Themes In World History Chapter 8 Confrontation Of Cultures

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The impacts: 

2. Slave Trade: These voyages encourages to the slave trade.

3. Spread of European Civilization: The Europeans not only established their companies and colonies but also spread their civilisation in several other countries.

4. Prosperity: The discoveries of new lands and sea routes promoted trade and made many countries prosperous.

5. Exchange of Knowledge: The new discoveries enlightened the people. Their outlook was broadened and they gave up their silly faiths and hollow superstitions. Thus, it helped in bringing about the Modern Age.

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Reconquista was the military reconquest of the Iberian Peninsula by Christian kings from the Arabs in 1492.

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The role of foreign trade: 

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Kongo Kingdom:

(i) Administration: The administration was quite efficient and highly centralised. The king was given divine honour. He was elected from some aristocratic family. The king was assisted by assemblies who had vast powers. The king did not have absolute power. Kingship was not hereditary.

(ii) The institution of Slaves: Though slavery was practised yet slaves were not a commodity. They lived like members of the masters' household. They could own personal property. They could change their masters.

The Political System : Many states had emerged near the river Kongo in ancient times. These states had united themselves into a large kingdom known as the Kingdom of Kongo.

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The basis of the Inca civilisation was agriculture. To cope with the infertile soil conditions, they terraced hillsides and developed systems of drainage and irrigation. It has been recently pointed out that in 1500, cultivation in the Andean highlands was much greater than what it is today. The Incas grew corn and potatoes and reared llamas for food and labour.

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The causes are: 
1. The Slave Trade: The Europeans, who had discovered and explored the continent of Africa indulged in the enslavement of African people. They sold them like sheep and goats in the foreign lands, particularly in America.
This practice of slave trade completely ruined the social, economic and political systems of African people.

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Animists believe that even objects regarded by modern science as ‘inanimate’ may have life or a soul.

The name ‘Brazil’ is derived from the brazilwood tree.

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Influence of Islam on the African Civilisation:

(i) Prosperity: The people became prosperous due to brisk trade and commerce with other countries.
(ii) Construction of Mosques and Tombs: The influence of Islam caused the construction of many mosques, forts and tombs.
(iii) New Language: The ‘Swahili’ language sprang up as a result of the intermingling of Bantu and Arabic languages.
(iv) Centres of Islamic Culture: The African states became centres of Islamic education and culture. The Arab scholars reached there and wrote the history of Africa.

2. Corn cultivation was central to their culture, and many religious ceremonies were centred on the planting, growing and harvesting of corn.

3. Efficient agricultural production generated surplus, which helped the ruling classes, priests and chiefs to invest in architecture and in the development of astronomy and mathematics.

4. The Mayas devised a pictographic form of writing that has only been partially deciphered.

Maya Temple, Guatewala

1. The people of Africa, made use of iron tools for clearing the forests and reaping the harvest. Consequently, agriculture developed here at a quick pace.

2. The iron tools helped a lot in manufacturing ivory goods and digging out gold reserves. Their use resulted in the development of other industries.

3. Several states of Africa extended their territories with the help of iron weapons.

4. A considerable progress tool place in the trade of the African civilizations because of iron. Iron ore of Africa began to be exported to the countries of Asia, Arab and Europe.

The reasons: 

(i) In Spain, economic reasons encouraged individuals to become knights of the ocean. 
(ii) The rulers of both Spain and Portugal had a passion for acquiring wealth in the form of gold and treasure for glory titles.

(iii) They also wanted to establish colonies in the regions.

(iv) Many Christians wanted to bring people of another land into the fold of Christianity.

(v) The Christian missionaries wanted to venture across the Atlantic.

2. ln 1532, Atahualpa secured the throne of the Inca empire after a civil war. Pizarro arrived on the scene and captured the king after setting a trap for him. The king offered a roomful of gold as ransom for his release – the most extravagant ransom recorded in history – but Pizarro did not honour his promise.
He had the king executed, and his followers went on a looting spree. This was followed by the occupation of the country. The cruelty of the conquerors provoked an uprising in 1534 that continued for two years, during which time thousands died in war and due to epidemics.

