chapter 4 pk short answers

What conflicts did the Scientific Revolution cause in Europe?

It eroded religious belief and practice in the west especially among the well educated. The scientific ways of thinking challenged the social hierarchies and political systems. Science was also used to legitimize gender and racial inequalities, giving support to old ideas about the natural inferiority of women and enslaved people.

In what ways did the Atlantic slave trade transform African societies?

It fostered moral corruption. There were also many more men than females which increased gender inequality because the demands on those women increased by a lot. For a smaller group of women, the slave trade provided an opportunity to exercise power and gain wealth.

How did the impact of silver on China differ from its impact on Japan and Spain?

Japan used silver generated profits to defeat many feudal lords and unified the country. The shoguns allied with the country's domestic market and developed investment into agriculture and industry but they ended up protecting the forest. It also caused population growth to slow down dramatically. In Spain, silver enriched the kingdom and made Spain the envy of the Europeans. This meant they too could pursue military and political ambitions. However, the silver in Spain ended up with inflation of prices instead of economic growth and with the drop of silver, the Spaniards dropped from being number one in Europe. In China, silver deepened commercialization and caused Chinese economies to become more regionally specific. It surged the economy but with that, the forest was being cut down in order to plant more cash crops. No regulations came to regrow or protect the forest unlike in Japan.

What was the significance of the silver trade in the early modern era in world history?

Chinese authorities consolidated a variety of taxes into a single tax which needed to be payed in silver. This new demand for silver caused its value to skyrocket and meant that foreigners who had silver could purchase more of China's silk and porcelains. This made an incentive in order for people to get more bang for their buck (profit).

How did European imperial expansion help spread Christianity?

Colonial settlers and traders brought their faith in Christianity with them and sought to spread it in the new colonies. Organized missionaries were the main contributors to the spreading of Christianity throughout the newly conquered lands.

How did Neo-Confucianism differ from traditional Confucianism?

Neo-Confucianism stated that anyone could achieve a virtuous life by introspection and contemplation, without the extended education, study of classical texts, and constant striving for improvement that traditional Confucianism prescribed for an elite class of gentlemen. The main difference is tht traditional Confucianism was more focused on societal thinking compared to the individualistic approach in Neo-Confucianism.

What historical developments enabled Europeans to carve out huge empires an ocean away from their homelands?

One main reason was the geographical advantages that European colonizers had since they were closer to the Americas than their Asian competitors were. In addition, Europeans desperately wanted resources from the Indian Ocean which was largely inaccessible to them. The americas filled this gap and gave access to many resources Europeans wanted. The drive to expand both territorially and religiously was another reason for the large colonies that would settle in America.

How did European nations differ in their colonization of the Western Hemisphere?

One main thing was the difference in religion. Spain was a major colonizer and focused on spreading Catholicism while England spread protestant christianity. Economies were also based on different things. Women and men also experienced distinct treatments based on what empire they were colonized by. For example, Spaniards married native women and even had Spanish women in the elite class, something which was not seen in British colonies.

How did European trade goods impact native societies?

One main thing was the introduction of hard alcohol such as rum, brandy, and whiskey. The native Americans had no prior experience with alcohol and ended up making many native Americans addicted and increased violence, binge drinking, and promiscuity. Another was the introduction of European textiles which were more attractive to Native Americans and therefore changed the way clothing looked and ended up with the loss of traditional crafts. Demand for furs and skins by the Europeans also led to the depletion of many species.

How was the role of religion different in the colonization of Latin America than in the colonization of North America?

In North America, England was the main colonizer. This meant that they were protestant and were much less interested in spreading Christianity than the missionaries in Latin America were. The protestant emphasis on reading the bible for themself also led to a higher percentage of literacy in North America than in Latin America. Almost 75% of males were literate in North America compared to 5% in Latin America.

To what extent did the Portuguese realize their goals in the Indian Ocean?

Portugal established bases at several locations in the Indian Ocean world. They also made a tax to trade in the Indian Ocean and monopolized the profitable route around Africa to Europe. However, they did not succeed in controlling the entire spice trade to Europe and other routes by land and sea through the ottoman empires prospered instead. Towards the end, Portuguese people ended up converting to Islam and assimilated with the Asian local customs.

Analyze the impact of the printing press on the spread of Protestantism and the divisions within it.

Reformation thinking could spread quickly beyond Germany because of the invention of the printing press. It got printed into many translated pamphlets for all of Europe. In France, the response caused the 30 years war because it raised the preexisting tensions between Catholics and the protestant minority known as Huguenots.

In what different ways did global commerce transform human societies and the lives of individuals during the early modern era?

