Alfred Wegener first proposed the theory of continental drift in 1915, hypothesizing that 200 million years ago the continents were joined together in a supercontinent called Pangaea. Pangaea began breaking apart in the late Triassic period, forming the continents of Gondwanaland and Laurasia separated by the Tethys Sea. By the end of the Cretaceous period the continents had separated into their modern positions. Wegener published his theory of continental drift and the existence of Pangaea in his 1915 book.

2. Pangaea
•
ALFRED WEGENER AND PANGAEA
• In 1915, the German geologist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener (1880-1930) first proposed
the theory of continental drift, which states that parts of the Earth's crust slowly drift atop a
liquid core. The fossil record supports and gives credence to the theories of continental drift
and plate tectonics.
Wegener hypothesized that there was an original, gigantic supercontinent 200 million years
ago, which he named Pangaea, meaning "All-earth". Pangaea was a supercontinent consisting
of all of Earth's land masses. It existed from the Permian through Jurassic periods. It began
breaking up during the late Triassic period.
Pangaea started to break up into two smaller supercontinents, called Laurasia and
Gondwanaland, during the late Triassic. It formed the continents Gondwanaland and
Laurasia, separated by the Tethys Sea. By the end of the Cretaceous period, the continents
were separating into land masses that look like our modern-day continents.
Wegener published this theory in his 1915 book, On the Origin of Continents and Oceans. In it
he also proposed the existence of the supercontinent Pangaea, and named it (Pangaea
means "all the land" in Greek).

3. Beringia
• The term Beringia comes from the name of Vitus Bering, a Danish explorer
for the Russian czar in the 18th Century. Bering-Chirikov expedition
explored the waters of the North Pacific between Asia and North America.
The Bering Strait, which lies between Alaska and Northeast Russia, and
Bering Island, in the Commander Islands, are named after him.
• It is a region of worldwide significance for cultural and natural resources.
This area also provides an unparalleled opportunity for a comprehensive
study of the earth --its unusually intact landforms and biological remains
may reveal the character of past climates and the ebb and flow of earth
forces at the continents’ edge. Biological research leads to the
understanding of the natural history of the region and distribution of flora
and fauna. As one of the world’s great ancient crossroads, Beringia may
hold solutions to puzzles about who the first people were to come to
North America, how and when they traveled and how they survived under
such harsh climatic conditions.

4. Beringia
• It is currently believed that the ocean levels rose and fell
several times in the past. During extended cold
periods, tremendous volumes of water are deposited on land
in the form of ice and snow, which can cause a corresponding
drop in sea level. The last "ice age" occurred around 12-
15,000 years ago. During this period the shallow seas now
separating Asia from North America near the present day
Bering Strait dropped about 300 feet and created a 1,000-mile
wide grassland steppe, linking Asia and North America
together with the "Bering Land Bridge". Across this vast
steppe, plants and animals traveled in both directions, and
humans entered the Americas.
http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/paleo/parcs/atlas/beringia/lbridge.html
Bering Land Bridge Movie

5. The Land/Ice
Bridge
People, with their
languages, customs, and
cultures traveled across the
land bridge after the herds as
hunter-gatherers.
Artifacts and fossils tell
archaeologists and
anthropologists that they
migrated to all parts of
North, Central, and South
America adapting their lives
to the available
food, climate, and sheltering
materials.

6. How Do We Know?
• Archaeologists have traced man’s origins back
into the past by finding artifacts—man-made
articles—and dating them by using Carbon-14
dating. Carbon traces decay at a given time
interval, so one can determine the
authenticity and the age of an item by
measuring the amount of carbon residual.

9. A Portuguese
painting from
1522 tells the
story of the
martyrdom of
Ursula, a
medieval
Catholic saint.
The religious
story and the
sailing ships in
the background
express the
themes of the
age of
exploration.

10. 1
The Search for Spices
• Why did Europeans cross the seas?
• How did Portugal’s eastward
explorations lead to the development of
a trading empire?
• How did Columbus's voyages affect the
search for a passage to the Indies?

11. 1
Why Did Europeans Cross the Seas?
• As Europe’s population recovered from the
Black Death, the demand for trade goods
grew.
• Europeans wanted spices.
• Cinnamon, pepper, nutmeg, cloves . . . these and other spices were a vital part of
the world economy in the 1400s. Because the spice trade was controlled by Arab
merchants and traders, Europeans didn’t know how to get the spices they
desperately wanted.
• European merchants wanted to gain direct
access to the riches of Asia. (Avoid Venice
monopoly).
• Some voyagers still wanted to crusade against
the Muslims.
• Others were inspired by the Renaissance spirit
to learn about distant lands.

