History Midterm
Trade Diasporas
"Littoral" societies- focused around port, coast cities Often focused in ports No banking systems for goods—who do you trust? Trade Diasporas= groups of people you can trust, like family/kin Demand for products that were not available in particular regions of the world, the division of the world into small city states who wanted to create economic and cultural ties with the rest of the world and the willingness of people living in certain areas to create their communities abroad and be represented by them. Crucial in process of establishing long-distance trade, "transfers of technology, imperial and colonial ventures, missionary campaigns, the transatlantic slave trade, and the development of global capitalism." Led to development of global markets and triggered exchange of cultures, ideas and technology between host country and merchant.
Melaka
- -Gateway to spice islands: pepper, nutmeg, mace and cloves -Melaka and the lands below the winds. Word on the importance of Melaka as the center for trade for the whole eastern part of Asia and the gateway to the spice islands of the East Indies soon reached the ears of the Portuguese. In 1509, a fleet commanded was sent to investigate Melaka and to request the Sultan to allow the Portuguese to trade there. However, the Sultan was persuaded by local traders to refuse permission. -Port city, trade emporium, lives solely on trade -No agriculture/no farm base -Import everything to survive -Trade Emporium:based on free market -Taxes and profits -Port accessible in all seasons
Zheng-he
-7 Voyages, 1405-1433.. Formerly romanized as Cheng Ho, was a Hui Chinese court eunuch, mariner, explorer, diplomat, and fleet admiral who commanded voyages to Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, Somalia and the Swahili coast, collectively referred to as the "Voyas of Zheng He." -Zheng He led seven expeditions to the "Western," or Indian Ocean. Brought back to China many trophies and envoys from more than thirty kingdoms -Why go: Hundreds of ships, 20,000-30,000 men, heavy military presence, Exploration, Project of Ming power: wealth and military, Incorporate into Tribute system. -Ming Treasure Ship (about a dozen per trip) 400 ft. long/170 ft. wide Why End: Expenses (Salary, ship, upkeep), Accomplished missions, Change in politics, attention to interior (move capital to beijing), Rise of Confucian scholars -Voyages sponsored by the Ming government designed to establish Chinese presence and impose imperial control over the Indian ocean trades, impress foreign peoples in the Indian Ocean basin and extend to the empire's tributary system
Columbian Exchange
-A dramatically widespread exchange of animals, plants, culture, human populations (including slaves), communicable disease, and ideas between American and Afro-Eurasian Hemispheres following the voyage to the Americas by Christopher Columbus in 1492. -The contact between the two areas circulated a wide variety of new crops and livestock, which supported increases in population in both hemispheres. -New world: Foodstuffs (corn, potatoes, beans, cocoa), precious metal (gold, silver) tobacco -Old World: Foodstuff (wheat, barley, rice, sugar), diseases (smallpox, plague, influenza, measles, whooping cough, malaria), livestock (cattle, sheep, pigs, horses) -Much more disease in old world than new world, death rates of 90% in the Americas, rapidly die off. -The Americas produce lots of food -New source of goods-potatoes exported, tomatoes (medical, aphrodisiac). Many foods will grow in new places, amount of farmland increases-more calories causes population booms (China doubles/triples 300 million, Europe, Africa). -Ecological imperialism-invasive species, import species that get away into new environment and change it (horses), Erosion and cash crop -Widespread exchange of animals, plants, culture, human populations (including slaves), communicable disease, and ideas between the american and Afro-Eurasian hemispheres following the voyage to the Americas by Christopher Columbus in 1492 -Wide variety of new crops and livestock supported increases in population in both hemispheres
Mita System
-All males starting at the age of 15 were required to participate in the Mita. This remained mandatory until the age of 50. However the Inca rule was flexible on the amount of time one could share on the Mita turn. -Colonial administrators instituted the Mita system in 1605, requring indigenous men to perform two to four months of forced labor in the mines or factories owned by Spanish colonials. -The Incas' Mita system of forced labor for the common good was used by the Spanish for mining gold and silver for the Crown. -When people were engaged in Mita they were baptized, ultimately Mita system because slavery under the guide of educating and converting the local people to Catholicism. • New labor system that allows us to force you to work in the mines, after around 2 years you can go home, pay a small amount of money and therefore we are not technically illegally enslaving you • Remove workers from villagers and force them to Potosi • Essentially slavery→forced to work in mines • Devise an elegant solution to get just the silver (no rocks, etc). Crush it up and bake together to have mercury silver cakes, put in a bag, poor water over, so all that's left is the silver cake, and eventually mercury becomes liquid and all you have left is pure silver • Mercury is poisonous→dangerous, enormous degree of mercury poisoning • Put stamps on silver, Spanish empire silver bar so you can export them • Weigh 80 pounds or more, each bar, 99% silver • To get to the coast, you must load little amounts on thousands of llama's, then you must loan them on the ships, then you export the silver o Many silver is stolen from the Empire