3. In another five years, the Spanish had located the vast silver mines in Potosi (in Upper Peru, modern Bolivia) and to work these they made the Inca people into slaves.

The capitalist system of production is one in which the means of production and distribution are owned by individuals or corporates and where competitors participate in a free market.

The developments: 
(i) The invention of the magnetic compass in 1380 CE helped in searching and identifying four cardinal directions. These directions were north, south, east and west.

(ii) Development also took places in the manufacturing of sailing ships.

(iii) Travel literature and books on geography were also available.

(iv) Ptolemy’s geographical information helped the sailors in about different cardinal directions.

(v) The Travelogue of MarcoPolo also helped a lot in European navigation and created wide interest among the people.

The silver mines in Peru began to function in the 1550s, and the monk Dominigo de Santo Tomas reported to the Council of the Indies that the Potosi was a mouth of hell which swallowed Indians by the thousands every year and that greedy mine owners treated them like stray animals.

The food items which were transmitted from south America to the rest of the world were:

(i) Cane sugar

(ii) Potatoes

(iii) Rubber

(iv) Tobacco

(v) Chilies

2. Their merchants formed joint-stock companies and sent out trading expeditions, established colonies and introduced Europeans to the products of the New World, including tobacco, potatoes, cane sugar, cacao and rubber.

3. Europe also became familiar with new crops from America, notably potatoes and chillies. These were then taken by Europeans to other countries like India.

4. For the native people of the Americans, the immediate consequences were the physical decimation of local populations, the destruction of their way of life and their enslavement in mines, plantations and mills.

Characteristic features of Inca Civilization :

(i) Palatial Buildings : The Inca Civilization and many tall buildings. These buildings include palaces, temples and forts which mostly made up of stones.

(ii) Cities : Each city was divided into four parts. Each city was ruled over by a noble.

(iii) Beautiful Roads : There was a network of roads in the empire.

(iv) Engineering Excellence : The Inca people are famous for their engineering skill. Their temples, forts, bridges and means of irrigation are of a unique construction.

(v) Social Classes : The king was the head of the State. He inherited his power from the sun. After the king the nobles and priests came. The farmers and craftsmen were ordinary people.

(vi) Agriculture : There was ladder type agriculture on mountains. They grew maize, potatoes and beets.

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South America today is also called ‘Latin America’. This is because of Spanish and Portuguese, two of the main languages of the continent, are part of the Latin family of languages. The inhabitants are mostly native European (called Creole), European, and African by origin. Most of them are Catholics. Their culture has many elements of native traditions mixed with European ones.

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2. Colonies in Africa : Several European powers had grabbed many parts of Africa and made them their colonies. This dominance of the foreign powers completely destroyed the life and civilization of the people in this continent.

3. Export of Gold from Africa : The European exported and rather looted the gold dust and other precious metals in large quantity from Africa and brought them to their own countries. In this way the Africans became poorer and the Europeans richer.

4. Spread of Wrong Conceptions : The Europeans spread various misconceptions and wrong motions about the people of Africa. They were termed as barbaric and uncivilized.

5. The spread of Christianity : The Europeans sent their missionaries in many parts of Africa and preached the Christianity. They introduced their own languages and literature. This played significant part in damaging the Ancient African civilization.

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The critical analysis: 

i. Spanish expansion was based on a display of military strength with the use of gunpowder and of horses. The local people were compelled either to pay tribute or to work in gold and silver mines.

ii. The initial discovery was typically followed by establishing a small settlement, peopled by a few Spaniards who supervised the labour of the local inhabitants.

iii. Local chieftains were enlisted to explore new lands and, hopefully, more sources of gold. The greed for gold led to violent incidents provoking local resistance.

iv. The Spanish friar Bartolome de las Casas, the most severe critic of the Spanish conquerors, observed that the Spanish often tested their swords on the naked flesh of the Arawaks.