12. The
Crusades
• The Crusades were expeditions undertaken, in fulfillment of a solemn vow to
deliver the Holy Places from Mohammedan tyranny.
• Origin of the Crusades is directly traceable to the moral and political condition of
Western Christendom in the eleventh century. At that time Europe was divided
into numerous states whose sovereigns were absorbed in tedious and petty
territorial disputes while the emperor, in theory the temporal head of
Christendom, was wasting his strength in the quarrel over Investitures. The popes
alone had maintained a just estimate of Christian unity; they realized to what
extent the interests of Europe were threatened by the Byzantine Empire and the
Mohammedan tribes, and they alone had a foreign policy whose traditions were
formed under Leo IX and Gregory VII. The reform effected in the Church and the
papacy through the influence of the monks of Cluny had increased the prestige of
the Roman pontiff in the eyes of all Christian nations; hence none but the pope
could inaugurate the international movement that culminated in the Crusades. But
despite his eminent authority the pope could never have persuaded the Western
peoples to arm themselves for the conquest of the Holy Land had not the
immemorial relations between Syria and the West favored his design. Europeans
listened to the voice of Urban II because their own inclination and historic
traditions impelled them towards the Holy Sepulcher.

13. • The Black Death (more recently known as the Black Plague) was a devastating
pandemic that first struck Europe in the mid-14th century (1347–1350), when it
was estimated to have killed about a third of Europe's population. A series of
plague epidemics also occurred in large portions of Asia and the Middle East
during the same period, which indicates this outbreak was actually a world wide
pandemic. The same disease is thought to have returned to Europe every
generation with varying degrees of intensity and fatality until the 1700s.
• Bubonic plague is an infectious disease that is believed to have caused several
epidemics or pandemics throughout history. Bubonic plague is the most common
form of plague which is characterized by swollen, tender inflamed lymph glands
(called buboes)
• It is primarily a disease of rodents, particularly marmots (in which the most
virulent strains of plague are primarily found), but also black rats, prairie
dogs, chipmunks, squirrels and other similar large rodents. Human infection most
often occurs when a person is bitten by a flea that has previously fed on an
infected rodent.
Bubonic plague

14. The Spread of Plague • Brought back with the knights
from the Crusades. The fleas
on the rats on the ships helped
to quickly spread the disease.
• “Bring out yer dead” was
heard every week—collect
those who had died and toss
them on the cart for a mass
burial. A third of the
population died outright.
Towns and cities were
decimated—so that shops and
houses were vacant and weeds
grew up in the middle of once
busy streets from lack of foot-
traffic.
• Gloom and doom—average life
expectancy in Europe was @
18 years old. This led folks to
believe that the end of the
world was coming and that
they had better—live for today
and convert as many as
possible to Christianity—to get
their gold stars in Heaven.
• Rise of the middle class as
serfs managed to leave their
manors and live free for year
and a day. They moved to
cities and established them-
selves within a trade/guildhall.

16. Marco Polo Travels in
China
1275-1292
• Marco Polo was born in Venice, Italy in the year 1254. He had an education of different
skills in accounting, foreign languages, and knowledge of the Christian Church. His
background in business and culture and his love for nature made Marco Polo very
observant of humans, animals, and plants.
• His father, Nicolo, and his uncle, Maffeo, were merchants who began their first eastern
journey in 1260. They visited Constantinople and made their way to the domain of the
Great Kublai Khan, ruler of China. The Emperor became interested in stories of the
native land of the merchants; thus, he sent the Polos back to the Pope as his
ambassadors with messages of peace and interest in converting areas of China to
Christianity.
• The merchants remained in Venice for two years and decided to keep their promise of
return to Kublai Khan. Large profits from trade with these distant parts also prompted
the brothers to return. On this journey, they took the seventeen year old Marco Polo
with them. After three and a half years of travel, the ambassadors humbly appeared
before the Emperor.
• China had matured in the arts, both fine and practical, beyond anything found in
Europe. Literature was greatly respected. Paper had already been invented; books of
philosophy, religion, and politics could be found and a large Encyclopedia had been
printed under the supervision of the Emperor. Mechanical devices were not lacking and
paper money was the accepted currency in many sections of the empire. It was in this
world of advanced wonders that Marco Polo resided for many years.

19. • Upon his return to Italy, Marco Polo told of his findings
of jade, porcelain, silk, ivory, and other riches of Asia. He
described the festival of the Emperor's birthday in which
everything from clothing to ornaments were laced in
gold. He also explained how he saw people using black
stones for fuel (later known as coal). Unfortunately, all
his stories and details of the unimaginable were
rejected, and Marco Polo became the "man of a million
lies."
• After he retrieved his notes from China, Marco Polo
transformed his travels into manuscript form. His work
has been criticized because he did not include
fundamentals of Chinese life as tea, foot-binding, or
even the Great Wall. He was frank, unpoetic in
imagination and vision, and constantly spoke of
trade, money, risks, and profits (as an ordinary business
man/merchant would do). However, he wrote in
incredible detail of the birds animals, plants, and other
aspects of nature.
• When he was near death, a priest entered his room and
asked him if he wanted to admit his stories were false.
Instead, Marco Polo replied, "I do not tell half of what I
saw because no one would have believed me."