Gama
-Gama and the Hajj ship, Miri 1502 -Portuguese explorer, commander of first ship to sail from Europe to India, first European to reach India through sea: Wouldn't need to cross Mediterranean or Arabia (whole voyage made by sea now) -Portuguese establish colonial empire in Asia -Landed in Calicut May 20th, 1498 reaching legendary Indian spice routes (pepper and cinnamon) -Second voyage left Libson 1502 -Problems with Portuguese factory that had been set up in Calicut captured Arab vessel he came across in Indian waters (Miri-pilgrim ship to Mecca_ and massacred the passengers in open water. -Locked in passengers (over 400 pilgrims on board, including 50 women) and burnt them to death. -New treaty/negotiations with Zamorin turned sour, Portuguese fleet bombarded the city for nearly two days from the seashore -Violence brought trade of Malabar Coast of India (which calicut depended) to stand still -Zamorin refused to submit to Portuguese terms Gama left commander in Calicut to look after Portuguese factory (protect it from Zamorin)
Chinese Porcelain
-In Vermeer's painting there is a large Chinese porcelain bowl in the foreground, which introduces the subject of trade with China. -Chinese porcelain was becoming widely available and featured in many paintings. -Porcelain grew very popular in households in Vermeer's time as its price came down and it became affordable to less wealthy families. -Wreck of the White Lion • Had the carefully packed bales of porcelain made it to the docks of Amsterdam as they were supposed to, they would have been sold and resold, chipped and cracked, and finally thrown away. -This is the ordinary fate of almost all the porcelain that made it back to the Netherlands in the 17th century. • There are pieces scattered about the world in museums and private collections, but they survive as individual remnants cut loose from the circumstances that got them to Europe and separated from the shipments of which they were a part. -Most of the pieces recovered are broken, but more have survived than would have made it through the four centuries between 1613 and the present • The first Chinese porcelain to reach Europe amazed all who saw or handled it. • The glazed surfaces were hard and lustrous, the under glaze designs sharply defined, the colors brilliantly vivid. • The style that most caught the attention of Europeans was blue and white: thin white porcelain painted with cobalt blue and coated in a perfectly transparent glaze. • This style was actually a late development in the history of Chinese ceramics -Porcelain production requires driving kiln temperatures up to 1,300 degrees Celsius, high enough to turn the glazing mixture to a glassy transparency and fuse it with the body. -Faience has the superficial appearance of porcelain, but lacks its thinness and translucence. -Europeans learned the technique from Islamic potters in the 15th century, who had developed it to make cheap import substitutes that could compete with Chinese wares. -At the time Chinese potters began firing true porcelain, China was under Mongol rule. -The Mongols also controlled Central Asia, enabling goods to move overland from one end of their continental empire to the other. • Mongols, Unable to match the whiteness of Chinese ceramics, their potters developed a technique of masking their gray clay with an opaque white glaze that looked Chinese • Blue and white porcelain emerged from this long process of innovation. -It sold well in Persia, in part because of the Korans ban on eating from gold or silver plates. • The wealthy wanted to be able to serve guests on expensive tableware, and if they were blocked from presenting food on precious metals, they needed something as lovely as expensive but that wasn't available in time of the Koran. -As the global trade in ceramics expanded in the 16th century to Mexico, the Middle East, and Iberia, and to England and the Netherlands in the 17th, potters in all of these places followed suit. • Indian traders had been bringing Chinese porcelain to the subcontinent since at least the 15th century. -They acquired it from Chinese merchants in Southeast Asia, who brought it from ports along the southeast coast of China, to which ceramics dealers had in turn shipped it out from the interior • The development of a maritime trade route around Africa suddenly opened up a market in Europe.
