CH20-21 Assignment #24-30, 28-34

29) Describe the Hawaiian fish pond system.

After about the 14th century, as their population increased, the inhabitants of Hawaii built ingenious fishponds that allowed small fry to swim from the ocean through narrow gates into rock-enclosed spaces but prevented larger fish from escaping. Fishponds enabled Hawaiians to harvest large quantities of mature fish with relative ease and thus contributed to the islanders' food supplies.

30) Some Polynesian societies developed into chiefdoms - but there was no Polynesian empire. Why not?

Beginning about the 13th century, expanding populations prompted residents of many Pacific islands to develop increasing complex social and political structures. Especially on the larger islands, workers became more specialized: some concentrated on cultivating certain crops, and others devoted their efforts to fishing, producing axes, or constructing large, seagoing canoes. Distinct classes emerged as aristocratic and ruling elites decided the course of public affairs in their societies and extracted surplus agricultural production from those of common birth. The islands of Tonga, Tahiti, and Hawaii had especially stratified societies with sharp distinctions between various classes of high chiefs, lesser chiefs, and commoners. Hawaiian society also recognized distinct classes of priests and skilled artisans, ranking between the chiefly and common classes. In addition to distinct social classes, island societies generated strong political leadership. Ruling chiefs generally oversaw public affairs in portions of an island, sometimes in an entire island, and occasionally in several islands situated close to one another. In Tonga and Hawaii, high chiefs frequently launched campaigns to bring additional islands under their control and create large centralized states. Rarely, however, were these militant chiefs able to overcome geographic and logistic difficulties and realize their expansionist ambitions before the 19th century. Nevertheless, high chiefs guided the affairs of complex societies throughout Polynesia. They allocated lands to families, mobilized labor for construction projects, and organized men into military forces. They commanded enormous respect within their societies.

26) Describe the long distance trade and voyaging between the island groups in the pacific.

Elsewhere in Polynesia, vast stretches of deep blue water made it much more complicated to travel between different island groups and societies. As a result, regular trade networks didn't emerge in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Nevertheless, mariners undertook lengthy voyages on an intermittent basis, sometimes with momentous results. Examples of these results would include being responsible for the dissemination of sweet potatoes to remote islands situated thousands of kilometers from the nearest inhabited lands and promoting social changes in the Hawaiian Islands.

28) Create a venn diagram comparing humanist and scholastic philosophy.

Humanism: Represented an effort to reconcile Christian values and ethics with the increasingly urban and commercial society of Renaissance Europe; drew inspiration from classical authors that demonstrated that it was possible to lead a morally virtuous life while participating actively in the affairs of the world & the intense spirituality and high moral standards of early Christianity & promoted those values in society Scholasticism: Sought to synthesize the beliefs and values of Christianity with the logical rigor of Greek philosophy; taught that the most honorable calling was that of monks and nuns who withdrew from the world and dedicated their lives to prayer, contemplation, and the glorification of God Both: committed to Christianity

24) Describe the indigenous Australian religion.

In spite of seasonal migration, frequent encounters with people from other aboriginal societies, and trade over long distances, the cultural traditions of Australian people mostly didn't diffuse much beyond the regions inhabited by individual societies. Aboriginal people paid close attention to the prominent geographic features of the lands around them. Rocks, mountains, forests, mineral deposits, and bodies of water crucial for their survival, and they related stories and myths about those and other geographic features. Often, they conducted religious observances designed to ensure continuing supplies of animals, plant life, and water. Given the intense concern of aboriginal people with their immediate environments, their cultural and religious traditions focused on local matters and didn't appeal to people from other regions.

30) Why did Zheng He's voyages end?

In the mid-1430s, the Ming emperors decided to end the expeditions. Confucian ministers, who mistrusted Zheng He and the eunuchs who supported the voyages, argued that resources committed to the expensive expeditions would go to better uses if devoted to agriculture. Thus in 1433, after Zheng He's 7th voyage, the expeditions ended. OPTIONAL INFO: Chinese merchants continued to trade in Japan and southeast Asia, but imperial officials destroyed most of the nautical charts that Zheng He had carefully prepared and gave up any plans to maintain a Chinese presence in the Indian Ocean. The decommissioned treasure ships sat in harbors until they rotted away, and Chinese craftsmen forgot the technology of building such large vessels. Yet Zheng He's voyages demonstrated clearly that China could exercise military, political, and economic influence throughout the Indian Ocean basin.