20. Polo’s discoveries in Cathay
• Gunpowder
• Fireworks
• Paper
• Noodles
• Printing
• coins
• Venice’s stranglehold on trade with the Far East—
from overland (The Silk Road) and the Mediterranean
was their monopoly

22. Abu Hajj Abdullah Muhammad Ibn Battuta

25. Saint Brendan
• Who was Saint Brendan and did he lead Columbus to discover America?
This is a common myth about the discovery of America. St. Brendan was an Irish monk or
priest that lived well before the time of Columbus. Some people think that he traveled to the
Americas. We have no way of knowing one way or the other because there is no physical
evidence, and most of the stories about him sound like legends and are very mythic in style.
However, Columbus apparently did have some prior information that there was land on the
other side of the Atlantic ocean. Many scholars think he obtained it in part from the
fishermen of Bristol in England and from those in Portugal, both of whom are likely to have
explored the rich fishing grounds off the Grand Banks in Canada and in the Caribbean. He
somehow knew the exact route with the best ocean currents for the times of year when he
sailed and made an almost direct line to his first landing.
So, while we do not know if St. Brendan actually went to America (there are unconfirmed
legends that the Welsh, the Egyptians and the Phoenicians also landed there), we do think
that Columbus may have gotten information from fishermen in the British Isles.

27. The Irish Discover America
• In the fifth century, St. Patrick started the christening of the Irish. The Irish quickly accepted the new religion,
and soon started to make voyages of their own. In 563, St. Columba established a monastery on the island of
Iona, on the Scottish coast, and from Iona and other places, the Irish not only preached among the Picts, but also
traveled onto the Atlantic Ocean. A famous story is the one of the voyages of St. Brendan, who traveled to the
Atlantic to find the Promised Land of the Saints. According to the story, he found several islands and had a
number of adventures before finding this promised land. Although St. Brendan was a historical person, the story
was probably not that of his voyage, but a combination of stories from several Irish monks. There is discussion
about the nature of the islands that are described. The Orkneys, Faeroe and Iceland are almost certainly
included, but historians do not agree whether some of the descriptions are about the Azores, Newfoundland and
other lands in America. What is certain, is that the Irish later established themselves in Faeroe, and, from the
late eighth century onwards, Iceland. After the arrival of the Vikings they may have left Iceland for Greenland,
but nothing has been heard of this colony since.

28. The Vikings
• The Vikings were a people from Scandinavia. In the second half of the eighth century, they started
raids on England, and during the next centuries, their raids and lands formed an important force in
European politics. But apart from these raids, which went as far as Italy, the Vikings were also
important traders. Especially the Vikings from Sweden played an important role, sending their ships
up the Russian rivers, and through small portages reaching places as far as Constantinople and
Persia. Nevertheless, here too they were conquerors as well as traders, and various of the main
principalities of medieval Russia, such as Novgorod and Kiev, were established by them. One Viking
trader that we know by name is Ottar (also known as Ohthere), who told king Alfred of Wessex
about his voyage northward along the Norwegian Coast to the White Sea region. His is the oldest
known voyage around North Cape.
• In the west, the Vikings colonized a number of lands - the Hebrides, the Orkneys, Faeroe, Iceland.
The latter country was first seen around 860. It was discovered by accident by Gardar Svarsson, who
was blown off course going to the Hebrides. The same happened to Naddod around the same
period. Next, Floki Vilgerdasson spent a Winter there, the colonization of the country was started in
the 870s, and by 930 viking colonies
were spread over all of Iceland.

29. • Like Iceland before, around 930 Greenland was discovered by a Viking who was blown off
course, his name was Gunnbjorn. The first Viking to colonize Greenland was Eric the Red. In
982, Eric was banned from Iceland because of manslaughter, and he decided to explore the
country discovered by Gunnbjorn. After three years he returned, talking enthusiastically about the
land, which he called Greenland, and in 986, he returned with several shiploads of colonists. Two
colonies were started, the eastern and the western settlement, both on the west coast.
• Bjarni Herjulfsson came back home to his father in Iceland in 986, only to hear that his father had
joined Eric to Greenland. He decided to go there himself, but missed it, and reached America. He
explored a large part of the American coast, but he did not land there. Around the year 1000, Eric's
son Leif tried to establish a colony somewhere in America, in a land he called Vinland. A few more
attempts were made in the following years, but all were abandoned after only one or two years.
We do not know where exactly Vinland was. On Newfoundland, a Viking settlement has been
found in a place called L'Anse aux Meadows. Many historians believe that this was the settlement
of Leif, but others think that Vinland was further south, perhaps in New England.
• Undoubtedly, America has been visited by Vikings after this, but there is no evidence that they
made any more attempts at actually colonizing the country. The colonies in Greenland prospered
for some time, but in the fourteenth century it began to deteriorate, and in the fifteenth century it
was abandoned, for as yet unknown reasons. The sagas say it was the savage skraelings who drove
them out.

34. • Europe and hierarchy
• Bubonic Plague
• Medieval religious thought
• Reconquista
• Patriarchal society
• Trade without paying Venetian prices
• 1588 England’s defeat of the Spanish Armada—
Drake, caravels, and the weather vs. huge Spanish
Men-of-war.
• off Irish coast—survivors with excellent horseflesh to breed and swarthy
“Black Irish” coloring

35. Inventions leading to the
Age of Exploration
• Lateen sails
• Improved rudders
• Improved compass
• Caravels—lighter, more maneuverable ships
• Improvements in the stern rudder
• Mapmaking/cartography
• Discovery of the Trade Winds

36. 1
Tools of Ocean Navigation
Astrolabe
This device was used to measure the
angles of the sun and stars above
the horizon. It was difficult to use
accurately in rough seas.
Caravel
This ship combined the square sails of
European vessels with the lateen
(triangular) sails of their Arab
counterparts. The new rigging made it
easier to sail across and into the wind.

