Topic 4.4

📍Topic 4.4 Maritime Empires Link Regions

📖 AMSCO p. 218 - p. 231

Main Idea

Key Timeline

Image Courtesy of Sandra

Things to Know

State Building

• European states established trading posts in kingdoms in Africa and Asia by financing expeditions by explorers
• These states would become wealthy by trading goods like gunpowder and cannons for enslaved people to use as inexpensive labor, cloths, or spices
• Because of this, they were able to gain influence in these regions
• Mercantilism (increasing central government control of the multiple economic locations) and the creation of colonies across the Atlantic allowed these states to become large economic forces and consolidate their power
• In places like the Indian Ocean, trade networks were previously on a merchant-to-merchant basis; European powers later controlled them through trade empires

Empires and Trade Networks

• Portugal
  • Presence in African kingdoms and along the African coast (ex: Kingdom of Kongo and Asante Empire)
  • Used military superiority to win battles in the Indian Ocean region to control the trade network and create armed posts
• Britain
  • Placed trading posts in India
  • Through exerting political power with the East India Company, Britain gained control of most of Indian subcontinent
  • Britain clashed with France over control of places in North America for colonies
  • Britain drove France out of India in Seven Year’s War
• France
  • Laid claim to some areas in Canada
  • Controlled Pondicherry city-state
• Spain
  • Established colonies in Central and South America
  • Spread diseases that wiped out indigenous populations like the Inca and Aztecs and also overpowered them militarily
  • Clashed with Portugal over the Americas and settled dispute through the Treaty of Tordesillas
  • The Spanish did encounter silver in Mexico and Peru, using it to bolster economic opportunity by developing silver mining in places in Latin America
  • The silver trade made individual conquistadores rich and enriched the entire Spanish economy back in the main country
• Japan
  • Thousands of Japanese converted to Christianity after the arrival of Dutch and Portuguese traders and missionaries around the 16th century
  • Destruction of Buddhist structures led Japan to ban Christian services and limit foreign influences by expelling foreigners and practicing isolationism
  • Conducted some trade with China
• China
  • The Ming Dynasty tried to inhibit foreign influence through restriction of trade and reconstruction of the Great Wall
  • Ushered in era of conservatism away from foreign involvement

Types of Trade Goods

• Gold
• Silver
• Gunpowder
• Silk
• Spices
• Agricultural goods

Consequences of New Labor and Maritime Empires

• Indentured Servitude
  • System used in American plantations where servants were contracted to work for a certain period of time
  • Europeans were recruited from the homeland to be indentured servants
• Encomienda System
  • Indigenous people were compelled to work by the Spanish in exchange for food and shelter
  • Many Indigenous workers were brutalized and European disease wiped out their populations
• Chattel Slavery
  • Bolstered by the Middle Passage that brought large groups of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic to the Americas
  • System used where individuals were bought and sold as property
  • African local leaders cooperated and often became wealthy by exchanging enslaved people for gunpowder and materials with European powers
  • Did not have to be released after certain number of years like indentured servants
  • Growth of the plantation economy in America
  • Social and cultural makeup were influenced as multiracial groups emerged with the mixing of ethnic groups
• Hacienda System
  • Spanish crown offered conquerors land as a reward which they used coerced labor to develop agriculture
• In pursuit of gold in the Americas conquerors claimed riches and kidnapped natives and placed them into enslavement

Terms to Remember