Test 1 Flashcards
Historiography
the history of the history, how the history is studied
Class
economic status
Caste
class system religious in nature, demonstrated in India, reincarnation/karma stuff
Women’s History
the lives/culture of women, comes from 2nd wave feminism, history has been studied by men for men
What do historiographers do?
essentially scream at the academic world to not cherry pick who history is told about
Is “world history” a new concept?
Yes. It’s 18th Centuryish, prior to it history was nationalist/a projection of a political entity (ie. American History starts in Portugal!)
Rousseau’ s Grand Myth
A nationalist country needs a grand myth to create a legitimacy of a nation “political entities need a grand myth”
Examples of Western Demarcation of Time
The Ancient World, The Middle Ages, The Renaissance, The Black Death, “Hinduism Formation” “Islamic Arrival”
How is History political?
History is political because everything is political and everything is history.
Difference between Myth and History
oftentimes Nation-states have an interest in making sure its citizens are “proud citizens of wherever” and create myths about the country (ie. George Washington I cannot tell a lie, King Arthur)
paradigm
a world view
Should history be thought of in paradigms?
Yes, history should be examined through different viewpoint. (Natural History, Western Civilization, World History)
What is Early Modern World?
A study of colonization and the dominant force is Europe’s colonization, essentially.
How many civilizations are there in the Americas?
2.5 Aztecs, Incas, and 1/2 for Mayans
What makes a civilization?
- Food Source
- Differentiation of Trade
- Religious Org/King
- Writing System
Exhausting the Earth Author/Thesis
Peter Perdue, population increase in early modern China influenced by two forces: the state wished to grow their tax bases and peasantry required more labor, which would allow for an increase in agricultural output. The result was stress on the water supply and deforestation
The Unending Frontier Author/Thesis
John F Richards
Early modern states, especially those in Europe, sought the resources available in frontier regions. Result: areas of population density, population movement, constant consumption of resources
How Early Modern people thought of the world’s resources
Infinite. Deforestation didn’t matter, you just move elsewhere, colonize another place. God made the world for human consumption
Population Patterns in the Early Modern World
population boom in Asia, population dip in Africa and N America (slave trade in Africa, disease in N America)
Energy Source in Early Modern World
the sun, solar flows: where is the sun hitting? where can people grow crops?
Northern Europe growing seasons
limited, a problem will occur if it isn’t right.
Natural disasters the affect the sun
volcanic eruptions (even in other countries, the ash can spread and cool other climates)
Are there a lot of animals in EA N Europe
No. There isn’t enough feed to keep a herd of animals alive through the winter
Did Native American farming look like it was depicted in European drawings?
No. It was probably influenced by European bias of what agriculture was supposed to look like.
solar flows
winds, driven by uneven solar heating and Earth’s spin, drive the movement of the ocean’s surface currents. The prime movers are the powerful westerlies and the persistent trade winds (easterlies)
St Augustine purpose for Spain
Northernmost city of the Spanish Empire + the marker to take them on the current straight to Spain. Was also a safe haven for escaped slaves (provided the converted to catholicism and pronounced loyalty to Spain)
Charleston SC purpose for English
the marker to take sailors straight to England (through solar flows)
Camels allow for
habitable non desert parts of Africa to integrate into the global trade system
Timbuktu Architecture
lots of windows, shady porches, outward spaces you can walk the rooftops, shaded roads. mosques are in a different style but still adobe.
How many densely populated areas in EA?
- Most in Europe and Asia
Dynamics of the Biological Old Regime
women had little to no control over their reproductive cycle. Women had to marry and bear children (no nun option due to protestantism) no birth control, biological servitude
Queen Charlotte
wife of George the III, had 14-15 children. had food, baths, doctors yet her life was still defined by reproduction
Life Expectancy
30-40 (33 was average)
population who were peasants/lower classes engaged in farming
80-90%
sumptuary laws
a dress code of sorts, royal family/judges/cardinals can wear red. similar to military rank. you see someone, you immediately know their rank/place
Subthesis about human population
As it (human population) doubled from about 380 to 950 million during the early modern era, something had to change in terms of the relationship of people with the availability of land and their efficiency in working it.
Was disease always global?
No, even the Black Death wasn’t global. Globalization occurred after Americas were colonized.
Ways to contract disease
other people, animals, insects. disease just exists in humans, there is nothing you can do about it.
Author of The Globalization of Disease
James L Webb Jr
is Africa more disease ridden in EA?
No. Europe and Africa both struggle with different disease about equally. This is a myth from Europeans.
Thesis of Globalization of Disease
disease pathogens reached new populations; disease environments of humankind were more fully integrated
Major Disease Environments
tropical Africa, N. Africa, Eurasia & the Americas
Where does disease live?
in the environment, in soil, in animals we live close to
genetic mutations of groups of people in response to disease
Celiacs = Celtics, Sickle-cell anemia = Africas, tay-sacks = ashkenazi jewish people
Bantu Language Group in Africa
a dominant language group, not ethnicity, using camels to cross the Sahara, bringing their diseases with them, Mansa musa oral history tells Europe there’s gold in Africa
2nd Migration
people getting on ships to a new world (taking their diseases with them)
Is syphilis from N America?
NO. It was a new variant. Syphilis already existed in Europe.
