World History with Mia: Fifteenth Century Civilizations Notes

The Worlds of the Fifteenth Century: Chapter 12

Developments throughout the 15^th century

South Asia/India
- Timur's invasion of India, 1398
- Various Muslim sultanates in northern India
- Rise of Hindu state ofVijayanagar in southern India
- Founding of Mughal Empire, 1526

Middle East
- Expansion of Ottoman Empire
- Ottoman seizure of Constantinople, 1453
- Founding of Safavid Empire in Persia, 1501
- Ottoman siege of Vienna, 1529

Africa
- Songhay Empire in West Africa, 1464-1591
- Kingdom of the Kongo in West Central Africa
- Expansion of Ethiopian state in East Africa
- Kingdom of Zimbabwe/Mwene Mutapa in southern Africa

Australia:

remains “Paleolithic” according to Western historians
developed manipulation of their environment
- “firestick farming,” which is still used at Yosemite
gatherer-hunter society flourishes; permanent village settlements exist in northwest
- large, sturdy houses
- economic specialization: ranked societies with occasional slavery
- chiefdoms with “big men”
- extensive storage of food

The Igbo and Iroquois

small village-based communities, rather than city-states or empires
societies were at the center of things, with own history of migration, cultural transformation, social conflict, incorporation of new people, political rise and fall, interaction with strangers
IGBO
- West African peoples east of the Niger River
- could have developed into a small state, but rejected kingship
- relied on title societies and social ranking, women's associations, hereditary ritual experts, balance of power among kinship groups
- traded actively with other small societies and distant peoples-copper, iron, cotton, fish
- shifted from matrilineal to patrilineal system of tracing descent
IROQUOIS
- located in New York State
- productive agriculture of maize- and bean-farming
- settlements grew and distinct peoples emerged-resulted in frequent warfare
  - Five Iroquois-speaking peoples: Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca-agreed to settle differences peacefully through a confederation council of clan leaders
  - Iroquois League expressed limited government, social equality, personal freedom
  - very female-based civilization: descent was matrilineal, married couples lived with wife's family, women controlled agriculture and property. Women could select and depose primary male leaders

Pastoral Peoples—Central Asia and West Africa:

Ming Dynasty China (1368-1644)

China's recovery from Mongolian rule and the plague
promoted all non-Mongolian influences-Confucianism, gender roles from earlier dynasties
prominent emperor: Emperor Yongle (ruled 1402-1422)
capital relocated to Beijing
reestablished civil service examination system
economic rebound

European state-building

Islam

expansion of the Ottoman Empire through Southeastern Europe and North Africa
established by Turkic warriors, who became dominant people of the Islamic world by ruling over the Arabs who created this faith
Ottoman sultans sought to renew unity to the Islamic world
Safavid Empire
- began with a Sufi religious order
- forcibly imposed Shia version of Islam as the official religion of the state
- sharp divide into the political and religious life of hearland Islambecause almost all of the surrounding people practiced Sunni form of Islam
Songhay Empire
- Islam was a growing faith but limited to urban elites
- culturally divided empire, the monarch Sonni Ali (ruled 1465-1492) practiced proper Islam but also performed as a magician
- majorcenter for Islamic learning and commerce
Mughal Empire
- located in India, governed largely non-Muslim populations
- Islamized Turkic group invaded India
- established unified control over most of the Indian peninsula
- brief political unity which laid foundation for British colonial rule
- accommodated Hiindu subjects with some Muslim influences
this period known as the “second flowering of Islam”

The Americas

World History with Mia