Early Modern World 1350-1770
The most important empires included:

• China: Ming Dynasty (1368-1644, which sponsored the voyages of Zheng He--map & ship & giraffe) and Qing (1644-1911)
• Czarist Russia (15c-1917) slowly expanded east into Central Asia and Siberia.
• Hapsburg (1438-1918) of Eastern Europe.
• Songhay (1464-1591) of Western Africa.

Three Islamic empires were governed by Turkish conquerors:

• Ottoman (14c-1918) centered in Turkey.
• Safavid (1501-1722) in Persia (Iran).
• Mughal (1524-1867) in north India.

Empires also emerged in the Americas:

• Aztec (1428-1521) in Mesoamerica.
• Inca (1438-1533) in the Andes.
• Spanish (1521-1820s), built on conquest of the Incas and Aztecs, had a weaker agricultural foundation than other empires.

Nature of Imperial Power
The power of these states was based on:

• Agriculture: Primary tax base. Peasants were bulk of the population.
• Multicultural and multijurisdictional polities. The glory of emperors was greater if they ruled over numerous peoples. Formal policies were developed to distinguish subjects by religion or culture.
• Centralized administration for the collection of taxes (increasingly in cash rather than goods), the provision of services like famine relief, and control of local power.
• Infrastructure, such as roads, canals, trade policies and bandit suppression, that helped to integrate empires economically and politically.
• Military to keep out invaders and suppress rebellions. The military threat of nomadic peoples was neutralized for the first time in history.

Commerce
Maritime commerce grew enormously in this period, especially in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Some of the most important objects of trade:

Silver and sugar from the Americas.

Textiles from South Asia.

Porcelain and Luxuries from China.

Spices from Southeast Asia.

Slaves from West Africa.

Status goods from all over.

Smaller city-states and kingdoms emerged at important trade junctions, such as Southeast Asia, South India, the western and eastern coasts of Africa, and West Europe. Some of the more important cities, such as Melaka (Malacca) and Bantem in Southeast Asia, Calicut in India, Hormuz by the Persian Gulf, Cairo in Egypt, and Venice on the Mediterranean had resident traders who spoke up to a hundred different languages.

Benefits of Commerce to States. Centralized states could gather the resources to engage in long distance commerce. In turn, increased commerce helped increase the power of the states.

• Brings in Revenue.
• Brings in Status Items.
• Military equipment and experts
• Generally strong economy
• Commercialization and integration.

Conquest of the Americas
Contagious diseases, hardier plant and animal life from Eurasia and superior military technology made the European conquest of the Americas into a demographic catastrophe. Europeans managed to take over the Aztec and Inca states and make use of local labor:

• The native Americans on the island of Haiti declined from about 60,000 in 1508 to 500 in 1570
• In Mexico, the native population declined from 13-25 million in 1520 to less than one million by 1608
• In Peru from 9 million in 1530 to 600,000 by 1608.
• Large Eurasian animals like horses, cattle and sheep, and many Eurasian plants and weeds thrived in the Americas, where they encountered few natural predators.

The connection to the Americas also influenced the rest of the world:

• Silver from American mines flowed throughout the world, facilitating the growth of global commerce. Mexican silver dollars became a major currency in East Asia.
• Crops such as potatoes, corn, peanuts, tomatoes, beans, chocolate and hot peppers spread throughout the world. Some grew well in poor soil, perhaps supporting the world population boom of the 18th century.
• Abandoned land facilitated the development of large plantations. Products such as sugar, tobacco, and later coffee and cotton, contributed enormously to the development of Europe.
• The African slave trade grew in the 17th and 18th centuries to provide labor for the plantations.

Europeans in Asia
The arrival of European traders in Africa and Asia was not a conquest, as in the Americas. They were just one of many trading peoples throughout the Indian Ocean and Southwest Pacific, finally catching up to the other Eurasian economies.

The Europeans were possibly unique in Asia in two respects:

• Greater naval power and coordination of violence. This meant they could demand tolls, disrupt trade routes, conquer important trading entrepots, and be competitive in long-distance inter-Asian shipping because of their ability to repel pirates. European land armies would not be a match for Asian armies until at least the late 18th century (and not clearly superior until the late 19c.).
• Formation of joint stock trading companies, in which military, political and trading power were combined. These tried to implement monopolies rather than participate in local arrangements.

But for the most part, Euruopeans tended to play local politics: intermarrying with local notables and merchant families, acting as vassals, tributaries (British tribute to Akbar in India) and tax collectors, depending on local mercenaries, signing treaties witth local powers, and adopting local lifestyles.

17th Century Crisis
There was a general growth in trade, interaction and population throughout Eurasia from 1400 until 1630. This was greatly facilitated by the spread of silver from Potosí (Bolivia) and Mexico.

From 1630 to 1645 many parts of the world experienced economic and political crises, which shows how different parts of the world were interlinked. Some possible causes include:

• Climate: The temperature dropped 2 or 3 degrees, causing more frosts and droughts. Much of Asia also experienced droughts in between 1635 and 1680.
• Inflation: Growing amounts of silver caused prices to rise. Many states did not adjust their tax demands, fiscal policies, or stipends to soldiers and officials, thus finding themselves with insufficient revenue and high rates of political dissatisfaction. The value of silver in China even fell below the cost of production, and this glut caused silver production to stall in the 1630s.
• International contact had increased along with trade. As economic problems emerged and resources grew scarce, warfare and rebellion increased.

Western Europe and China were probably hardest hit by the crisis, but emerged from it strongest. Long term effects included:

• Many states, especially in Southeast Asia, Japan, and Korea retreated from political and economic contact with the rest of the world, but also consolidated their internal structure.
• The Ottoman, Safavid, Mughal and Spanish (bankrupt in 1635) empires never recovered their early dynamism.
• The Dutch were most able to take advantage of the crises and dominate oceanic trade by 1650, but their activities stagnated after 1680.
• Western Europe was transformed by the crisis. Merchants emerged with more political power. Subsequent institutional and intellectual changes led to pro-merchant policies, such as commercial and property laws, and protective trade policies. After long competition with France, England emerged as a globally dominant economic and naval power after 1770.
• In contrast, slavery and serfdom grew in the Americas and East Europe, respectively. Cheap products from these areas helped fuel the economy of Western Europe.
• After three decades of civil war, the Qing Dynasty of China implemented policies that promoted a strong independent peasantry, a dynamic commercialized economy, and an effective centralized government. Chinese merchants dominated Southeast Asian shipping in the 18th century, and the government had a strong influence in Southeast Asian politics. The Chinese economy probably came closer to realizing Adam Smith's ideal of free, competitive markets of small producers and merchants than any other economy in world history.

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