Cortes
-Spanish Conquistador -In command of the vessels of 550 spanish soldiers and sailors to embark on a journey to sail the Americas -Begun the Spanish conquest when staking a claim for God and King, found a settlement on the coast that he christened Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz, in reference to the fleets arrival. -Sailed from Europe to land in what is now Mexico (Veracruz) after ignoring Velazquez cancellation of the entire commission -3 month journey -After he embarked on his long journey in 1519, Cortes and his men entered the Aztec capital city (Tenochititlan) -Entered the city-wrote to the Spanish Emperor that they had found herbs, fruit, etc. where they were welcomed by Montezuma because of the prophecy he was a god of the east -Aztec's expelled the Spanish from their city with the fear of an attack, and took Montezuma hostage -Spanish returned more prepared to fight, bringing horses and dogs into battle around 1521 -Brought disease (smallpox, etc) -Cortes secured control over Mexico, Aztec's empire collapsed by the mid 1500's
Millet system
-Term for the confessional communities in the Ottoman Empire -Refers to the separate legal courts pertaining to "personal law" under which communities (Muslim, Christian Canon law and Jewish Halakha law abiding) were allowed to rule themselves under their own system. -After Ottoman Tanzimat (1839-76) reforms, the term was used for legally protected religious minority groups, similar to the way other countries use the word nation. Comes from Arabic word that means "nation -Millet system of Islamic law has been called an early example of pre-modern religious pluralism. Closely linked to treatment of non-Muslim minorities Ottoman term specifically refers to the separate legal courts pertaining to personal law under which minorities were allowed to rule themselves (in cases not involving any Muslim) with the fairly little interference from the Ottoman government. People were bound to their millets but their religious affiliations (or their confessional communities), rather than their ethnic origins, according to the millet concept. Head of the millet (most often a religious hierarchy) reported directly to the Ottoman Sultan Had great deal of power—set their own laws and collected/distributed their own taxes All that was required was loyalty to the Empire When a member of one millet committed a crime against a member of another, the law of the injured party applied, but the ruling Islamic majority being paramount, an dispute involving Muslim fell under their sharia-based law.
VOC
-The Dutch East India Company- The VOC, as it is known- is to corporate capitalism what Benjamin Franklin's kite is to electronics: the beginning of something monumentous that could not have been predicted at the time. -The worlds first large joint stock company, the VOC was formed in 1602 when the Dutch Republic obliged the many rading companies popping up to take advantage of the Asian trade boom to erge into asingle commercial organization. -The stick was monopoly -Commercial ventures that did not join the VOC would not be allowed to trade in Asia. -The carrot was unlimited profits in, which the state would not interfere, other than to expect a modest tax dividend -The merchants grudgingly went along with the arrangemet, and the VOC, emerged as a federation of siz regional chambers: the Amsterdam Chamber, which contributed half the capital, the Hoorn and Enkhuizen chambers in north Holland, Middelburg in the Rhine estuary in the south, and Rotterdam and Delt in the heart of Holland. -The VOC combined flexibility with strength, giving the Dutch ahuge advantage in the competition to dominate maritime trade to Asia.
