This document provides a summary of Chapter 12 from a study guide about the worlds of the 15th century. It covers several key topics: 1. The different types of human communities that existed in the 15th century, including hunter-gatherer societies in Australia and North America, agricultural village societies like the Igbo and Iroquois, and pastoral peoples in Central Asia and West Africa. 2. A comparison of the major civilizations of China under the Ming Dynasty and the states emerging in Europe during the Renaissance period. 3. The Islamic world, covering the Ottoman Empire, Safavid Persia, and the Mughal and Songhai empires. 4. The Aztec and In

1. Chapter 12
Study Guide
The Worlds of the 15th Century

2. Key
This - people
This - key terms/vocabulary
This - places

3. I. The Shapes of Human Communities

4. IA. Paleolithic Persistence: Australia and North America
● Hunter-gatherer (h/g) societies cont’d to exist into the era 600-1450
○ Australia, Siberia, arctic coastlands, parts of Africa and Americas
○ Split into some 250 separate groups, around until late 18th century
○ Assimilated various innovations from outsiders, were never agricultural
■ Ex: canoes, fishhooks, netting techniques, rituals
● Despite absence of agri, they mastered and manipulated their envi
○ Firestick farming: delib. set fires to “clean up country” - made hunting easier b/c cleared
brush, encouraged growth of plants
○ Exchanged goods over long distances, created elaborate mythologies, ritual practices,
and developed sophisticated sculpture and rock painting

5. 1A cont’d
● Along NW coast of Americas (peoples - Chinookan,
Tulalip, Skagit, etc)
○ Bounteous envi → complex h/g strategies
○ Distinguished from Australia b/c had permanent
village settlements w/stable houses, economic
specialization, ranked societies, chiefdoms and
storage of food
● Societies persisted through 15th century, but
numbers and area contracted greatly during
Agricultural Revolution

6. 1B. Agricultural Village Societies: the Igbo and the Iroquois
● Fully agricultural, avoided incorporation into larger civilizations, didn’t develop own
city/state-based society
● Usually small village-based communities (comm’s) organized in terms of kinship relations
● Predominated during 15th (century) in: N. Am., S. Am. and Caribbean, Amazon River Basin, SE
Asia, and Africa s. of equator, throughout Pacific Oceania
○ Marginal to other civilizations, but each had own histories
○ Created societies largely w/o political authority, class inequalities and seclusion of
women like in common civilization (civ)

7. 1B cont’d - Igbo
★ E of Niger River in heavily forested W. Africa - Igbo people
○ Neighbors Yoruba and Bini began to develop states and urban centers
○ Igbo rejected kingship and state building
■ Relied on other things to maintain social cohesion: balances of power, title societies,
women’s associations
■ Was a “stateless society”
● Traded actively among selves and w/distant neighbors (ex: Sognhay)
○ Ex: cotton, cloth, fish, copper and iron goods
○ Artistic traditions reflected cultural unity
● Were eventually caught up in transatlantic slave trade

8. 1B cont’d - Iroquois
★ Iroquois-speaking peoples (lived in now NY)
○ Fully agricultural, adopted maize and bean farming
○ Agri took hold by 1300 → population increased (^), distinct peoples emerged
○ Frequent warfare erupted among 5 peoples: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca
■ Made agreement known as Great Law of Peace - 5 Nations agreed to settle
differences through peaceful confederation of 50 clan leaders
● Could adjudicate disputes and set reparation payments
● Suppressed blood feuds and tribal conflicts
● Coordinated relationships w/ outsiders
● Became increasingly encompassed in expanding economic networks and
conquest empires based in W. Eu., Russia, China, or India
○ Replicated experience of other village-based farming communities

9. 1C. Pastoral Peoples: Central Asia and W. Africa
● As Mongol rule ended, an attempt to restore it occurred (late 14th-early
15th) under leadership of a Turkic warrior named Timur (born in
Uzbekistan, known as Tamerlane)
○ w/ ferocity, army brought devastation again to Russia, Persia, India
○ Died in 1405 preparing for an invasion of China
○ Conflicts among successors prevented lasting empire
★ State hosted sophisticated elite culture, combining Turkic and Persian
elements
○ Capital: Samarkand
○ Last great military success of nomadic peoples in C. Asia → homelands later swallowed by
Russian and Chinese empires

10. 1C cont’d - West Africa
★ West Africa - people stayed independent of established empires, not until
late 19th were they incorporated into European colonial states
○ Ex: Fulbe (WA’s largest pastoral society) - herding people w/highly signif. role in 15th c.
■ Migrated from W. Sahara along upper Senegal River eastward
■ Small comm’s inside agricultural settlements, paid grazing fees and taxes to and
hated them
■ Adopted Islam, some settled in towns where they could become religious leaders
● In 18th and 19th centuries, became center of a wave of jihads
(religiously-based uprisings) → expanded Islam + rise of new Fulbe states