37. Cartography
Probably as long as people
have been around, they
have been drawing maps of
things. The appeal is maybe
obvious: it gives us the
ability to see a much bigger
picture than we would
otherwise. We can see
where things are, how to
get places, and where we
are.
As travels
extended, mapmakers could
increase their knowledge and fill
in areas of coastline and
continents previously
undiscovered.

39. Portugal leads the
Way
• Prince Henry the Navigator wished to expand
• knowledge, improve cartography, and extend
• navigation. He founded a sailing school in Sagres. He
wished to find a route to India and an entrance to wealth and
trade. When Henry died in 1460, his sailors had only reached
as far as the Canary Islands in West Africa. Twenty-eight years
later, Bartholomeu Dias proved that Africa could be
circumnavigated when he reached the southern tip of the
continent. This is now known as the "Cape of Good Hope." In
1499, Vasco da Gama was the first sailor to travel from
Portugal to India.
• Just a few years earlier, Queen Isabella of Spain hired a sailor
named Christopher Columbus from Genoa to reach India by
sailing west. It wasn't until years later that anyone understood
that the "Indians" he encountered weren't from India after all.

40. 1
Portugal’s Voyages to the East
By the 1400s, Portugal had expanded into
Muslim North Africa.
Henry the Navigator sent ships to explore the
western coast of Africa.
In 1488, Bartholomeu Dias rounded the
southern tip of Africa, later called the Cape of
Good Hope.
In 1497, Vasco da Gama reached the spice
port of Calicut in India.
In 1502, da Gama forced a treaty on Calicut.
The Portuguese seized key ports around the
Indian Ocean to create a vast trading empire.

45. From West Africa, the Portuguese sailed
around the continent. They continued to
establish forts and trading posts, but they
also attacked existing East African coastal
cities such as Mombasa and Malindi, which
were hubs of international trade. With
cannons blazing, they expelled the Arabs
who controlled the East African trade
network and took over this thriving
commerce for themselves. Each conquest
added to their growing trade empire.
Over the next two centuries, some Portuguese explorers managed to reach parts of
present-day Congo, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, establishing limited trade. In
general, however, the Portuguese did not venture far from the coasts. They knew
little about Africa’s interior, and they lacked accurate maps or other resources to
help them explore there. Furthermore, Africans in the interior, who wanted to
control the gold trade, resisted such exploration. As a result of all these
factors, when the Portuguese empire declined in the 1600s, the Portuguese did
not leave a strong legacy in Africa, merely outposts.

46. African Kingdoms and Trading States,
1000 B.C.–A.D. 1600

47. • Vast migrations of people have
contributed to the rich diversity of
African cultures. One such series of
migrations, called the Bantu
migrations, probably occurred
because of changes in the
environment. Over a period of a
thousand years, Bantu-speakers
from West Africa moved south and
east to populate most of southern
Africa. Today, as many as one third of
Africans speak a language in the
Bantu family.

48. Kingdoms of West Africa
By A.D. 100, settled farming villages on
the western savannas of Africa were expanding.
Soon trade networks linked the savanna to forest
lands in the south and then sent goods across the Sahara.
By A.D. 200, camels, brought to North Africa from Asia,
had revolutionized trade across the Sahara. Camel caravans
created new, profitable trade networks. Gold and salt
were the major products. Gold was plentiful in present-day
Ghana, Nigeria, and Senegal. North Africans sought gold
to trade in exchange for European goods. West Africans
traded gold to North Africans in exchange for an equally
valuable item, salt.
People need salt in their diet to stay healthy, especially in
hot, tropical areas.

49. The Kingdom of Ghana
By A.D. 800, the rulers of the Soninke
people had united many farming
villages to form the kingdom of
Ghana. The king controlled gold-salt
trade routes across West Africa. So
great was the flow of gold that Arab
writers called Ghana “land of gold.”
Over time, Muslim merchants
established Islam in Ghana. Muslim
art, technology, and philosophy were
influential as well. When the empire
of Ghana declined in the late 1100s, it
was swallowed up by a new rising
power, the kingdom of Mali.

50. The World of West African Forest
Kingdoms
• Include African slave factories and West African forest
kingdoms-- wealth and trade.
• Caravans of trade. Islam, kinship network, education, trade—
ideas as well as wares
• Benin
• Askia Muhammad of Songhai
• Mansa Musa of Mali

51. The Kingdom of Mali
Mali emerged by 1250. It
controlled both the gold-mining
regions to the south and the salt
supplies of the Sahara. The
greatest emperor of Mali was
Mansa Musa who came to the
throne in 1312. Musa expanded
Mali’s borders. A convert to Islam,
Musa journeyed to Mecca in 1324
to fulfill the hajj. Musa’s
pilgrimage forged new ties with
Muslim states and brought The Kingdom of Songhai
scholars and artists to Mali. As Mali weakened in the 1400s, a new West
African kingdom, Songhai , arose. Songhai
Askia Muhammad
forged the largest state that had ever
existed in West Africa. The kingdom
controlled trade routes and wealthy cities
like Timbuktu, a leading center of learning.
Songhai prospered until about 1586. At that
time, civil war and invasion weakened and
splintered the empire.