2. The empire was highly centralised, with the king representing the highest source of authority. Newly conquered tribes wre absorbed effectively; every subject was required to speak Quechu, the langauge of the court. Each tribe was ruled independently by a council of elders, but the tribes as a whole owed its allegiance to the ruler.
At the sametime, local rulers were rewarded for their military co-operation. Thus, like the Aztec empire, the Inca empire resembled a confederacy, with the Incas in control. There are no precise figures of the population, but it would seem that it included over a million people.

3. Like the Aztecs, the Incas too were magnificent builders. They built roads through mountains from Ecuador to Chile. Their forts were built of stone slabs that were so perfectly cut that they did not require mortar. They used labour-intensive technology to carve and move stones from nearby rock falls.
Masons shaped the blocks, using an effective but simple method called flaking. Many stones weighed more than 100 metric tons, but they did not have any wheeled vehicles.

4. The basis of the Inca civilization was agriculture. To cope with the infertile soil conditions, they terraced hillsides and developed systems of drainage and irrigation.
It has been recently pointed out that in 1500, cultivation in the Andean highlands was much greater than what it is today. The Incas grew corn and potatoes, and reared llamas for food and labour.

5. Their weaving and pottery were a high quality. They did not develop a system of writing. However, there was an accounting system in place–the quipu, or cords upon which knots were made to indicate specific mathematical units. Some scholars now suggest that the Incas wove a sort of code into these threads.

6. The organisation of the Inca empire, with its pyramid-like structure, meant that if the Inca chief was captured, the chain of command could quickly come apart. This was precisely what happened when the Spaniards decided to invade their country.

Amerigo Vespucci was a geographer from Florence who discovered America. 

2. Nothing, however, prepared Columbus and his crew for the long Atlantic crossing that they embarked upon, or for the destination that awaited them. The fleet was small, consisting of a small nao called Santa Maria, and two caravels (small light ships) named Pinta and Nina.
Columbus himself commanded the Santa Maria along with 40 capable sailors. The outward journey enjoyed fair trade winds but was long. For 33 days, the fleet sailed without sight of anything but sea and sky. By this time, the crew became restive and some of them demanded that they turn back.

3. On 12 October, 1492, they sighted land; they have reached what Columbus thought was India, but which was the island of Guanahani in the Bahamas. (It is said that this name was given by Columbus, who described the Islands as surrounded by shallow seas, baja mar in Spanish.)
They were welcomed by the Arawaks, who were happy to share their food and provisions; in fact, their generosity made a deep impression upon Columbus.
As he wrote in his log-book, “There are so ingenuous and free with all they have, that no one would belive it who has not seen of it, anything they possess, if it be asked of them, they never say no, on the contrary, they invite you to share it and show as much love as if their hearts went with it."

4. Columbus planted a Spanish flag in Guanahani (which he renamed San Salvador), held a prayer service and, without consulting the local people, proclaimed himself viceroy. He enlisted their co-operation in pressing forward to the larger islands of Cubanascan (Cuba, which he thought was Japan!) and Kiskeya (renamed Hispaniola, today divided between two countries. Haiti and the Dominican Republic).
Gold was not immediately available, but the explorers had heard that it could be found in Hispaniola, in the mountain streams in the interior.

5. But before they could get very far, the expedition was overtaken by accidents and had to face the hostility of the fierce Carib tribes. The men clamoured to get back home. The return voyage proved more difficult as the ships were worm-eaten and the crew tired and homesick. The entire voyage took 32 weeks.
Three more voyages followed, in the course of which Columbus completed his explorations in the Bahamas and the Greater Antilles, the South American mainland and its coast. Subsequent voyages revealed that it was not the "Indies" that the Spaniards had found, but a new continent.