11. II. Civilizations of the 15th Century:
Comparing China and Europe

12. IIA. Ming Dynasty China
● Traditions had been disrupted by Mongol rule, pop. decreased by plague
● Recovered during Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)
○ Early decades - rebuilding, wiping out traces of foreign rule, promoting Confucian rule
and orthodox gender rules
● Emperor Yongle (r. 1402-1422) - sponsored 11K volume encyclopedia
w/contributions of 2K+ scholars
○ Relocated capital of China to Beijing
○ ordered building of imperial residence known as Forbidden City
○ constructed Temple of Heaven
● Culturally speaking, China was looking to its past

13. IIA cont’d - Ming’s political system
● Reestablished civil service exam system and created a highly centralized
government
○ Power to emperor himself and cadre of eunuchs exercised great authority
○ Acted to repair damage by restoring land to cultivation, rebuilding irrigation works,
planting 1B trees
○ Economy rebounded, trade and population ^
● Undertook impressive maritime expeditions: fleet launched in 1405, followed by 6
more over 28 years
○ Captained by Muslim eunuch Zheng He
○ Visited ports in SE Asia, Indonesia, India, Arabia, E. Africa
○ 1st voyage: 300 ships, 27K men (soldiers, physicians, officials)
● Expeditions established power and prestige, exerted control over trade
● Ended abruptly - after 1433, authorities let it deteriorate after death of Yongle
○ Believed China was a self-sufficient “middle kingdom”, viewed voyages as a waste of
resources and money

14. IIB. European Comparisons: State Building + Cultural Renewal
● Europe had similar processes of demographic recovery, political
consolidation and cultural flowering
○ After Mongol demise, started regrowing pop. in late 1400s
○ Infrastructure - durable foundation
● Readopted fragmented system of indep. and competitive states
○ Learned to tax effectively, more effective admin structures, raised standing armies
○ Russian state centered on Moscow emerged
○ War was a frequent occurrence
■ Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453): England vs. France over rival claims to territory in
France

15. IIB cont’d
★ Renewed cultural blossoming: Renaissance (1300-1600)- parallel renewal
of Confucianism in China
○ Reclaimed Greco-Roman tradition
○ Began in commercial cities of Italy
■ Inspo in art and lit of ancient Greece and Rome
■ Purpose: use works as a cultural standard to imitate and then surpass
● Patronized great artists (ex: da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael) - paintings more
naturalistic w/portraits and human body
○ Majority of writers and artists were men, few exceptions such as Christine de Pizan
(1363-1430)
■ Works pushed against misogyny
■ Book City of Ladies, written w/help of Lady of Reason
○ Interested in capturing qualities of the individual and describing the world

16. IIB cont’d
● Reflected urban bustle and
commercial preoccupations of Italian
cities
○ Secular elements challenged Christian
culture
○ Individualism signaled dawning of a more
capitalist economy of private entrepreneurs
● New Europe in the making, more
different from their recent past than
Ming China from their pre-Mongol
glory

17. IIC. European Comparisons: Maritime Voyaging
● Like Chinese, Euro’s were also launching oceanic expeditions
● Initiated 1415 by Portugal - sailed down W. coast of Africa
● As century ended, 2 expeditions marked major breakthroughs
○ 1492: Columbus made way across Atlantic and hit Americas
■ Funded by Spain, Portugal’s neighbor and rival
○ 1497: Vasco de Gama went around tip of S. Africa, along E. African coast and across Indian
Ocean to Calicut in S. India
● Differences between Chinese and Euro ventures
Europeans Chinese
Size Columbus - 3 ships, 90 men
de Gama - 4 ships, 170 men
Zheng He - 100’s of ships, K’s of
sailors
Motivation Sought wealth of Africa and Asia,
Christian converts and allies
Didn’t need any of these
Duration Continuing, escalating effort Decisive ending of voyages

18. IIC cont’d
★ Why did Europeans continue a process that the Chinese deliberately
abandoned?
○ Had no unified political authority w/ power to order an end to expeditions
○ Elite had an interest in overseas expansion
○ China: when ZH died, those who opposed him prevailed in court
■ Also believed that if they needed something abroad, others would bring it to them
★ Chinese withdrawal facilitated Euro entry
○ Portuguese could penetrate region, faced only Ottomans
★ To deal w. population ^ and land shortage,
○ China: more extensive use of land, expansion inland → C. Asia
○ Europe: agriculture → new lands overseas, commitment to oceanic expansion