52. Trade Routes of East Africa
By the time the kingdom of Axum conquered Nubia
about A.D. 350, Axum had long been an important
trading center. Located southeast of Nubia, Axum
linked trade routes between Africa, India, and the
Mediterranean world. A powerful Axum king
converted to Christianity in the 300s. At
first, Christianity strengthened ties to the
Mediterranean world. However, in the 600s, Islam
came to dominate North Africa, leaving Axum an
isolated island of Christianity. Over time the
kingdom of Axum slowly declined.
As Axum declined, a string of trading
cities gradually rose along the East
African coast. Since ancient
times, traders had visited this coast. In
the 600s, Arab and Persian merchants set
up Muslim communities under the
protection of local African rulers. By
1000, port cities were thriving from trade
across the Indian Ocean.

53. Societies in Africa
Factors such as Africa’s varied geography, diverse
climates, and later migration and trade played
major roles in how early societies developed
throughout the continent. In some medieval
African societies, the nuclear family was
typical, with parents and children living and
working together, while in other communities the
family included several generations. Political
patterns varied depending in part on the size and
culture of the community. Griots — masters of words
Across Africa, religious beliefs were varied and and music, were historians,
genealogists, advisers to
complex. Some Africans followed traditional
nobility, entertainers,
beliefs and were polytheistic. By 100, both
messengers, praise singers.
Christianity and Islam had spread to many
regions of Africa. African societies preserved We would call them spoken
their values and history through both oral and word artists.
written literature. Oral traditions date back many
centuries. In West Africa, griots, or professional
storytellers, recited ancient stories as they still do
today.

54. Kinship Network
Ethnocentricity
Xenophobia
Slavery

55. • Xenophobia—the fear/distrust of any one
who is foreign or strangers.
• Ethnocentricity—the firm belief that your
society is the center of the universe, the
best, and , therefore, that everyone else is not
as good.
• Kinship Network—everyone within a society
fits in because they are regarded as extended
family, regardless of rank, from king to slave.

57. The Forest
Kingdoms of
West Africa
• The Europeans enslaved the Antilles Indians wherever they could. This caused their rapid disappearance and
they were therefore not as available for slave labor. Thanks to initiative of a Spanish priest (Bartholomew de Las
Casas), the solution to this dearth of manpower was found in the large scale importation of slaves from Africa.
These slaves came from all parts of the West coast of that continent, from the mouth of the Senegal river to the
Cape of Good Hope, but especially from the Eastern Guinea coast (today's Ghana, Togo, Dahomey, and
Nigeria coast) and the Congo-Angola coastal region. Africa at this time was at a decisive turn of
its history. Since the Portuguese navigators succeeded in diverting the flow of the gold trade, which made the
richness and fame of the great Sudanese Empires, the economy of the interior states gradually fizzled out. The
last blow being struck in 1591 with the destruction of the Songhai Empire by a Moroccan army. The coastal
states the rose in importance , particularly in Eastern Guinea. While the Atlantic trade at first enriched the
coastal states, it soon forced these newly formed Kingdoms to rapidly become esclavagist, because of the above
mentioned needs in the developing American states. War being the best way to obtain slaves to be sold to
Europeans, a permanent and general state of conflict, disunity and chaos resulted for the next centuries, and all
hopes of progress for Africa was put to an end. On the coast of Eastern Guinea, the rise of Ashantee
and Dahomey Kingdoms long preceded Columbus' time. Dahomey, whose great period was in
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, was to give Haiti its main, though unofficial religion -
the Voodoo and play an important part in the development of its Creole language. Even today, the
language of Dahomey is still the ritual language of Voodoo priests.

58. • In that time, a very important center of civilization existed in the area of the Yoruba and Edo
speaking countries. Corresponding approximately to the former southwestern state of
Nigeria, they were divided in kingdoms among which were Oyo, Ife, and Benin. Their societies
were basically agricultural but there was also a varied and important production in
handicrafts. There were extensive cities and prosperous trade, which found a ready means of
exchange in the cowry shell currency. Their culture originated from the city of Ife, whose art of
terra-cotta and brass beads, is world famous as one of the summits of mondial art.
• The Angola-Congo coast in 1500 was on the verge of having the only experience of a mixed
Afro-European culture: the kingdom of Congo, Christianized by the Portuguese. But the
attempt was ephemeral. Facing the esclavagist enterprises of the Sao-Tome slave dealers, the
Congolese expelled the Portuguese at the beginning of the 17th century.
• It must be noted that the places of origin of the Americas' Black slaves (North, Central, South
and West Indies) far from being primitive, had an evolved civilization of their own. Black
Africa, in the West African interior and the East coast, knew the written culture in Arabic and
Swahili, as early as the 14th century. On the West coast, the culture was more oral even
though a form of written literature can also be found. That last character, together with the
religious importance of mask in the statuary, and of the cultural importance music and dance
as a vehicle for cultural information, was perpetuated in the West Indies.
• Thus, in Columbus' time some of the main characters of the modern West Indies could be
foreseen. In the tragedy that will follow Columbus arrival in the new world, the Europeans
have the leading part. The technological superiority of European developing states coupled
with their greed swiftly overcame local Indian societies. It even overtook African societies
which at the onset worked in association with them. But the tragedy of slavery, in its forceful
transfer of African was to give the "new world" its most durable specificity.