Silver from Latin America enriched western Europe and made much of its way into China, allowing Europeans to better participate in commerce with East Asia. In North America, furs found a market in Europe and China, transforming natural environments and human societies.

How did sugar transform Brazil and the Caribbean?

Sugar-based colonies were only formed around sugar export and imported the rest of their needs. It was very labor-intensive and only profitable on a large scale so slaves ended up being used in mass-scale therefore spurring the Atlantic slave trade. These slaves were typically more males than females and also created a huge gender imbalance, leading to them playing distinctive roles in society.

To what extent did the British and Dutch trading companies change the societies they encountered in Asia?

The Dutch enslaved and killed people that were not cooperative on the matter of only selling spices to them. People were impoverished and the local economy of the spice islands was shattered. The British did not take such control as they were no match for the Mughal empire. They secured trading bases through the permission of the Mughal empire by paying and bribing them. Hundreds of villages in south India became specialized producers for the British.

Why were missionary efforts to spread Christianity less successful in China than in Latin America?

The Latin American societies had been defeated which disrupted their society and shook their cultural confidence. China first was met with Christianity during the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, two very powerful dynasties which at no point had china's independence or cultural integrity threatened by the European missionaries and traders working there. In addition, the missionaries offered nothing the Chinese wanted but in exchange, would need the converts to abandon much of traditional Chinese culture which was difficult to do for the Chinese.

How did the goals and actions of the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, and British in Asia differ?

The Spanish, in the Philippines, relocated people to Christian communities, introduced tribute, taxes, unpaid labor, and had large estates emerge. The Portuguese attempted to control the Indian Ocean trade and colonized several Asian empires in order to gain a better position in the trade network. The Dutch took over the Indian ocean trade and overtook the Portuguese. They ended up becoming highly commercialized and urbanized and their shipping operations were very good. The British organized business ventures through private companies that raised money efficiently. They also received charters from governments to grant the right to trading monopolies and power to make wat and govern conquered people. They mostly failed on colonizing the spice islands and fell back on India, where most of their trading posts were.

What large-scale transformations did European empires generate?

The diseases that Europeans brought to the Americas started the great dying which killed about 90% of native people. They created new societies that replaced the varied cultures that were in the Americas. Europeans also took advantage of many of the fields, introducing many new plants and animals and cutting down a majority of the forests. The last change they made also mainly affected the natives as the introduction of horses made natives abandon their fields and started to hunt bison.

What explains the rise of the Atlantic slave trade?

The immense difficulty and danger of the producing sugar which was so well-liked, the limitations attached to serf labor, and the general absence of wageworkers all pointed to slavery as a source of labor for sugar plantations which were prominent in the Americas. Before the Slavic slaves were the main source of slaves for sugar plantations in the Mediterranean, but when the Ottoman Turks took control of the byzantine empire, the supply of slaves was cut off, leaving Africa as the only alternative. They also had religious justification for their actions in West Africa which was given by the pope.

What were the long-term and short-term causes of the Protestant Reformation?

The protestant reformation provoked political, economic, and social tension. In addition, kings and princes who refuted the pope as their leader found an excuse for their independence. Because of this, lands and taxes previously held by the church could be gained. It also affected the general person because protestant Christianity brought the thinking that all vocations were of equal merit. It made is so that people who saw the corruption of the church officials could oppose them and changed the social order.

What drove European involvement in the world of Asian commerce?

They discovered the Indian Ocean trade network and wanted to start trading there because of the vast amount of wealth. The largest motivation came from the desire for tropical spices because of the many uses they had while other things such as precious metals were popular as well.

What distinguished the British settler colonies of North America from their counterparts in Latin America?

They implemented a rapidly changing society with different beliefs than their European competitors. They also sought to change European customs unlike in Latin America. The easy availability of land and the outsider status of many British settlers made it even more difficult to follow the Spanish or Portuguese colonial pattern of sharp class hierarchies, large rural estates, and dependent laborers. However, women were still unable to escape gender segregation unlike the women slaves in Latin America which played a vital role in society.

In what ways did the Enlightenment challenge older patterns of European thinking?

They took aim at arbitrary governments, divine right of kings, the privileges of the highest class of Europeans, all of which had been in place for many years. It also challenged the idea of religion and its corruption as well as reforming the government by putting a ruler that ruled under laws created by humans instead of laws created by the divine.

Explain how Islam changed as it spread?

When a Muslim sultanate in Sumatra ended up being ruled by four women in a row, authorities started to enforce the practices of Islamic law and forbade women from exercising political power. In Muslim Java, many women served in royal courts and women through Indonesia continued their role as buyers and sellers in markets. In addition, as Islam spread, it was constantly blended with other local religions.