25) What was the last large, habitable region of the earth to receive members of the human species?

New Zealand was the last large, habitable region of the earth to receive members of the human species in about the middle of the first millennium CE.

32) How did Portuguese traders change the African slave trade?

Portuguese traders took full advantage of the long-established African commerce in slaves, but they also changed the nature of the slave trade by dramatically increasing its volume and by sending slaves to new destinations. By the mid 15th century, the Portuguese dispatched thousands of slaves annually from their forts on islands off the African coast. They delivered most of their human cargo to recently founded plantations in the Atlantic islands, where the slaves worked as laborers, although some worked as domestic servants in Europe. The use of African slaves to perform heavy labor on commercial plantations soon became common practice, and it fueled the development of a huge, Atlantic-wide trade that delivered as many as 12 million enslaved Africans to destinations in North America, South America, and the Caribbean region.

27) Interisland trade of ______ helped the Maori of New Zealand survive.

The interisland trade of sweet potatoes helped the Maori population of New Zealand because the staple crops of the tropical Pacific didn't flourish in the temperate climes of New Zealand.

33) How is Bartolomeu Dias? Who is Vasco da Gama? What did each accomplish as an explorer?

Toward the end of the 15th century, Portuguese mariners began to search seriously for a sea lane from Europe around Africa and into the Indian Ocean. By 1488 Bartolomeu Dias had sailed around the Cape of Good Hope and entered the Indian Ocean. Restless because of the long journey and distance from home, the crew forced Dias to return immediately to Portugal, but his voyage proved that it was possible to sail from Europe to the Indian Ocean. In 1497 Vasco da Gama departed Portugal with the intention of sailing to India. After rounding the Cape of Good Hope, he cruised up the east African coast and found a Muslim pilot who showed him how to take advantage of the seasonal monsoon winds to sail across the Arabian Sea to India. In 1498 he arrived at Calicut, and by 1499 he had returned to Lisbon with a hugely profitable cargo of pepper and spices.

31) What were the goals of the Portuguese explorers?

Unlike Zheng He and his companions, Europeans didn't venture onto the seas in the interests of diplomacy or in hopes of establishing a political and military reputation in foreign lands. Instead, they acted on two different but complimentary motives: the desire to expand the boundaries of Roman Catholic Christianity and the desire to profit from commercial opportunities.

34) What Portuguese trader first reached India (Calcutta specifically) by sea? In what year did he arrive?

Vasco da Gama was the first to reach India (Calcutta specifically) by sea in 1498.

28) What agriculture was cultivated in the Pacific Ocean islands?

While undertaking regular or intermittent voyages over long distances, islanders throughout the Pacific Ocean also built productive agricultural and fishing societies. They cultivated taro, yams, sweet potatoes, bananas, breadfruit, and coconuts, and they kept domesticated chickens, pigs, and dogs. They also fed on abundant supplies of fish, which they caught by spear, net, and hook.

29) The purpose of Zheng He's expeditions was to establish Chinese dominance in the Indian Ocean basin. How did he do so? (Name at least 3 ways.)

Zheng He embarked on each voyage with an awesome fleet of vessels complemented by armed forces large enough to overcome resistance at any port where the expedition called. On the first voyage, for example, Zheng He's fleet consisted of 317 ships accompanied by almost 28000 troops. Many of these vessels were mammoth, nine-masted "treasure ships" with 4 decks capable of accommodating 500 or more passengers, as well as huge stores of cargo. On the first of three voyages, Zheng He took his fleet to southeast Asia, India, and Ceylon. The fourth expedition went to the Persian Gulf and Arabia, and later expeditions ventured down the east African coast, calling at ports as far as south as Malindi in modern Kenya. Throughout his travels, Zheng He liberally dispensed gifts of Chinese silk, porcelain, and other goods. In return he received rich and unusual presents from his hosts, including African zebras and giraffes, which ended their days in the Ming imperial zoo. Zheng He and his companions paid respect to the local deities and customs they encountered, and in Ceylon they erected a monument honoring Buddha, Allah, and Vishnu.