60. Portuguese traders quickly joined the profitable slave
trade, followed by other European traders. Europeans bought
large numbers of slaves to perform labor on their plantations—
large estates run by an owner or an owner’s overseer—in the
Americas and elsewhere. Europeans also bought slaves as exotic
servants for rich households. By the 1500s, European
participation had encouraged a much broader Atlantic slave
trade.
An early voice raised against the slave trade was that of Affonso I, ruler of Kongo in west-
central Africa. As a young man, Affonso had been tutored by Portuguese missionaries, who
hoped to convert Africans to Christianity. After becoming king in 1505, he called on the
Portuguese to help him develop Kongo as a modern Christian state, but he became alarmed
as more and more Portuguese came to Kongo each year to buy slaves. Affonso wanted to
maintain contact with Europe but end the slave trade. His appeal failed, and the slave trade
continued.
Africa’s great wealth was her people and
millions were stolen from their homeland
in the African Diaspora.

61. In 1490, the Portuguese converted the son of a Kongo king to
Christianity and then helped him take his father’s throne.
The new king, born Nzinga Mbemba, was renamed Affonso.
King Affonso soon realized that his relationship with Portugal
had extremely negative consequences, as can be seen from
his letter to King John III of Portugal in 1526. In his letter, the
king of Kongo appeals to the king of Portugal to end the slave
trade.
Europeans still refuse to take responsibility
for the crimes that led to their great wealth
and power.

62. The Asante Kingdom
The Asante kingdom emerged in the area occupied by present-day Ghana. In the
late 1600s, an able military leader, Osei Tutu, won control of the trading city of
Kumasi. From there, he conquered neighboring peoples and unified the Asante
kingdom. The Asante faced a great challenge in the Denkyera, a powerful
neighboring enemy kingdom. Osei Tutu realized that in order to withstand the
Denkyera, the people of his kingdom needed to be firmly united. To do this, he
claimed that his right to rule came from heaven, and that people in the kingdom
were linked by spiritual bonds. This strategy paid off when the Asante defeated the
Denkyera in the late 1600s.
Under Osei Tutu, government officials, chosen by merit rather than by
birth, supervised an efficient bureaucracy. They managed the royal
monopolies on gold mining and the slave trade. A monopoly is the
exclusive control of a business or industry. The Asante traded with
Europeans on the coast, exchanging gold and slaves for firearms. They
also played rival Europeans against one another to protect themselves.
In this way, they built a wealthy, powerful state.

63. The Oyo empire arose from successive waves of settlement by the Yoruba
people of present-day Nigeria. It began as a relatively small forest kingdom.
Beginning in the late 1600s, however, its leaders used wealth from the slave
trade to build up an impressive army. The Oyo empire used the army to
conquer the neighboring kingdom of Dahomey. At the same time, it
continued to gain wealth by trading with European merchants at the port city
of Porto-Novo.

64. Elmina Castle
European traders called the
places where they held and
traded slaves “castles.”
Built by the Portuguese in 1482, Elmina
Castle in present-day Ghana was used as a
base for trading slaves, gold, and imported
European products

65. France

In the late 1700s, another African ruler tried to
halt the slave trade in his lands. He was the
almany (from the Arabic words meaning
“religious leader”) of Futa Toro, in present-day
Senegal. Since the 1500s, French sea captains
had bought slaves from African traders in Futa
Toro. In 1788, the almany forbade anyone to
transport slaves through Futa Toro for sale
abroad.
However, the inland slave traders simply worked out a new route to the coast. Sailing
to this new market, the French captains easily purchased the slaves that the almany
had prevented them from buying in Futa Toro.
Approximately 40 million people were harvested from Africa --stolen into
slavery for over 500 years.

66. Following the Portuguese example, by the 1600s several European powers had
established forts along the western coast of Africa. As Portuguese power declined
in the region, British, Dutch, and French traders took over their forts. Unlike the
Portuguese, they established permanent footholds throughout the continent.
In 1652, Dutch immigrants arrived at the southern tip of the continent. They built
Cape Town, the first permanent European settlement, to supply ships sailing to or
from the East Indies. Dutch farmers, called Boers, settled around Cape Town. Over
time, they ousted, enslaved, or killed the people who lived there. The Boers held a
Calvinist belief that they were the elect, or chosen, of God. They looked on Africans
as inferiors and did not respect their claims to their own land. In the 1700s, Boer
herders and ivory hunters began to push north from the Cape Colony. Their
migrations would eventually lead to battle with several African groups.

