spain and tried to convince the King to stop colonization and to change their Western policies

Violent efforts with crusades by Portuguese with Franciscan and Dominican missionaries sent to India, Asia, and China (Roman Catholicism)

Sailing technique involving knowledge of wind patterns and currents of ocean (“return through the sea”), allowed Portuguese exploration

“Brilliant” dynasty

Great Wall and Forbidden City built

Discouraged Mongol names and dress

Emperor Hongwu: maintained control using mandarins (travelling officials)

Emperor Yongle: experimented with sea expeditions, made Beijing capital to deter Mongol attacks

Decline: leadership corrupted by emperors hiding in Forbidden City, famine and peasant rebellions broke out, Beijing taken by rebels, Manchu fighters invade, take city, and disallow reestablishment of the dynasty

Confucian thought promoted by Zhu Xi, Confucian morality with Buddhist logic

Education promoted

Compilation of massive Yongle Encyclopedia

Development of popular novels

Tent government (Tokugawa Ieyasu)

Established military government and Tokugawa dynasty in Japan (1300-1800), dynasty lead to development and unification of Japan

Nobles in the warrior class of the Feudal society of Japan, ruled over their own territories and armies

260 territorial lords loyal to shogun or emperor

Forced to spend every other year at court, controlling marriage and socializing of daimyo families

Italian explorer who completed four voyages funded by Spanish monarchy across Atlantic Ocean, opening the way for the widespread European exploration and colonization of the Americas as well as slave trade

Columbus’s most famous voyage was his first one in 1492, where he landed in the Bahamas and came into contact with the Taino people

Former slave author, wrote best-selling autobiography that made eloquent attacks on slavery, campaign to end slavery

Ottoman: mostly Muslim, Christians, Jews too; Osman forced Christian families to surrender young boys to military service, religious communities self authority

Mughal: Hindus, Jains, Zoroastrians, Christians, Sikhs; Muslims supreme, but work with Hindus, Akbar religiously tolerant, merged Islam and Hinduism, Aurangzeb hostile to Hinduism destroying temples and taxing them to encourage conversion, hated Christian exclusivity

Ottoman Empire spanned three continents, including much of southeastern Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa, territory fluctuated due to military and territorial losses

Western border: marked by the Adriatic Sea, the Aegean Sea, and the Mediterranean Sea

Eastern border: in present-day Iraq and Iran

Northern border: in parts of present-day Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania

Southern border: in present-day Saudi Arabia and Yemen

Akbar religiously tolerant, promoted “Divine Faith”, merged Islam and Hinduism, received Jesuits positively

Supported Hinduism, Christianity, Jainism, and Sikhism

Ottoman vs. Safavid territorial and religious disputes

Ottoman Selim I attacks Safavids, heavy use of Ottoman gunpowder technology gives them the upper hand

Ismail escapes, conflict continues for two centuries

Shah Abbas the Great revitalizes weakened Safavid empire

The TV-series seeks to explain why some civilizations became more successful and dominant than others in world history.

Diamond argues that geographic and environmental factors played a significant role in shaping the course of human history, and that certain regions were able to develop more advanced technologies and institutions due to factors such as climate, natural resources, and animal domestication.

Diamond’s theory suggests that certain regions, such as Europe and Asia, were able to gain a technological advantage due to their geographic advantages, which allowed them to develop guns, germs, and steel more easily.

Formerly disunited groups of regional kingdoms, city-states, ecclesiastical states, over three hundred semiautonomous jurisdictions

Nationalist sentiment developed idea of unification from Napoleonic Wars

Otto von Bismarck advanced Realpolitik (“the politics of reality”)

“Blood and iron”: used wars with neighbors to unify Germany

This slave revolt was only successful slave revolt

French unable to defend most successful colony Saint-Domingue (Haiti) on island of Hispaniola, first black-led republic

Enslaved people wanted to overthrow system of slavery, so it was abolished in Haiti

Declaration of Independence: resistance to British policies, sovereignty based on consent of the ruled, changes focus on Parliament, King plays a major role too, created by Continental Congress

Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen: influenced by America, equality of men (women not included), sovereignty resides in the people and should determine how France is run, individual rights

Enlightenment ideas: individual liberty, equality, and popular sovereignty

American Revolution: fought for American colonies’ freedom from British, Declaration of Independence and war inspired by Enlightenment ideas

French Revolution: French revolution against politics, Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen and war inspired by Enlightenment Ideas

Haitian Revolution: slave revolt inspired by Enlightenment ideas and natural rights and liberty