Cross-Cultural Interations

Chapter 21 Class Notes
Travelers
Marco Polo 1253 -1324
Ibn Battuta 1326-1346

Trade-Diplomacy -Missionary Imulse
Technology Exchange

Trade Cities
Khanbaliq, Hongzhou, Quangzo, Melaka
Cambay, Samarkand, Constantinople
Hormuz, Bagdhad, Venice

Characteristic: Strategic Location
Maintain Order
Resist Heavy Taxation

Exchange
Magnetic Compas, Cotton to Africa Sugarcane
Gunpowder (Golden Horde-Russia)
Beubonic Plague, economic contraction

Ming Dynasty
Hongwu: increase Confucian civil service
Mandarins as scholar officials
Eunichs as Imperial Court
Rebuild irrigation system
Re-invigorate manufacturing

Yongle: resinicization
Yongle encyclopedia
Cultural Traditions

Europe
Increase trade = increase taxation
=standing armies
Italian City States strengthen
Hundred Years war
Creates identity for France & England

Direct taxation =Monarchies

Spain
Isabella & Ferdinand
Reconquista
Support exploration

Explorers
China: Zheng He treasure ships

Portugeuses: Henry The Navigator
Navigation school of ship captains, builders, silors and cartographers
Dias: 1488
Columbus 1492
Da Gama 1497

Renaissance
Sculpture – Painter- Architect

Humanism
Emotion in paintings
More realistic paintings and musculature sculptures
Revisit Cicero – private Chritian and yet Public service

Reconciles Christianity
Urban and Commercial centers require this modification to Christianity
Allows the development of private property – profit gaining – business ventures by low or middle class
Profits don’t necessarily go to Feudal King or Monarc