68. 2
Diverse Traditions of Southeast Asia
• What are the key geographic features of Southeast
Asia?
• What impact did Indian civilization have on new
kingdoms and empires?
• What factors contributed to the growth of
Vietnamese culture?

69. 2
New Kingdoms and Empires
The blend of Indian influences with local cultures produced a series of
kingdoms and empires in Southeast Asia.
PAGAN KHMER EMPIRE SRIVIJAYA
King Anawrata made This trading empire
Pagan a major Buddhist The Khmer people adapted controlled the Strait of
center. Indian Malacca, vital to
writing, mathematics, architect shipping.
The capital city had ure, and art.
many magnificent Local people blended
stupas, or dome-shaped Khmer rulers became Indian beliefs into their
shrines. Hindus, while most ordinary own forms of worship.
people preferred Buddhism.
King Suryavarman II built a
great temple complex at
Angkor Wat.

70. 2
Empires and
Kingdoms
of Southeast Asia

71. 2
Vietnam
The Vietnamese developed their own
distinct culture. In 111 B.C., China invaded
the region and remained in control for
1,000 years. My new niece, Anna
During the Chinese occupation, the Vietnamese absorbed
Confucian ideas, modeled their government on that of
China, and adopted many aspects of Chinese culture.
Despite the powerful Chinese My niece and her husband
influences, the Vietnamese preserved
a strong sense of their separate
identity. Two noble sisters, Trung Trac
and Trung Nhi, briefly drove out the
Chinese and tried to restore a simpler
form of government based on
Vietnamese traditions.

72. 3
European Footholds in Southeast Asia and India
• How did the Portuguese and the Dutch build
empires in the East?
• How did Spain control the Philippines?
• How did the decline of Mughal India affect
European traders?

73. In 1511, a Portuguese fleet
commanded by Afonso de Albuquerque
dropped anchor off Malacca, a rich
Islamic trading port that controlled the
sea route linking India, Southeast a Portuguese rifle
Asia, and China. The fleet remained at
anchor for several weeks before
opening fire. According to a Malaysian
account:
“The cannon balls came like rain. And
the noise of the cannon was as the
noise of thunder in the heavens and the
flashes of fire of their guns were like
flashes of lightning in the sky: and the
noise of their matchlocks [guns] was
like that of groundnuts [peanuts]
popping in the frying pan.”
—From the Malay Annals
Commander Afonso de Albuquerque

74. 3
Portuguese and Dutch Trading Empires
Portugal used firepower to win control of the rich Indian Ocean spice
trade.
In less than 50 years, the Portuguese had built a trading empire with
military and merchant outposts rimming the southern seas.
Despite their sea power, the Portuguese were not strong enough to
conquer much territory on land.
The Dutch were the first Europeans to challenge Portuguese domination
is Asia.
They used their sea power to set up colonies and trading posts around
the world.
The Dutch East India Company seized Malacca from the Portuguese.
Soon after, they were able to enforce a monopoly in the Spice
Islands, controlling shipments to Europe as well as much of the trade
within Southeast Asia.

75. 3
Spain and the Philippines
In 1521, Magellan had claimed the Philippines for Spain.
Within fifty years, Spain had conquered and colonized the
islands.
Unlike other people in Southeast Asia, the Filipinos were not
united. As a result, they were easily conquered.
The Philippines became a key link to Spain’s overseas trading
empire. The Spanish shipped silver mined in Mexico and
Peru across the Pacific to the Philippines. From there,
they used the silver to buy goods in China.

76. 3
Mughal India and European Traders
Before the 1700s, the Mughal empire was larger, richer, and
more powerful than any kingdom in Europe.
• While European merchants were dazzled by India, the sophisticated
Mughal civilization was unimpressed by the Europeans.
• When Europeans sought trading rights, the Mughal emperors saw no
threat in granting them.
In the early 1700s, the Mughal central
government collapsed.
• French and English traders battled
each other for control of India,
while war erupted in Europe between An Indian Sepoy An Indian officer in the
England and France. British army poses with his wife in this Indian
painting dating from the 1700s. influence into
other parts of India.
• The British East India Company used an army of British troops and
sepoys to drive the French out, take over Bengal, and spread its
power.

77. Symbols of the Dutch EmpireThe Dutch painting Jacob Mathieusen and His
Wife (c. 1650) shows a senior official in the Dutch East India Company
overlooking the Dutch fleet in Batavia, Indonesia. A slave holds a parasol, an
Asian symbol of power. How can you tell that the artist was European?

78. 4
Encounters in East Asia
• How was European trade with China
affected by the Manchu conquest?
• What factors led Korea to isolate itself
from other nations?
• What attitude did the Tokugawa shoguns
have toward foreign traders?

