China, the Ming, Japan & Africa

Question 1

China

Answer 1

• with the fall of the Yuan the Ming dynasty starts
• reasserts itself
• Mongols gone, China becomes dominant player again (voyages of Shingha)
• ships showed dominance
• eventually Ming rulers started to stop voyages (because of how much money was spent)
• silver for expensive items (silver found in Americas)
• follows dynastic cycles, rebellions
• Manchu (invited to stop rebellions in China, but ended up taking over China, and starting Qing dynasty)

Question 2

Manchu (Qing dynasty)

Answer 2

• forbid Chinese to marry other Manchu people
• forbid to learn language
• still relied on scholar gentry
• one port open to European trade (tea, porcelain, silk wanted)
• silk road diminishes
• fell behind western europe

Question 3

Japan

Answer 3

• feudal society
• Shogun has power (military leader of Bakufu)
• emperor is figure head
• social status
• ignoring governing
• aristocratic families started to grow politically
• Fujiwara family kept marrying daughters in imperial family and built strong financial base as well as other loads
• rise of warrior elite, start controlling land and peasants
• leads to Feudal Japan
• Tokugawa family unifies Japan but remains Feudal
• Christianity is brought in
• started feeling threatened by foreingenrs
• eventually only Dutch and Chinese can trade with Japan (only one port is open)
• start isolating themselves and technologically fall behind the world
• eventually forced to open ports in 1853

Question 4

Africa

Answer 4

• Songhai (Islamic west Africa)
• built on trade: gold and salt are important items
• Sunni Ali (built Timbuktu, known for trade and education)
• European technology diffuses into some nations (tend to dominate when up to date with technology)
• Kongo, King Alfonso I (converted to Catholicism for the purpose of trading with Portuguese)
• slave trade in Kongo and King Alfonso I writes a letter to stop slave trade but letter was ignored (led to demise of Kongo)
• Angola
• trading posts set up by Portuguese
• queen Nzinga protested slave trade but to no avail
• unable to stop because of Portuguese technological advances