Tribute System
-The traditional Chinese system for managing foreign relations. By establishing the rules and controlling the means and symbolic forms by which foreign countries entered into and conducted their relations with China, the Chinese found in the tributary system and effective mechanism for exacting compliance from neighboring states and peoples on important matters of political, defensive, economic, and diplomatic concern to China. According to the usual practice, foreign peoples would be granted permission to establish trade and contact with China on the condition that their ruler or the ruler's emissaries demonstrate their subservience to the Chinese emperor by personally bearing him tribute. On presenting the tribute, usually a largely token offering of native products or rare and precious commodities, they were also to perform an act of ritual obeisance, which consisted of three kneeling and nine prostrations or bows of the head to the floor in the presence of the emperor. In return, the Chinese ruler would formally invest the foreign ruler with the nominal status of a vassal. In addition, the emissaries received lavish of gifts of cloth, silk, gold, and other luxuries that often far exceeded the value of what they had brought. For as long as this relationship was maintained, the tributaries were awarded legal trading privileges and the right to render tribute in the future. The system was also in large measure an extention of the Confucian social and political order, which was hierarchical, conservative, emphasized ritual and ethical behavior, and cast the emperor as the "son of heaven," the ultimate exemplar of virtue and patriarch of a China-centered family of nations. Although these maritime dies did not long endure, at their height embassies arrived ewith regularity from countries in South and Southeast Asia. Tribute from the latter included zebras and even giraffes. During these years, Japan entered the system for the first time, but only until 1549. In the following years, the Western European trading countries of Portugal, the Netherlands, and England also began to arrive and were gradually fitted into the tributary system as well. -The tribute system began from the ancient china period to provide both an administrative means to control their interests, as well as means of providing exclusive trading priorities to those who paid tribute from foreign regions. China often received tribute from the states under the inluence of Confucian civilization and gave them Chinese products and recognition of their authority and sovereignty in return. Acknowledge subservience to empire with gift (buying access to Chinese economy) -Access to Chinese empire -Chinese silk and porcelain -Rare goods: Spices, silver (imports) -Expansion of Chinese markets -Lesser parties pay tribute to power powerful parties as a sign of allegiance, China provides administrative means to control their interests, and providing exclusive trading priorities to those who paid tribute from foreign regions -Ensured an incoming of certain valuable assets -Difference between tribute and gifts
Chinggis Khan
1165 Temi Jin born and becomes orphan gets followers through appanage system Has over 100,000 male warriors Breaks apart tribe into decimal system-loyalty no longer to family, it is to Chinggis Khan Military-mongol archer, not just Calgary based army. Main weapon is psychological warfare. 1227 died and designated heir is his son. Founder and Great Khan (emperor) of the Mongol Empire, which became largest contiguous empire in history after his demise. Came to power by uniting many of the nomadic tribes of northeast Asia., started Mongol invasions that resulted in conquest of most of Eurasia. As a result his emperor has a fearsome reputation Promoted religious tolerance Present day Mongolian refer to him as founding father of Mongolia
Canton System
1757-1842 Served as a means for China to control trade with the west within its own country Seen as European view it was a complement to the Old China Trade Supported European traders with China Forced large amounts of direct trade between European merchants and Chinese civilians Instead, the Europeans, generally employees of major trading companies (most importantly the British East India Company) had to trade with an association of Chinese merchants known as the Cohong Emperor appointed an official called Hoppo to take chare and collect taxes from the goods traded, overlook where the trades went accordingly, responsible for merchant relations on behalf of the Qing court Important position because Europeans weren't
Devshirme
Balkans-contributing boys System of loyalty Viziers-backbone of the army Janissary Corps Raising children to serve Sultan People who enter become slaves to Sultan Army has firearms, cannons Chiefly practiced by the Ottoman Empire Took boys from Chrisitan families who were then converted to Islam with the primary objective of selecting and training the ablest children for leadership positions, either as military leaders or as high administrators to serve the Empire. "The conquered are slaves of the conquerors, to whom their goods, their women, and their children belong as lawful possession.." Served the Ottoman Sultan directly Calvary = the cavalry of the servants of the Porte Infantry = Janissary ("new crops") Children of the rural Christian populations of the Balkans were conscripted before adolescence and were brought up as Muslim and upon adolescence the children were enrolled in the Palace, the Scribes, the Religious, and the Military Military enrolled would become either part of Janissary corps or part of any other corps The brightest were sent to the Palace institution and were destined for a career within the palace itself. "Although members of the devshirme class were technically slaves, they were of great importance to the Sultan because they owed him their absolute loyalty and became vital to his power. This status enabled some of the 'slaves' to become powerful and wealthy." Collected only from non-Muslims Janissary soldiers motivated y desire to create an elite class of warriors loyal to only the Sultan, rather than to individual Ottoman nobles
