Kgomotso Sebegoe
Formal Assessment –writing an essay
Introduction: The world around 1600
This essay is about how the world was like around the 1600’s.It is about the four different regions; China, Africa, India, European Societies and their empires. This essay is about the political power, travel and trade, technology and position and involvement in the world of all the different region and all their similarities and differences.
China (Ming dynasty)
The Ruling of the Ming dynasty began in 1368.The first Ming emperor was Hongwu , whose real name was Zhu Yuanzhang. Unlike most emperors who are born into rich dynasties Hongwu was born into a poor peasant family. Hongwu became a novice monk at a monastery, he grew up at the monastery and that
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China was part of a trade route called the Great Silk Road which connected it with Europe. The compass, porcelain, gunpowder was some of the Chinese inventions that made their way to Europe through The Great Silk Road. The Yongle emperor Zhu Di of the Ming dynasty had a favorite servant, Zheng He whom he sent of voyages to expand trade contacts, establish relationships with other foreign powers and bring back precious goods for the emperor. SO in 1405 they launched the first of seven voyages of explorations. He did this because he wanted to expand China’s tribute system; he wanted to have other nations pay tribute to China and not just the ones that were on Chinas …show more content…
The Songhai Empire had a monarchy government system which meant that it was ruled by a royal family. He Songhai Empire’s ruler was considered as sacred, which meant that the ordinary people were not allowed to see the King. Songhai officials did not have to be of noble birth they were chosen for their abilities and talents.
When Sonni Ali built up his navy and conquered a trading town called Jenne in 1473, it gave him control over the trade that happened along the Niger River. One of Sonni Ali’s travel and trade accomplishments was when his army and he occupied Timbuktu in 1488 and this was important because Timbuktu was situated in the Trans-Saharan trade route. Another neighboring state that Timbuktu conquered was the city of Gao.
Just like The Ming China the Songhai also invented gunpowder. Some of the other things which the Songhai invented were; silk and this is where the name silk road comes from, fireworks which are also still used today all over the world, the wheel which was not really used back then but is used in today’s life and the Songhai believed that they invented steel which is used to build a lot of things. The Songhai dynasty also played a role in building the Ming China’s Great Wall of China. The Songhai used salt as their
Lastly, the Xiongnu would keep invading China, so over the years the Han would give them more and more silk as the tribute. In document C I can see that every couple of years the Xiongnu would come back for more silk. The Han were the only ones that produced silk, so everyone wanted it. This tribute did work as long as the Han kept giving the Xiongnu more silk. The Great Wall was some protection against the Xiongnu if the Han paid tributes and stayed
Imperial armies guarded the silk road and made it safer for foreign trades. Later during the Tang dynasty, China lost control over the silk roads and then merchants
In the 1500’s and 1600’s, Europe dived into an era of exploration of new trade routes. Exploration carried out by explorers like Cortes, Diaz and Da Gama led Europe into new lands. The main motivations of these explorers were to gather spices and gold. Their countries were infatuated with the spices of Asia and with precious metals. Religion was not the main motivation for European exploration during the 15th and 16th centuries; however, the search for wealth was.
China's role in trade between 600 to 1750 was in part due to different conquests and re-establishments of power which perfected previous Chinese advancements. China's cultural identity help it become a large empire with borders that extended across most of Asia. Tributes systems played out in supporting the Chinese government which in turn formed alliances and enemies as well. These alliance stretched into large trading networks, strengthening Chinas' power in trade, goods, and ideas. From 600 to the 1750's China's self-sufficiency, exchanges of power and mostly secluded location occasionally stagnated and changed its role as a primary trading power, however China's different dynasties improved previous concepts such as those of technology,agricultural
China welcomed the foreign trade but western merchants had no privileges in china . Japan was stricter than china and only allowed commerce with the dutch and they only had access to one port. The situations the westerns were put in with the strictness of the trade didn't last for long and lord Napier was sent by Britain to pressure
The Silk Road began in the 2nd century BCE with the diplomatic missions of Zhang Qian sent by the Han Emperor. The Silk Road was largely fragmented, commodities carried by merchants of many countries on the Silk Road from present day China to present day Turkey. The interaction of these different cultures created a cultural diffusion that can be seen in the resulting names, tools, jewelry, luxuries and house wares that these different societies adopted. Silk was one of the most important items traded along the Silk Road. Once the Silk Road was open techniques of weaving the silken thread did not begin to spread because this material was similar to that used by cloth weavers.