3rd Migration
people move into cities, creating fun new 19th century diseases
medicine in the islamic world:
you can dissect a body, you have a heart, kidneys, stomach, other organs
medicine in the christian world:
no dissecting bodies! also the humors
medicine in east asia:
acupuncture
Galenic Humoral Theory
Blood, Phlegm, Yellow Bile, Black Bile
Bloodletting
a common solution, seemed to work for most treatments, up until the black death
Religion v Science
religion: pray about your sickness in mass gatherings! (bad idea)
science: poke the buboes to balance humors! (bad idea)
Plague Theories 1: Plague Doctor Mask
Saturn Jupiter and Mars were causing vapors to form. Putting nice smelling things in a big beak mask will stop this
Plague Theories 2: Natural Disasters
earthquakes put vapors into the air, making it putrid
Plague Theories 3: Jewish People
Jewish people are doing this to be mean. They aren’t dying from it! (they are cleaner)
Plague theories 4: Jewish People (pt. 2)
God is punishing us for letting jewish people into ut culture. persecution, go!
Pope Clement VI papal bills
1348, trying to protect jewish people. Anyone who commits violence against jewish people will face horrendous judgements
Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV
forfeit the property of Jews killed in riots (you will not profit from it!…. i will.) not cool, dude
Is violence a disease?
it spreads like a disease, psychologically. but i consider it a cognitive choice
colonization definition
establishing a colony through subjugation of a people or area especially as an extension of state power (gather resources and subjugation)
mercantilism definition
when the colony supplies raw goods to the mother country and the mother country provides refined goods back to them/sell on markets
Columbian Exchange
global exchange of weapons, goods, materials, food, and thereby disease pathogens (disease wipes out significant numbers of indigenous peoples)
Aztec Empire
Tenochtitlan: markets, major cultural center, Cortez really only dominated them because of the disease they spread
Great Plains Tribes
nomadic hunter gatherers following bison, lived in teepees, followed buffalo on horses (after getting them from the spanish)
Taino population decrease
60,000 to 500 in 50-60 years from disease
Aztecs population decrease
smallpox, half the population is killed including the leader Cuitláhuac
Purposeful or Incidental?
evidence points to a mix: started as incidental, probably morphed to purposeful by some people
How did the Spanish gain access to greek/latin texts?
invading islamic lands
Ottoman Turks get greek texts by…
seizing Constantinople (now istanbul
Author of Technological Transitions
Francesca Bay- social anthropologist who works on Ming China
Old Technological Thesis
superior technology propelled European rise to colonial and economic power
Why the old technology thesis is so bad
european exceptionalism
New thesis about Technological Transitions
not based on european exceptionalism, but “the local technological exchanges frequently had repercussions much further afield” basically, technological advancements happened all over the place and spread to a bunch of different areas
Where is gunpowder from?
Ming China (14th C), not used as a weapons like canons, more like loud noise fireworks to confuse the enemy
Who started to use gunpowder in a way we recognize?
South Asia/India 15th C
Ottoman Empire Gunpowder
extremely decorated canons. Sacked Constantinople
Ethiopian Gunpowder
was also an empire, a gunpowder empire in fact. had canons
France Gunpowder
got gunpowder ~15 C, longbow technology: shoots and arrow that can go through armor/knock a rider off his horse
Architecture 16th/17th Century
spiky walls, angled walls are hardest to knock down with canons, but people are paying more taxes for more infrastructure against canons
Technological Advancement 17th/18th Century
canons on ships, causes a whole new era of fighting, including England’s power advantage of being an island with a strong navy and no real need for a land army
Comanche Nation
Native American tribe, lived in teepees, thought of death and gender and life differently than the European colonists, who thought they were barbarians they needed to convert
The results of the Comanche acquiring guns
Guns spread throughout Comanche nation, they expand their boundaries by killing their neighbors. Invaders see this as a plus because their enemy is taking themselves out.
China’s goods and lack of silver
China produces cotton, porcelain, and gunpowder, but imports its silver
Potosi
a mountain filled with silver, the people local to the area (now Bolivia) and from afar were enslaved to work in the mines in horrible conditions, often dying very quickly
Phillip the 3rd Justification for Potosi
we need the money now, we’ll make it more humane later
Bartolommeo de medina
brought a silver refining process from Germany into South America, uses big mercury baths that either animals or people need to continuously stir
Where does the silver from Potosi end up?
China
In what year did ships start going directly to China from Potosi?
1570
Three Big Technological Advancementws
- Nautical (requiring more supplies to make these big ships)
- Refining Silver: patio process (human rights violations)
3) Gunpowder (allows for huge gunpowder empires)
4) Houses (reflect European’s ideas of what houses look like in their colonized nations)
Technological Transitions Thesis
There is no one group who created technology. In a global world, technology spreads. People add onto it all the time everywhere. Because it is global, it changes life and death and war and everything.
Author/Thesis of Patterns of Urbanization
Peter Burke. Urbanization can mean looking at one city, but it can also mean the overall increase of population in the Early Modern World until it explodes in the Modern World
Urbanization process
goes from three cities of over 1 mil to tons. Urbanization depends upon more food production and more access to safety, more construction, and the economic system must create a surplus of money, more merchants, more factories, banks, clothing. SPECIALIZATION OF TRADE
City to City Alliances
cities that relate to each other, St Augustine —> the rest of Spain. For protection
Nationalism Increases
brits take pride in their big oil navy with france as their main enemy
Author of Gender and Sexuality
Merry E Wiesner-Hanks