Black Death
One of the most devastating pandemics in human history, peaking in Europe between 1348-1350 Killing between 75 million and 200 million people Bacterium probably causing several forms of the plague Started in China or central Asia, traveled along the Silk Road and reached Crimea by 1346, carried by Oriental rat fleas living on black rats that were regular passengers on merchant ships. Spread through Mediterranean estimated to killed 30-60% of Europe's populations Reduced the world population from estimated 450 million to between 350-375 million in 14th century Aftermath created series of religious, social and economic upheavals, took 150 years for Europe's population to recover Bubonic Plague: many different types, very vicious Spread through flea bites, live on rats Spread through trade routes- cities affected most Death rate 50% in cities (60%-90% in some places) At least 50 million people die within two decades Population drops to 350 million people
Atlantic Slave Slave
o Asiento, Joint Stock Companies, and Independent traders • A Spanish legal license, begins around 1595, the Spanish say if you want to trade slaves you must get a legal license to become a legal slave trader. • Way to regulate slave trade, in 1600's there are a decent amount of people who have purchased this Asiento • Most people who purchase Asiento are Portuguese • Two main nationalities that control the slave trade are the portueguese and the English that become the british • Joint stock companies- many will fail, if your ship goes down in heavy seas you loose all the slaves, what we find at best is less than 10 percent a year (low profit). Compared to VOC these are not very large or profitable to purchase large amount of slaves • Independent traders are people who have enough money on their own to go into business or they own their own ships, large number of independent traders who take a risk o African ports • To find the slaves you go to the African Ports • Develop a reputation to go to the African slave traders • The wealth in afircan ports often increases, what it takes to purchase an African slave will increase, prices slowly inflates • African ports know what the latest style/ fasions/ technology is, cant sell them an outdated piece of muskets/cloth because they aer aware of it • Large degree of autonomy and strength compared to the European slave traders o Resistance • Most African slaves are not happy to be put on these ships • Around 10 percent of all slave vessels have encountered some form of resistance • Hunger strikes, throwing yourself overboard • Resistance is heavy enough that one million less people may have been trafficked • 383 documented cases of an outright rebellion • Less than 2 dozen are successful- where the slaves took control of the vessel (killed the crew/sail it to a port)
De las Casas and Sepulveda Debate
o Concerned with the treatment of natives of the New World. o Pitted against each other two main attitudes towards the conquest of the Americas. o De Las Casas: Argued that the Amerindians were free men in the natural order and deserved the same treatment as others, according to Catholic theology. o Sepulveda: Insisted that "In order to uproot crimes that offend nature" the Indians should be punished and therefore reducing them to slavery or serfdom was in accordance with Catholic theology and natural law. • At its core, it's a attempting to solve this issue of labor, particularly how you use the peoples of Americas.Las Casas tried to bolster his position by recounting his experiences with the encomienda system's mistreatment of the Indians, the debate remained on largely theoretical grounds. • Who are these people? • Debating the humanity of the peoples of the Americas, are they mere savages/barbarians to be used how the crown seems fit. o Issue of just war • These are Christian souls→ you cannot enslave them • Labor shortage: Who's going to work my labor? • Dramatic increase in slave implantations from Africa • Native peoples are dying of disease, and you cannot force them to stay. In the end, both parties declared that they had won the debate, but neither received the desired outcome. Las Casas saw no end to Spanish wars of conquest in the new world, and Sepulveda did not see the new laws restricting the power of the encomienda system overturned. The debate cemented Las Casas's position as the lead defender of the Indians in the Spanish Empire and further weakened the encomienda system. However, it did not substantially alter Spanish treatment of the Indians
Plantation System
