Eurasian Trade Routes

1. Eurasian Trade Routes

2. China • Tai Zu, the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty, died in 1398, leaving his grandson as emperor. • His fifth son, Cheng Zu, the Prince of Yan, tried to unseat his nephew after an 18 month reign. • A civil war ensued, which lasted from 1399-1402, with the Prince having victory in the end.

3. Cheng Zu’s Reforms • Drove the Mongols into the steppe where they could not threaten China. • Moved the capital from Nanjing (Southern Capital) to Beijing (Northern Capital). • Sent embassies far into Central Asia. • Incorporated North Vietnam into the Chinese empire. • Launched massive expeditions into the Indian Ocean.

4. The Chinese Armada • Admiral Zheng He assembled the largest fleet of ships the world had ever seen (300 ships, 27,000 sailors) and sailed from China in 1405. • He had three goals: • Track down the Emperor’s nephew • Impressing foreign countries with China’s might • Encourage overseas trade (The overland trade routes had disappeared when the Mongol empire collapsed in the mid-1300s) From 1404-1407, 1,681 ships were built in China.

5. Voyages of Zheng He

6. Seven Voyages • Altogether, the Chinese mounted seven 2-year voyages. • All of the voyages included pilots that could speak Arabic, since this was the language of commerce and shipping on the Indian Ocean. Zheng He himself was Muslim. • During this time, China established formal relations with many Muslim nations. • After the emperor died in 1435, no more naval voyages were undertaken. The new emperor chose to focus on rebuilding the Great Wall.

7. China’s Economy • China had been experiencing some economic difficulties. • China’s monetary system had collapsed in the mid-1300s, along with the Mongol empire. • The Ming dynasty had printed more paper money, increasing inflation. • Copper coins from other dynasties were soon substituted, but then silver mines were opened to produce silver bullion for financial transactions.

8. China’s Imports • China’s need for silver could not be satisfied by domestic mines. • It traded Japan for silver initially, but increasingly obtained silver from Europeans as well. • China also needed to import horses, some raw materials, as well as exotic foods (bird’s nests and sea slugs) and black pepper. • China saw potential troubles in foreign trade so most of it was government controlled in the form of monopolies.

9. Indian Ocean • For over 1,000 years, the Indian Ocean was arguably the most important crossroads of trade in the world. • These years can be divided into three periods: • 650-1000 Arab traders and mariners dominated, Islam spread from Africa to China. • 1000-1500 Chinese competed with the Arabs and Indians. • 1500-1750 Europeans introduced “armed trading”.

10. Second Period of Indian Ocean • From 1000-1500, the ocean was divided into three overlapping zones of trade: • Western zone: Arab traders most active • Central circuit: dominated by Indians • South China Sea circuit: Chinese most active • During this period, no one political power tried to dominate and trading was carried out peacefully, without a naval convoy. None of the great ports of trade were walled or fortified.

11. Third Period of Indian Ocean • From 1500-1750, first the Portuguese and then the Dutch, English, and French sailed into the Indian Ocean and tried to control shipping lanes and port cities by force. • This forced the other groups which were already there to arm themselves in defense or to pay the intruders for protection. • Although they tried to dominate from the start, Europeans did not control trade in in the Indian Ocean until steamships were invented in the late 1800s.

12. India • Unlike China, India at this time was not a unified empire. It had a history of unity/disunity imposed by outside conquerors. • The center of Indian civilization was in the north, in particular the Indus River valley.

13. Invasions of India Century • 6th- Huns left numerous weak, warring states • 8th & 10th- Arabs spreading Islamic faith • 12th- Turkish Muslims established Delhi sultanate. • 14th- Timur the Lame ravaged northern India and sacked Delhi. • South India had its own language and political history. It proved more difficult to conquer.

14. Dar al-Islam

15. The Spread of Islam • 632- the Prophet Mohammed died. • Within a century Muslim, or “believer”, armies had unified the Arabian peninsula and captured much of Persia, Mesopotamia, Palestine, and north Africa. • This created a realm of common language and custom that covered much of the Old World. • The largest libraries from the 8th-15th centuries were in Islamic lands. • Expansion of Islamic empires into the Mediterranean cut Europe off from the Indian Ocean.

16. Fragmenting Control • Central political control over the Islamic empire began breaking up. • The Abbasid dynasty had its capital in Baghdad and governed a core region of Islam until, in 1258, Mongol forces capture and destroyed Baghdad, killing the last Abbasid caliph. • Three new Islamic empires arose: • Ottoman- inherited the western part of dar al- Islam • Safavids- established rule over Persia • Mughals conquered most of India

17. Constantinople • Capital of the Byzantine empire and the eastern outpost of Christendom. • Also controlled trade between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. • Impeded the westward advance of Islam.

18. Fall of Constantinople • late 13th century-Turkish nomads, led by Osman Bey, consolidated their power in what is now Turkey, forming the Ottoman empire. • 14th century- the Ottomans built a military machine based on gunpowder technology and a slave-based army. • 15th century- the Ottomans laid siege to Constantinople, which fell in 1453. • They renamed the city Istanbul. This was a huge blow to Christian Europe, and effectively blocked European access to the eastern Mediterranean.

