Chapter 12 describes the events of the colonization of the Americas in 1450-1600, including the conquest of the southern continent and the types of trade that affected Asia, Africa, and Europe. The chapter begins by explaining why the more active and aggressive empires, the Ottoman and Chinese, were not involved in the colonization of the lands in South and North America (Adelman et al., 2015, p. 475). The authors note that the peoples of many Asian countries for centuries had only a vague idea of the scope and importance of Columbus’ discovery. This discovery, through increased trade and interaction between peoples, changed the borders of states on new continents and the ways of life of the inhabitants of European, African, and Asian countries. Interestingly, China had a particular role in international relationships as a country whose population was one-third of the world.
It is noted that the expansion to the west was partly an experiment, resulting in the concepts of the New and Old Worlds. Afterward, the control of information from various parts of the world has become a source of political power (Adelman et al., 2015, p. 478). It is also described how the Ottoman Empire, which had already conquered Byzantium, the Balkans, and cut in the Venecians’ empire, conquered Syria and Egypt in 1516-1517. The Ottoman Empire failed to conquer Iran when faced with the Safavid, who established a Shia state on the Iranian plateau. Notably, the subsequent plans of the Ottoman Empire to conquer Europe coincided with the Protestant movement led by Martin Luther. The authors also discuss the presence of the Portuguese in Africa and Asia in the context of the ‘clash’ of the continents. Key topics include navigation and military advances, sugar and slavery, commerce and conquest in the Indian Ocean, and the conquered Atlantic world.
Chapter 13 discusses the further mingling of relationships between the New and Old Worlds, China, Africa, and Europe. The emergence of the mercantilism concept in global commerce is given special attention. Europeans see mercantilism as an understanding that valuable resources such as gold and silver are limited in the world as a whole and the desire to get these resources into their treasury.
After the Spaniards seized most of the gold and silver in South America, other European countries tried to obtain these resources by selling cash crops like tobacco and sugar and through government-sanctioned pirate attacks on merchant ships (Adelman et al., 2015, p. 520). Further, the authors describe the Little Ice Age in the 17th century, when a cold snap and drought caused reforestation after the extinction of millions of cities in South America as a result of diseases introduced by the Spaniards (Adelman et al., 2015, p. 524). Then, the expansion in North America is described, including the settlement of the first states by Europeans on the Atlantic coast.
The comparative perspectives on climate change in the Ottoman and Ming empires are equally interesting. In these empires, the Little Ice Age caused severe rebellion and unrest among the peasants who faced famine. The cold hit the eastern Mediterranean parts of the Ottoman Empire the hardest, where the situation was additionally destabilized by the import of New World silver leading to inflation. What started as unrest in Anatolia province eventually led to the end of the Ottoman Empire, which never restored its power and influence, although the uprising was followed by a prosperous period in the late seventeen’s century. The weakening of the state prompted Egypt, Syria, and other Arab provinces to assert autonomy.
The Little Ice Age was deadly for the Ming dynasty, which did not survive and was later replaced by the Qing dynasty. In Beijing, an estimated 300,000 citizens perished from hunger; food shortages pushed the Manchu to China, adding to destabilization (Adelman et al., 2015, p. 537). Eventually, the charismatic rebellion leader Li Zicheng seized Beijing in 1644. The New World silver undermined the Chinese economy, with the peasants bearing the heaviest burden.
Reference
Rosenberg, C. D., Tignor, R. L., Adelman, J., Aron, S., Brown, P., Elman, B. A., & Tsin, M. T. W. (2015). Worlds together, worlds apart. WW Norton.