79. • Upon returning to Spain in 1493 after his first
Treaty of voyage, Christopher Columbus contacted Pope Alexander
VI (a Spaniard by birth) to report his discoveries. Acting as
Tordesillas or the great European arbiter of the day, the pope then issued
a bull (decree) that divided the New World lands between
The Papal Line Spain and Portugal by establishing a north-south line of
demarcation Undiscovered non-Christian lands to the west
of Demarcation of the line were to be Spanish possessions and those to the
east belonged to Portugal. News of this decision was not
1494 warmly greeted by the Portuguese.
• In the spring of 1494, representatives of Spain and Portugal
met in the Spanish town of Tordesillas and negotiated a
solution to their dispute. The line of demarcation was
located to a position 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde
Islands. Spain had gained control of most of the New World.
• The pope granted his official recognition of this agreement
in 1506. Spain and Portugal, with a few
exceptions, remained loyal to the terms of the treaty; the
Portuguese would expand deep into Brazil beyond the
demarcation line, but Spain did not object. The natives of
these regions were not consulted about the assignment of
their homelands to others and competing powers in Europe
totally ignored the line.
• For years following 1494, the Spanish lamented their
consent to the treaty, convinced that they had received the
short end of the stick. Their initial discoveries in the New
World yielded little mineral wealth, but much disease and
discomfort. Their evaluation of this bargain with Portugal
changed dramatically in the 1520s as the riches from Aztec
Mexico and Inca Peru began to be exploited.

85. Important Chinese Leaders
Hongwu—a peasant’s son
commanded the army and drove
the Mongols out of China. He
established the Ming Dynasty.
Yonglo—son of Hongwu, established
the Forbidden City. He sent Zheng
He to explore. Matteo Ricci was
allowed to visit China
The Manchus invade and take over
China, establishing the Qing
dynasty
Kangxi—emperor in 1661, welcomed the Jesuits and their knowledge.
Qian-long—grandson of Kangxi, was offended by British Lord Macartney. With
peace and new crops, China’s population increased bigtime!

86. A Chinese watercolor portrays Jesuit
priest Matteo Ricci with European
objects, including a model of the
universe.
A geography book that Ricci
translated into Chinese is shown

87. 4
European Trade With China
The Europeans who reached Asia in the 1500s were very
impressed by what they saw . The Chinese, however, saw the
Europeans as “southern barbarians,” lacking civilized ways.
The Ming dynasty had ended overseas exploration in the mid-
1400s.
Emperor
Qianlong Portuguese traders reached China by sea in 1514. The Ming
eventually allowed them a trading post at Macao. Because
they were uninterested in European trading products, the
Ming demanded payment for Chinese goods in gold or silver.
After the Manchus conquered China, the Manchu Qing
dynasty maintained the Ming policy of restricting foreign trade.
The Europeans continued to press to expand trade to other
areas of China.

91. Korea and Isolation: The Hermit
Kingdom
Several events led Korea to turn inward for a period of
about 250 years.
As in China, the low status of merchants in Confucianism
led Koreans to look down on foreign trade.
In the 1590s, a Japanese invasion devastated the land of
Korea.
In 1636, the Manchus conquered Korea before
overrunning China. Korea was forced to become a
tributary state to the Manchu’s Qing dynasty.

93. Oda
Nobunaga
1534 - 1582
Oda Nobunaga was the initiator of the
unification of Japan under the shogunate in
the late 16th century, which ruled Japan until
織田 信長 the Meiji Restoration in 1868. He was also a
major daimyo (landowner)during this
period of Japanese history. His work was
continued, completed and finalized by his
successors Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa
Ieyasu. He failed to complete the unification
and one of his generals betrayed him and
forced Oda to perform seppuku, or ritual
suicide.

94. Oda Nobunaga appears frequently within
fiction and continues to be portrayed in many
other anime, manga, video games, and
cinematic films. Many depictions show him as
villainous or even demonic in nature, though
some portray him in a more positive light.

95. Bushido = The Way of the Warrior

96. 4
Japan and Foreign Traders
The Japanese at first welcomed western traders.
They acquired western firearms and built castles modeled on the
European design.
The Tokugawa shoguns grew increasingly hostile toward foreigners.
They saw the foreigners as agents of an invading force.
They suspected that the many Japanese Christians were loyal to
the pope, rather than to Japanese leaders.
They disliked the competition among Christian missionaries.
By 1638, the Tokugawas had barred all western merchants and
forbidden Japanese to travel abroad. They also ended foreign
trade.

97. By 1638, the Tokugawas had turned against European traders as well. Japan barred all
European merchants and forbade Japanese to travel abroad. To further their
isolation, they outlawed the building of large ships, thereby ending foreign trade. In
order to keep informed about world events, they permitted just one or two Dutch ships
each year to trade at a small island in Nagasaki harbor.
Japan remained isolated for more than 200 years. Art and literature flourished, and
internal trade boomed. Cities grew in size and importance, and some merchant families
gained wealth and status. By the early 1700s, Edo (present-day Tokyo) had a million
inhabitants, more than either London or Paris.
Bringing Trade and Christianity This 1600s decorative screen shows Japanese
people meeting a Portuguese ship carrying European goods and missionaries. Did
the presence of missionaries help or hurt European-Japanese trade relations?

98. Haiku

101. Causes of European Exploration
• Desire for Asian luxury goods such as spices, gold, and
silks
• Motivation to spread Christianity
• Strategic need to gain more direct access to trade
• Desire to gain glory for country
• Renaissance curiosity to explore new lands
• Competition with other European countries

102. Important European Explorers

103. European Footholds in the Eastern
Hemisphere

104. Major Asian Dynasties and Empires