Hunter-gather to settled community Essay

Growth of existing trade routes –Silk Roads, Mediterranean Sea, Trans-Saharan, Indian Ocean—due to innovations and technology (caravans, compass, larger ships, credit) The rise of new trade routes centering on Mesoamerica and the Andes Commercial growth due to new trading organizations (Hanseatic League), and state practices (minting of coins, paper money) and state-sponsored commercial infrastructures such as the Grand Canal of China Trans-Eurasian trade as a result of the expansion of empire (china, Byzantine Empire, Muslim caliphates, Mongols) Cross- Cultural exchanges through existing or new networks of trade and communication. The diffusion of cultural, scientific and technological traditions and new food crops, agricultural techniques, and epidemic diseases (including the Black Death) along Eastern Hemisphere trade routes Byzantine Empire, Chinese dynasties, Islamic states, Mongol Khanates, and feudalism in Europe and Japan The expansion of state systems in the Americas: Mayan city states, Mexica (â€Å"Aztecs†), Inca Technological and cultural transfer between states and empires, including tang China and the Abbasids, across the Mongol Empires,  and during the Crusades Increased agricultural and industrial production in many regions due to technological innovations (such as Chinmpa(floating plants in the water) field systems) the expansions of textile, porcelain, iron and exports from china, Persia and India Revival of urban centers, the rise of commerce and warmer temperatures between 800 and 1300; rising agricultural productivity and population, and the greater availability of labor. Varying forms of labor organization: free peasant agriculture, guild organization, several forms of coerced and unfree labor (serfdom, mit’a, slavery) The spread and diffusion of Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, and Neoconfucianism, and corresponding changes in gender relations and family structure. Intensification of existing regional trade networks, bringing prosperity and economic disruption ot the trading regions of the Indian Ocean, Mediterranean, Sahara, and overland Eurasia. European synthesis of technological developments based on knowledge developed in the classical, Islamic, and Asian worlds – resulting in new tools, ship designs, and understanding of global wind and current patterns. New transoceanic maritime reconnaissance: Zheng He in the Indian Ocean, Portuguese in West Africa, Spanish voyages across the Atlantic and Pacific, European searches for multiple routes to Asia across the North Atlantic A new global circulation of goods driven by mercantilist European monarchies, with worldwide circulation of silver from the Americas, colonial joint-stock companies, and the use of free and unfree laborers mixing African, American, and European cultures and peoples The Columbian Exchange of diseases, foods, and domesticated animals between Eastern and Western hemispheres, with subsequent population increase in Afro-Eurasia but indigenous population loss, deforestation, and soil depletion in the Americas Worldwide innovations in visual and performing arts, such as the Renaissance in Europe (with its accompanying expansion of literacy) A growing global demand for raw materials and finished products, resulting within Africa and the export of slaves to the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean, and the Americas; and a range of coerced labor in American colonial economies (indentured servitude, encomienda system) The formation of new political and economic elites as a result of imperial conquests and widening global economic opportunities, such as the Manchus in China and creole elites in Spanish America Fluctuating power of existing elites such as the nobility in Europe and daimyo in Japan, as a reult of increasingly powerful monarchs and leaders Gender and family restructuring: demographic changes in Arica resulting from the slave trades, the trade relationships of Southeast Asian women and European men, and the smaller size of European families Massive demographic changes in the Americas resulting in new ethnic and racial classifications (mestizo, mulatto, creole) Use of a variety of methods by rulers to legitimize, consolidate, and centralize power – including monumental architecture, urban design, religious ideas (European divine right, Aztec human sacrifice, Songhay promotion of Islam), differential treatment of ethnic and religious groups (Ottoman treatment of non-Muslims), recruitment of bureaucratic elites and military professionals (Ottoman devshirme, Chinese examination system, samurai), tribute collection, and tax farming Increased use of gunpowder, cannons, and armed trade to establish large  empires in both hemispheres: European trading- post empires in Africa and Asia; land empires in China, India, the Middle East, and Eurasia (Manchus, Mughals, Ottomans, Russians) Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, French, and British maritime empires in the Americas Competition over trade routes (Caribbean piracy), state rivalries (Thirty Years War), and local resistance (samurai revolts) challenged state consolidation and expansion