Fig.: Columbus

6. Columbus's achievement had been to discover the boundaries of what seemed like infinite seas and to demonstrate that five weeks' sailing with the trade wind took one to the other side of the globe. Since places are often given the names of individuals, it is curious that Columbus is commemorated only in a small district in the USA and in a country in northwestern South America (Columbia), though he did not reach either of these areas.
The two continents were named after Amerigo Vespucci, a geographer from Florence who realised how large the might be, and described them as the "New World". The name "America" was first used by a German publisher in 1507.

The Portuguese and the Spanish.

As it happened, the 'Crusades' against the Turks began as a religious war, but they increased Europe's trade with Asia and created a taste for the products of Asia, especially spices.
If trade could be followed by political control, with European countries establishing 'colonies' in regions with a warmer climate, they would benefit further.

When thinking of new regions where gold and spices might be found, one possibility was West Africa, where Europeans had not traded directly so far. Portugal a small country which had gained independence from Spain since 1139, and which had developed fishing and sailing skills, took the lead. Prince Henry of Portugal (called the Navigator) organised the coa
sting of West Africa and attacked Ceuta in 1415. After that, more expeditions were organised, and the Protuguese established a trading station in Cape Bojador in Africa. Africans were captured and enslaved, and gold dust yielded the precious metal.

In Spain, economic reasons encouraged individuals to become knights of the ocean. The memory of the Crusades and the success of the Reconguista fanned private ambitions and gave rise to contracts known as capitulaciones.
Under these contracts the Spanish ruler claimed rights of soverigntly over newly conquered territories and gave rewards to leaders of expeditions in the form of titles and the right to govern the conquered lands.

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The enslavement of the population was a sharp reminder of the brutality of the encounter. Slavery was not a new idea, but the South American experience was new in that it accompanied the emerging capitalist system of production. Working conditions were horrific, but the Spanish regarded the exploitation as essential to their economic gain.

In 1601, Philip II of Spain pubilicly banned forced labour, but made arrangements by a secret decree for its continuation. Things came to a head with the law of 1609, which gave full freedom to the local people, Christian and non-Christian alike.
The European settlers were enraged, and within two years they had forced the king to revoke this law and to permit enslavement once again.

As new economic activities began - cattle farming on lands cleared of forests, and mining after the discovery of gold in 1700 - the demand for cheap labour continued. It was clear that the local people would resist enslavement.
The alternative was to turn to Africa. Between the 1550s and 1880s (when slavery was abolished in Brazil) over 3,600,000 African slaves were imported into Brazil. This was almost half the total number of African slaves imported into the Americas. In 1750, there were individuals who owned as many as a thousand slaves.

The Arawaks used gold for ornaments but did not attach the value to the metal that the Europeans did. They were quite happy to exchange gold for glass beads brought by the Europeans because these seemed so much more beautiful.

The art of weaving was highly developed - the hammock was one of their specialities and one which captured the imagination of the Europeans.

The Arawaks were generous and were happy to collaborate with the Spanish in their search for gold. 

2. The military repression and forced labour was added the ravages of disease. The diseases of the Old World, particularly smallpox wreaked havoc on the Arawaks whose lack of immunity resulted in large-scale deaths.
The local people imagined these diseases were caused by 'invisible bullets' with which the Spaniards attacked them. The extinction of the Arawaks and all traces of their way of life is a silent reminder of their tragic encounter with Spaniards.

3. The expeditions of Columbus were followed by a sustained and successful exploration of Central and South America. Within half of century, the Spanish had explored and laid claim to a vast area of the western hemisphere, from approximately latitudes 40 degrees north to 40 degrees south, without anyone challenging them.

4. Before this, the Spanish conquered lands of two great empires of the region. This was largely the work of two individuals : Hernan Cortes (1488 –1547) and Francisco Pizarro (1478-1541). Their explorations were financed by members of the landed gentry in Spain, officials of municipal councils and noblemen.
Those joining the expditions supplied their own equipment in exchange for a share of the booty they expected from the conquests.