o Forced labor: Slavery o Slave Imports: Because of the death rates, you constantly need to import slaves, every year multiple times a year you need slaves that come off a ship, be purchased and put on your plantation o Fuels cycle to have more slaves because of the constant high death rate, in order to keep your plantation going o Large Scale of Agriculture: Particularly raising and growing crops such as sugar, which has no nutritional value • Crops are not grown for food, grown to sell to someone to make a profit, therefore you need to raise an enormous quantity of them in order to make a profit, to import food o Total control: Shaping of our understanding of slavery, where every hour is accounted for on behalf of a slave. • Control how the labor is being used. • Reason: The process of making cash crops, cut down sugar, the moment you cut it down you need to extract the juice before the crop goes bad • 12 hour, 6 day weeks, slaves are usually working 7 days a week, 16 plus hours a day o Global Economy • Take sugar and export it to a global economy • Global trading patterns • Most plantations grow one main cash crop • Need to have as many potential markets as possible o Long distance control • Total control is also accompanied by long distance control, people who have oversight (own the plantation) • The average persons contact and knowledge about slavery does not increase, so by 1750 most people understand sugar is a great product, but they have no idea where it is coming from/what life is like on the plantation (complete disconnect)
Tobacco (2)
o Originates in the Americas o Smoked, also can suck on the dry leaves o Often used to treat wounds, besides having religious and ceremonial purposes, many people would grind up leaves and make them into a paste to treat wounds o Usually leafs being used we find much more higher quantities of nicotine in them (a little bit more addictive) o Original use-Ceremonial (Medicinal) o Also using insects within this nicotine as you smoke it when you treat with wounds o Ceremonial purposes throughout the Americas, you find that European travelors are offered to smoke tobacco as a way to enter the village o If you are a priest you are most likely required to smoke this because of ceremonial purposes o Slowly people become addicted, the use slowly ramps up, sailors bring it into ports o In Europe it eventually will be used for medicinal purposes to treat a headache, chest pain, asma, cures parasites in various skin diseases, common form of toothache relief o All of these uses are meso-american uses o Within a century about 10 percent are smoking o Ups to about 25 percent o Cacao and tobacco are also used for afrodesiac
Beaver Pelts
• Along with the swampum, the Huron chiefs presented Champlain with a gift of what he most wanted: 50 beaver pelts. The Hurons may not have understood why the French wanted an endless supply of beaver fur, other than knowing how valuable it was in their own culture. • The French wanted the under fur, which provided the raw material for manufacturing felt. • Natives wanted the pelts for the lustrous outer fur, to line or trim garments • Beaver fur is uniquely barbed and therefore prone to bind well when strewed in a toxic stew of copper acetate and mercury-laced Arabic glue. (Hatters had a reputation for being mad because of the toxic soup they inhaled during their work), although once pounded and dried it made the very best hats • From the 15th century, European hatters had made felt for hats from the European beaver, but over trapping decimated the beaver population and the clearing of the wilderness areas in Northern Europe removed their natural habitats. -Toward the end of the 16th century, two new sources of beaver pelts opened up. The first was Suberia, into which Russian trappers were moving in search of better hunting. • When beaver pelts from Canada began to come onto the European market in small quantities in the 1580's, the demand skyrocketed. Beaver hats made a huge comeback -Anyone with any social pretention had to have a "beaver," as these hats were known. • In the 1610's, the price of beaver had risen to ten times the price of a wool felt hat, splitting the hat market into those who could afford beavers and those who couldn't -The opening of the Canadian supply of beaver pelts stimulated the demand for hats, which in turn pushed up prices for consumers and profits for pelt dealers.
Potosi
• The mines at Potosi, New World • Mountain made of silver 1545 • Spaniards have been looking for wealth, then someone stumbles upon a mountain filled with silver, in 1545 the Spaniards bring to this mountain 15,000 people and have a new village form o In 100 years the city of Potosi is over 150,000 people strong, the highest large village/city in the world because of the elevation • Begins to produce an enormous of silver • As production increases it accounts for half of the silver supply in the Americas • For the next 200 years it accounts for over 80 percent • Enormous amounts of silver, becomes transformed, a thriving metropolis, luxury wine, silks, porcelain, peacock feathers because they are so rich • Getting the silver out of the mine: Devises the Mita System
Kangxi and Sacred Edicts