19. III. Civilizations of the 15th Century:
The Islamic World
● 15th and early 16th’s experiences remarkable changes and continuation of
earlier patterns
● Split into 4 empires
○ Ottoman (16th) - Mid. E, coastal N. Africa, around Black Sea, E. Europe
○ Safavid - Iran
○ Mughal - India
○ Songhay - Africa

20. IIIA. In the Islamic Heartland: Ottoman and Safavid Empires
★ Ottoman - most impressive and enduring, lasted 14th → early 20th c.
○ Created by a Turkic warrior group that migrated into Anatolia
○ By mid-15th, spread to Anat. peninsula, SE Europe (Balkan habitat)
○ Substantial Christian population
★ Represented emergence of Turks as dominant people of Islamic world, ruled over
many Arabs
○ Claimed legacy of Abbasid empire
○ Sought to bring unity to Islamic world and protect religion
★ New phase in encounters btwn Christian and Islamic worlds - rise of Ottomans
reversed roles (orig: Christians dom, Islamics sub)
○ Seizure of Constantinople in 1453 - demise of Byzantium, opened way to
expansion in heartland Europe
○ 1529: Ottomans lay siege to Vienna
○ Europeans called this the “terror of the Turk”

21. IIIA cont’d
★ Safavid Empire - Persian lands, E of Ottomans (late 15th, early 16th)
○ Leadership Turkic but emerged from a Sufi religious order founded by
Safi al-Din (1252-1334)
○ Established circa 1510
○ Long-term significance: imposed Shia Islam as official religion of state
■ Introduced divide into political and religious life of Islam
■ Years (1534-1639) - periodic military conflict between Ottoman and
Safavid empires

22. IIIB. On the Frontiers of Islam: Songhay + Mughal Empires
★ Songhay - W. African savannas, rose late 15th century
○ Derived revenue from commerce of trans-Saharan trade routes
○ Islam a growing faith, limited to urban elites
○ Divide accounts for behavior of 15th century monarch Sonni Ali
■ Gave alms and fasted during Ramadan, but took pride in being a
magician - had invisibility charm that helped his military
○ Became major center of Islamic learning and commerce by early 16th century
○ Successor made hajj, asked to be given title “Caliph of the Land of the Blacks”

23. IIIB cont’d
★ Mughal - invaded India in 1526
○ Bore similarities to Songhay - governed mainly
non-Islamics
○ Initiated new phase btwn Islamics and Hindus
■ Gave India a rare period of political unity
■ During first 150 years, tried to blend Muslims and
Hindus into a partnership
● Exception: Vijayanagara (distinctly Hindu) -
flourished in southernmost India

24. IIIB cont’d
★ Together, 4 empires brought political coherence, military power,
economic prosperity, and cultural brilliance
○ New energy (“new flowering of Islam”) → faith spread to other regions
■ Most prominent of these - oceanic SE Asia
○ In SE Asia and Africa, Islam was intro’ed by traveling merchants and solidified through
activities of Sufi holy men
★ Rise of Mala (a major Muslim port city) on waterway btwn Sumatra and
Malaya
○ Facilitated commerce throughout all of Islamic world
○ Became springboard for spread of Islam, which demonstrated much blending w/local and
Hindu/Buddhist traditions
○ Became center for Islamic learning - scholars came from all over to study

25. IV. Civilizations of the 15th Century:
The Americas

26. IVA. The Aztec Empire
● Largely work of Mexica people - semi-nomadic, orig. From N. Mexico and
migrated southward, (core population 5-6 mil)
○ By 1325, had est’ed selves on small island on Lake Texcoco
○ Over next century, developed military capacity
○ Built own capital city - Tenochtitlan
■ Metropolis of 150-200K
■ Canals, dikes, causeways, bridges
■ Chinampas - “floating gardens” that surrounded city
● 1428 - Triple Alliance between Mexica and 2 other city-states → launched an
aggressive military conquest that was successful
● Was a loosely structured and unstable conquest state - had frequent rebellions

27. IVA cont’d
● Collected tribute: conquered’s required to deliver textiles, milit. Supplies,
jewelry, and animal products → local collectors → capital
● Extent of empire and pop. growth stimulated development of markets
and production of craft goods
○ Tlatelco: largest market, near capital city, had every kind of merchandise
○ Pochteca: professional merchants - legally commoners but wealth was above that of
nobles
■ Rose in society, became magnates of the land
■ Also obtained slaves for sacrifice in Aztec rituals
● Tlacael (1398-1480) - prominent official, credited w/ ideology that gave human
sacrifice importance

