3.9: Chapter Summary and Key Terms

Chapter Summary

The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries saw a massive increase in the interconnectedness between civilizations, a continuation of the globalization that started to take place in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and grew further in the fifteenth century during the Age of Exploration in Europe.  Many of the civilizations that developed or expanded during this time also saw what many historians consider a “golden age,” showing an epitome of wealth and prosperity, which allowed for a greater spread of art and architecture, much of which still draws notice and comment today. This wealth and prosperity also allowed the expansion of socio-economic classes, as government structures moved away from the feudal systems that kept the majority of citizens in the equivalent to a working class due to the Black Plague wiping out the majority of the peasantry in multiple areas throughout the Afro-Eurasian continents. As a result, these governments started working towards a world market economy that allowed a middle class to emerge, which included not only skilled trades workers but also artisans.  

However, this wealth and prosperity came at a severe cost to many people.  As empires and countries, particularly European countries, expanded beyond their borders to look for new raw materials and markets for their finished goods, they invaded and overran many of the indigenous populations already living in the areas those countries were “exploring.”  The creation of colonies in these areas, with their influx of settlers bringing new technology and diseases, led to violent clashes between them and the indigenous peoples, who often succumbed to this superior new technology and disease that the indigenous had no defense against. The Columbian Exchange helped perpetuate this spread, which in turn helped grow the world market economy.  Those indigenous who didn’t succumb to disease or weren’t able to fight off superior powers often found themselves enslaved by the conquerors.  On the American continents, slavery was often excused through religion – the Spanish saw an opportunity to “convert” Native Americans and gain more Catholics.  However, on the Asian side of the Eurasian continent, slaves from conquered territories were often subjected to castration and rape depending on gender, but then given opportunities to show allegiance to their captors and advance through military or government service.  

Overall, this period in world history is seen by historians as the first time when the entire world was “united” in terms of trade and economy since all of the continents were combined; the first true era of globalization.  Although this era certainly increased the growth and development of certain civilizations, it led to the subjugation and even annihilation of others and set the foundation for relationships between different groups of people into the modern age.

Key Terms

• Eurocentrism: The belief that European social norms and culture are superior to other cultures and civilizations. This refers primarily to historical perspective and the use of European narratives to describe non-European civilizations. Also defined in Chapter 4.

• Age of Exploration: A period of time from the fifteenth-seventeenth centuries previously known as The Renaissance, but changed to incorporate more of the exploration taking place throughout the world. This period includes European colonization of the American continents as well as the rise and expansion of empires throughout the African and Eurasian continents. 

• Race-Based Slavery: A term used to differentiate the slavery of African and indigenous American peoples by Europeans from Christian slaves in Islamic regions. Slavery took place because of the “inferiority” of these groups to European, predominately white, culture and civilization. 

• Dar al-Islam: The “realm” or region of the Eurasian continent ruled by Islamic religious belief, societal norms, culture, and law during the fifteenth-seventeenth centuries, as defined by leaders of those regions.  This would later extend to any part of the world whose government structure followed these laws and customs. 

• Black Plague: A disease that wiped out the majority of the population of a number of civilizations on the African and Eurasian continents.  Discovered to have been transmitted through fleas and rats, it was carried by Mongol tribes in their invasion into China, as well as spread to Europe by Italian traders along the Mediterranean. 

• Silk Road: The trade routes on both land and sea throughout the African and Eurasian continents during the fourteenth-seventeenth centuries.