• Fourth Emperor of the Qing Dynasty • First to be born on Chinese soil south of the Pass (Beijing) and the second Qing emperor to rule over china proper, from 1661 to 1722 • Kangxi's reign of 61 years makes him the longest-reigning Chinese emperor in history and one of the longest reigning rulers in the world. • Having ascended the throne at age 7, he was not the effective ruler until later, with that role temporarily fulfilled for six years by four regents and his grandmother, the Grand Empress Dowager Xiazhuang • Considered one of China'as greatest emperors • He suppressed the Revolt of the Three Feudatories, forced the Kingdom of Tungning in Taiwan to submit to Qing rule, blocked Tsarist Russia on the Amur River and expanded the empire to the northwest • He also accomplished such literary feats as the compilation of the Kangxi Dictionary • Kangxi's reign brought about long-term stability and relative wealth after years of war and chaos • He initiated the period known as the "Prosperous Era of Kangxi and Quianlong," which lasted for generations after his own lifetime. By the end of his reign, the Qing Empire controlled all of China proper, Taiwan, Manchuria, part of the Russian Far East, both Inner and Outer Mongolia, Tibet proper, and Joseon Jorea and as a protectorate
Privateer (e.g., Drake or Morgan)
• Given a commission by a state government to conduct acts of war • Legal authority to carry out all acts of war on behalf of a state, may be given a commission to conduct any hostilities against French of Spanish Ships • Don't have enough vessels for a real navy o Sir Francis Drake • Early on in the 1500's the Spanish began to institute convoy systems, ships would leave all at once • Spain says: We're going to sail these ships together to cut down on their loses • Still enticing targets, Sir Francis Drake makes a name for himself by successfully attacking these Spanish caravans • Returns to England being a fairly accomplish pirate • Queen of England gives drake a commission (secret), to act as their privateer particularly against the Spanish, leaves in 1577 • Small little vessel, decides to leave the Caribbean (to many people trying to fight for wealth), instead he crosses into the pacific and circumnavigates the world, sales into the pacific ocean, goes up the coast of south America • Finds a couple Spanish ships filled with silver and successfully takes them, races back home (makes it to the Canadian coast line) • When he returns he goes across the pacific ocean, across the Indian ocean/ Portuguese vessel, returns in 1580 • Returns with more than 500,000 pounds worth of treasure, primarily silver • Drake becomes Knighted, because there were continuing problems with Spain, the English will continue to announce drake as a pirate • Golden Hind • Henry Morgan o Commissioned to prey upon the Spanish o Almost all of his success is land based o Granted a commission to attack Spanish wealth once again, takes a small group of men, walks across Panama, and finds the ships are sailing away, so they walk towards the city • Sack 2nd largest city in Americas o Able to take a large degree of wealth, establish English presence, returns to England with this wealth and becomes knighted o Becomes Governor of Jamaica o Rules for a long time • The Transition o Henry Every "King of the Pirates" 1680's o Becoming a pirate in his own right, and begins to steal upon shipping, but not in the Atlantic pacific world, or against Spanish shipping o Returns to the Indian ocean with his vessel and begins to prey upon hajj shipping, if he finds hips there is an enormous degree of wealth o 1695, captures 2 enormous Hajj vessels • Each crew member receives an enormous amount of wealth o After 1695 Henry Every disappears
Pirate (Kidd)
• Illegal activities, no state says they are acting on their behalf • Like to terrorize/scare people • The use of terror • Captain Kidd o Henry Every is the most stupendous of these attacks, but there have been others o Mugal Empire says: o Basically label all pirate activity as English, eliminate pirate activity, far more wealthy in the long run to have access in the sub continent o After 1695 they crack down on piracy by the indie east (?) company o Captain Kidd • Reaches Indian ocean, wants to replicate what Every did, not nearly as successful, but he angers the wrong people • His actions cannot be tolerated in this new era • Hunted down, has vessels sailing after him, so he attempts to flee, at one point a lot of pirates at the time are making the northern part of Madagascar to find fresh food/water • Returns to Madagascar, finds out he is still pursued, so he goes back to North America, chased part of the distance (tries to return to his wife in the city (cant)) • Tries to find political protection • Ultimately he is arrested, tried and executed publicly as a pirate because of disruptions in the Indian Ocean • Privateer to pirate • Executed 1701
Tobacco
• In an essay that appears in the first part of Collected Writings from Jade Hall, Yang observes that Beijing people in the past decade had experienced the appearance of tobacconists. • By the time Yang arrived in Beijing to take his exams in 1631, the taking of "smoke liquor," as some call it, was well established in the capital. • When Yang returned to the Capital that year after a brief absence, tobacco was selling in greater volume than ever, and what had been an exotic custom was considered strange no longer. • American members of the nightshade family- the tomato, the potato, the hot pepper, tobacco- would all travel globally • Christopher Columbus and his crew in 1492 were the first non Americans to see the indigenous people of the Americas smoke, though Amerigo Vespucci gets the credit for making the first reference to tobacco in print. Jacques tasted tobacco on his second journey in the new world • Champlain observed tobacco when he made his first voyage to the Americas, describing it as a "kinde of hearbe, whereof they take the smoake." • Native Americans sed tobacco to move between the natural and the supernatural worlds and to communicate with the spirits. Smoking helped to get the spirtits