Silk at the time was primarily produced in China and was the countries primary source of revenue during that particular time in history (Frankopan, 2016). The Mongols was a pastoral-nomad tribe that originated out of Central China
Bethany Tegt HONORS 370.2 Research Paper #1 The Silk Route Between Europe and Asia, there is a great geographical divide, a rocky and mountainous area known as the Himalaya mountain range. In addition, the Taklimakan desert also encases the divide between these two areas. For many years, these geographical challenges separated the two continents from ever meeting. Other routes were unknown to either civilization, and neither knew of the others existence. However, when ancient Chinese civilizations started to explore and conquer these areas, they came to the conclusion that those in the west had many valuables and interesting technology to share with those of the Chinese empire.
The Arab Empire invented the magnetic compass to use when trading on the mediterranean sea as well as a kamal, which is a device used to determine the latitude. Whereas the silk road could not contribute any inventions to society, all it did was transport inventions made from other locations. A few advancements that traveled along the silk road were paper making, printing, gunpowder and eventually the compass.
Ancient China was under a dynastic govern where rulers from a similar family ruled for eras. China was united into an empire and there was an emperor who ruled over many weaker kings. Dynasties from different regions often competed for supremacy to control China's resources and territories. Most dominant king became the emperor, who ruthlessly applied the law and formed massive work strength. Under the kings were a group of lords, and these lords ruled individual farmers.
The Hsia Dynasty considered the first dynasty in China. However this dynasty is legendary because there is little archeological evidence to support existence. It is dated from 2205 BCE to 1760 BCE. According to the legend Yu was the wise king who invented a way to control flooding of the Huang He River so that people could live there. Since there is very little evidence to support the story, the second dynasty, called the Shang Dynasty, is the first one recorded
1000 in a place with many wild grapes, so they named the area Vinland, which is known as Newfoundland today • They were not supported by a powerful nation-state, so they had to leave their settlements and their discovery was lost with only Scandinavian sagas and songs giving them credit • Christian crusaders tried to take over the Holy Land that the Muslims were controlling • Exotic goods were brought over to Europe such as silk, drugs, perfumes, colorful draperies, and spices including sugar, which was rare o These were expensive in Europe, since they had to be shipped from the Spice Islands, which was Indonesia, China, and India through ships and camels o Europeans wanted to find a cheaper route to Asia or create other sources of supply o Europeans Enter Africa • Marco Polo, who was an Italian that is considered a discoverer of the New World, told stories about his travels in China when he came back to Europe in 1295 • He wrote a book that included details of pearl and pagodas, which created more European interest in finding a less expensive way to the East • Portuguese mariners overcame the issue of northerly winds and south-flowing currents around the coast of West Africa that the Europeans would not
" Songhai and to achieve control of the Trans-Saharan trade routes. As was the case with some earlier Malian leaders, Sonni Ali valued original forms of religious practice beside Islam" (Empires of medieval West Africa). Songhai thrived for many years till it fell into unstableness because of unsuccessful emperors. Eventually, Songhai Empire collapsed.
Qin Shi Huang-di is often regarded as a great leader within history. However, he was also paranoid and got rid of anyone who disagreed with him, but without Qin, there might be no China. Furthermore, despite his mixed reputation today, he brought six warring kingdoms together to form the basis of a country that has lasted to this day, an impressive feat that was a huge turning point in Chinese history. Qin’s effect on China and by default, on the other countries of the world was enormous. In fact, his dynasty, the Qin dynasty, even gave China its name (“Shi Huangdi Becomes Emperor”).
The SOnghai Empire saw the opportunity and seized control of the Niger River, thus controlling trade and transportation. The Songhai Empire flourished during the reign of Sunni Ali. He was known as a powerful but ruthless ruler. He conquered the trading centers of Timbuktu and Jenne. Sunni Ali increased the size of the Songhai Empire to include much of Mali.