28. IVA cont’d - Religious Life and Understanding of the World
● Cyclical understanding: sun is central to all life and identified w/ Aztec patron deity
Huitzilopochtli
○ Constant battle w/darkness and Aztec world viewed as being on edge of catastrophe and
required life-giving force found in human blood
○ High calling of state - supply blood thorough wars and POWs
● Growth of empire became means for maintaining cosmic order and avoiding
catastrophe
○ Ideology shaped techniques of warfare - priority in capturing rather than
killing enemy
○ Priests and rulers became codependent - sacrifice started being carried out
for politics and rituals served to impress guests
● Rituals also included poetic tradition of great beauty, mused on fragility of human
life
○ Outlook characterized work of Nezahualcoyotl - poet and king of city-state
Texcoco

29. IVB. The Inca Empire
● Relatively small community of Quechua-speaking peoples built an imp. State along
Andes Mtns
○ Incorporated lands and cultures of earlier Andean civ’s
○ Much larger than Aztec: 2,500 miles, 10 mil people
○ Resembled Mongols in speed of creation and extent of territory
● Erected a bureaucratic empire w/strict social structure
○ Emperor: thought of as divine - descendant of creator god Viracocha and son of sun god
Inti
○ Governors for each of 80 provinces
■ State owned all lands and resources
○ Local officials - headed hierarchal units made of grouped subjects
○ Inspectors provided center w/checks on provincial officials
■ Population data recorded on quipus
● Efforts in cultural integration - conquered’s had to learn Quechua, which is still
spoken today

30. IVB cont’d
● Human diversity required flexibility, had to delegate control and construct effective
admin. systems
○ Required peoples to know major Inca deities, but were largely free to carry on own
religious traditions
○ State depended as much on posture of peoples as on demands of Inca authorities
● Rep’ed a dense and extended network of econ. relationships
○ Mita system: demands expressed through labor service, required periodically of each
household
■ Some on large state farms (“sun farms”)
■ Some herded, mined, served in military, construction projects
■ Those w/skills manufactured textiles, metal, ceramics, stone
■ “Chosen women” - most well-known specialists, trained young → given as wives to
men of distinction or became priestesses in various temples (called “w
Sun”)
● In return, state was required to have feasts and supply resources when
disaster struck

31. IVB cont’d - Gender Parallelism in both Inca and Andes
● Women and men operated in separate but equal environments
○ Andes: men patrilineal, women matrilineal
○ Mesoam: children belonged equally to both parents
○ Both had parallel religious cults for both sexes
■ (Inca) matching officials, men worshipped son and women worshipped moon
■ Parallel hierarchies of male and female political officials
● Social roles clearly defined, but domestic activities were not thought of as inferior
to men’s
■ Childbirth considered women’s war
■ Taking care of home thought to raise better children
● Gender complementarity, not inequality
○ Men only still in military, in higher court positions
○ Incas imposed rigid patriarchal system
■ Exception: sapay Inca (ruler) and coya (female consort) governed jointly

32. V. Webs of Connection

33. ● Almost all 15th century civ’s were in various and overlapping webs of
influence, communication and exchange
○ Most obvious: empire and large-scale political systems
● Religion also linked and divided far-flung people
○ Christianity
■ Common culture from England to Russia
■ Divided btwn Roman Cath. and E. Orth. endured
● 16th century Protestant Reformation shattered Christian unity of Latin West
○ Buddhism
■ Largely vanished from C. Asia
■ Remained link btwn China, Korea, Tibet, etc.
○ Islam
■ Brought together many (ex: Africans, Arabs, Persians, Turks, Indians, etc.)
■ Conflicts persisted: Sunni Ottoman vs. Shia Safavid

34. ● Long-established patterns of trade
○ Ex’s: hunting societies of Siberia - Silk Roads; N. African horses → agricultural Nigeria
using trans-Saharan trade; Mississippi River and Orinoco and Amazon Rivers facilitated
canoe-borne commerce
■ Pacific Polynesia - great voyaging networks were in decline by 1500 (cause:
ecological devastation and Little Ice Age - cooling and fluctuating climate change)
○ Afro-Eurasian networks cont’d, but w/changing balance
■ Silk Roads contracted w/Mongol collapse, plague and rise of Ottomans
■ Oceanic trade from Japan, Korea and China through SE Asian islands a
Ocean picked up considerably
● Large ships could accommodate bulk goods (ex: grain) and luxury products
● More sophisticated partnerships and credit mechanisms
● Common Islamic culture smoothed passage of goods among different
peoples

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