attention, since the spirits loved the smell of burning tobacco, and it helped to get the communicant in the right frame of mind. • The analgesic properties of tobacco were thought to give smoking medicinal as well as religious properties, realms that overlapped in seventeenth-century pharmacology. • The sociability of tobacco spread easily from such formal settings into all aspects of native social life, you used tobacco with friends, you shared it with enighbors, you gave it as a figt to ask for a favor in return • Tobacco moved along the webs of trade that Europe's desire for China was creating between the Americas and the rest of the globe, traveling to new sites and coming into the reach of people who had never smoked, Europeans first of all. With smoking went religious, medical, social and economic practices that had to find equivalent niches in the new culture. • Transculturation happened almost overnight, and was usually well advanced before elites bothered to notice that everyone was smoking and started thinking up reasons why this was not a good thing. • So too in Europe, smoking drifted to the world of witchcraft. Tobacco was suspect as a medium for getting in touch with the devil. • High prices and high duties of course encouraged both smugglers and farmers toget in on the business-as we noted for Beijing. Dutch farmers started growing tobacco as an import substitutes, quickly making the Netherlands the biggest tobacco producer in Europe. • Tobaco was a crop that could be used to make the America's profitable, while Africa supplied the labor to make plantation production in the Americas feasible and South American silver paid for goods shipped from Europe to the Americas to Asia. • Tobacco traveled to China by three routes: An eastward Portuguese route from Brazil to Macao, a westward Spanish route from Mexico to Manila, and a third route that consisted of a series of hops around East Asia to Beijing. • As the global community of smokers grew in the 17th century, though, they were uninhibited in expressing their delight at discovering the pleasures of tobacco, and have left behind many signs of their debt to its pleasures.
Manila pg. 170
• Philippines-> Silver Flows o Manila-Acapulco-Silver Galleons o Spanish-Spending flows o China • Silver increases in price, silver flow primarily from Spanish allows Europeans to invest and develop fairly robust trading foundations • By 1636, according to an agent of the Spanish crown, the Chinese and Japanese living in and around Manilia numbered 30 thousand • Manilia greatly mattered to everyone who traded there • It was the point of commcercial contact between the economies of seventeenth century Europe and China, and once silver was flowing, not even a massacre could break the contact. • Every spring, one great Spanish ship- called the Manila galleon in the Philippines, the China ship in Mexico- crossed the Pacific from Mexico loaded with silver • A Manila Galleon had to spend two or three months crossing the Pacific to reach the Philippines, then it faced an even longer return. It ad to depart for Acapulco before July, lest typhoons catch it in the treacherous channels through the Philippine Islands. So the trade was a fragile arrangement. • For the mountain of treasured goods, the Manilia galleons carried back to Mexico, the Spanish exchanged their own mountain of silver. • The amount of silver that was officially registered for export at Acapulco started at about three tons year, then expanded to close to 20 tons., then later settled at around 9 or 10 tons a year. • Some silver got diverted to Macao and passed through Portuguese hands • The trade between the Spanish and the Chinese in Manila always balanced on a delicate pivot. Small crises of supply or liquidity could excite a larger crisis of confidence, shutting the whole operation down. • When a new emperor came to the throne in China, his government, tired of Dutch piracy, reimposed its earlier prhoition on maritime trade. For two years, trade at Manila stagnated, then revived to former levels. • The upshot of these circumstances was that close to ten tons of an anticipated silver failed to arrive in Manila
La Malinche
• Played a big part in the Spanish conquest of Mexico • Named "Malinalli," after the Goddess of Grass • Acted as an interpreter, advisor, lover, and intermediary for Cortes • Cortes kept her by her side for her value as an interpreter who spoke two native languages-Mayan and Nahuatl • Without her, attempts to negotiate with the Aztecs would have been impossible • One of twenty woman servants given to the Spaniards by the natives of Tabasco in 1519 • Became a mistress to Cortes and gave birth to his first son, Martin, who is considered one of the first Mestizos • Spoke to emissaries from Moctezuma in their native tongue and pointed to Cortes as the chief Spaniard to speak for them • The historical figure of Marina has been intermixed with Aztec legends • According to surviving records, Marina learned of a plan by natives of Cholula to cooperate with the Aztecs to destry the small Spanish army • Alerted Cortes to the danger and even pretended to be cooperating with her native informants while Cortes foiled their plot to trap his men • Cortes turned the tables on them and instead, slaughtered many Cholulans • Her reputation has been altered over the years according to changing social and political perspectives, especially after the Mexican revolution, when she was portrayed in dramas, novels, and paintings as an evil or scheming temptress