19. West Africa • Developed a number of great empires which traded with the rest of the world.

20. Kingdom of Ghana • The most strategically located state at the time of the Muslim arrival in north Africa. • Was situated at the juncture of three different ecosystems- the savanna, the rainforest, and the Sahara desert. • All of the African empires that traded north across the Sahara converted to Islam between the 10th and 12th centuries, including the kings of Ghana. • Ghana traded gold for cloth, horses, beads, mirrors and salt.

21. Mali empire • The Mali empire replaced Ghana from the 13th to the early 15th century. • During this time, Mali controlled almost all trade in west Africa. Caravans of up to 25,000 camels brought gold, slaves, and Indian textiles into Mali. • Timbuktu became a great center of learning. Scholars, architect, poets, and astronomers came to the university and Muslim theologians established many schools. • Mansa Musa made a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1324, bringing huge amounts of gold with him.

22. East Africa • Another route Islam took into Africa to trading cities along the east coast of Africa. Ivory, animal skins, gold & slaves were traded there. • People in these cities converted to Islam and intermarried with traders from many lands, giving rise to a new coastal culture and language called Swahili, which is related to Arabic. • In addition to the large empires, political power in Africa was fragmented into hundreds of “mini-states” often with warfare between them.

23. Slavery • The word slave comes from “Slavs”, the name for a group of Eastern European people living near the Black Sea. • Slaves were mostly used as domestic servants of the wealthy and powerful. • Slavery was not based on skin color and virtually every society we have discussed so far kept slaves. Africans kept slaves, generally they did not own land privately but owned labor instead. • Wars between mini-states contributed to the slave trade in Africa.

24. Europe • Like Africa, Europe in 1400 was divided into hundreds of political units that were often at war with one another. This is in contrast to China, which was a huge empire ruled by a single man. • Europe’s system of fragmented sovereignty was the result of the breakup of the Roman empire in the 6th century as well as the spread of Islam in the 8th century. • At this time, holding a piece of land, along with its agricultural produce, and having a castle to secure the land was a primary objective.

25. Warfare in Europe • For many years swords, knives, lances, pikes, and long- and crossbows were used in Europe. • All this changed when cannons fired by gunpowder were introduced in the 14th century. • Gunpowder and cannons had been invented by the Chinese around 1000 A.D. • The Mongols improved upon the technology, using it to bombard Chinese cities in the 13th century. They also used cannons against Europeans, who further improved the technology.

26. Notable Cannon Milestones 1327- 1st evidence of a European cannon 1453- Cannons used to capture Constantinople 1453- France uses cannons to end 100 Years War 1492- Muslims driven from Granada by Spanish 1494- French kings invaded Brittan and then Italy 1500- Pisa develops new fortifications that can withstand cannon fire

27. Armed Trading in the Mediterranean • Europeans needed a way to preserve their food. • Salt was available but pepper and other Asian spices were in high demand. • Europeans fought constantly over who had access to the Asia spice trade. • The city-states of Genoa & Venice had competed for centuries. Each side built warships to protect their merchants and all sailors were fighters. • Venice, by 1400, had secured a virtual monopoly.

28. Portuguese Explorations • The Venetian monopoly meant that other European nations were cut off from the trade. • Henry the Navigator led the Portuguese southward in the Atlantic. He had heard from Arabs that the southern tip of Africa could rounded, bypassing the Venetians. • In 1415, he attacked Muslim positions on the western coast of Africa and sent out yearly expeditions until he reached the equator. • He died in 1460 without reaching his goal.

29. Missed Opportunity? • At the same time that Henry the Navigator was sailing down the west coast of Africa, Chinese sailors under the command of Zheng He had reached the east coast and had secured Chinese dominance of the Indian Ocean. • Had the Chinese naval expeditions continued, they would have almost certainly rounded the tip of Africa and opened up a direct trade route with Europe themselves. • The Portuguese would have been no match for the Chinese navy.

30. Cape of Good Hope • In 1488, Bartholomeu Dias finally reached the tip of Africa for the Portuguese. • When a Genoan sailor named Christopher Columbus approached Portugal with a new plan to reach Asia by sailing west, he was rejected. • After news of Columbus’s “success” reached Portugal, they redoubled their efforts to open up a route to Asia past the Cape. • Vasco da Gama sailed to Calicut, India in 1498.

31. Armed Trading in the Indian Ocean • Upon da Gama’s return to Portugal, another expedition was sent out with the purpose of driving the Muslims from Calicut. • The system of peaceful trade on the Indian Ocean was brought to a halt. • By 1515, the Portuguese had taken Hormuz and Malacca and then moved into the South China Sea. • While the Chinese banned Portugal from trading on the mainland, they gave them the island of Macao on the southwestern edge of the country.

33. Effect of Portuguese Dominance • Since trade between China and Japan had been banned at this time, Portugal took advantage of this by taking sliver and gold from Japan and returning with Chinese silks. • Asian rulers of coastal trading cities were forced to fortify their territories and equip their own navies. The ruler of Sumatra built a navy that could run Portuguese blockades and take their ships and arms. Imported Ottoman cannons were even used to threaten Malacca.