Asian Transitions in an Age of Global Change

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Asian Transitions in an Age of Global Change

• Chapter 22

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Asian Trading World and the Europeans

• Vasco da Gama
• Caravel ships -
• Asian Sea Trading Network
• Arab zone glass, carpets, and tapestry
• India cotton
• China paper, porcelain, and silks
• Red Sea/Persian Gulf
• Straits of Malacca

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Calicut

• Asian divisions allowed the success of da Gama
• Ormuz
• Goa
• Malacca
• Factories point where spices and other goods
  were stored prior to shipment to Europe

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Dutch and English Trading Empire

• Dutch and English fleets took advantage of
  Portuguese weakness in Asia in order to develop
  their own trading empires.
• COMMERCE
• Fortified towns
• Factories
• Warships on patrol
• Monopolies of products
• the Dutch even destroyed spices on islands
  they did not control and went so far as to remove
  or kill people who produced spices without Dutch
  control

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The Dutch Trading Empire
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The Jesuits Move into Asia

• Francis Xavier
• Robert di Nobili
• Early attempts to convert the untouchables made
  the Jesuits off limits to the Indian elite.
• Di Nobili adopted Indian culture language,
  clothes, and diet in order to attract the Indian
  elite but the elite refused to worship with the
  lower castes. Did he convert them or they he?

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Voyages of Francis Xavier
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MING CHINA

• In 1368 Zhu Yuanzhang came from poverty to take
  advantage of the weakness of the Mongol rule in
  order to establish himself as the emperor HONGWU
  the first of the Ming dynasty.
• De-Mongolization

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Lets Revive the Scholar-Gentry!!! (again)

• Despite his person reservations, Hongwu began the
  re-establishment of the civil service examination
  system and the rise of the shco9lar gentry.
• The examinations became even more important to
  the Chinese bureaucracy and would continue to
  do so until the end of the Qing dynasty in 1911.
• The examination system became even more complex
  and bureaucratized.
• Hongwu tried to end the corruption that the end
  of the Mongol rule was known for and to
  increase the power of the emperor
• Position of chief minister abolished
• Bureaucrats guilty of corruption or incompetence
  were publicly humiliated
• Emperors wives were to come from humble families
• The power of the eunuchs were to be limited
• Censorship even of the works of Mencius and the
  examinations

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Ming Prosperity

• Great commercial boom corn, sweet potatoes, and
  peanuts.
• Massive population growth
• Silk, tea, lacquer-ware for export to the west
• Macao and Canton only places westerners were
  officially allowed to do business in China.
• Printing, novels, ceramics all became even more
  important symbols of Chinese art/culture.

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The Voyages of Zhenghe

• 1405-1423 admiral Zhenghe led a series of Ming
  expeditions throughout Asia and Africa.
• Exploration AND promotion

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The Ming Begin to Look Inward Mistake?

• 1390 the Ming began to limit Chinese overseas
  commerce
• The number and size of ships were severely
  limited
• Yet, Ming emperors were fascinated with the
  Jesuits Matteo Ricci and Adam Schall for
  example as the Jesuits astonished the Chinese
  elite with their science and technology.
• While the Franciscans and Dominicans tried to
  convert and work among the poor the Jesuits
  worked among the elite BUT most of the elite
  were wary of the barbarians as the Europeans
  were called.

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The End of the Ming the Dynastic Cycle comes
round a gain

• Retreat from overseas contact was a mistake
• Rampant corruption
• Eunuch control of the Forbidden City
• Infrastructure breakdown
• Floods-droughts-famines
• Peasants turned to banditry
• Pirate attacks
• Chongzhen the last Ming emperor committed
  suicide 1644

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Japan

• Civil wars and power struggles among the daimyo
  meant that Japan was ruled by one emperor BUT
  that rule and centralization was in name only.
• 1573 NOBUNAGA defeated the last Ashikaga
  shogun and tried to unite all the daimyo but
  was killed in 1582.
• Nobunagas general TOYOTOMI HIDEYOSHI continued
  the attempt at unification through alliances
  and military victories.
• By 1590, Hideyoshi was the military commander of
  Japan.

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Japan and the Outside World

• Hideyoshi had dreamed of a Japan that would rule
  Korea, China perhaps even India but he died
  after failed moves against Korea.
• His vassal Tokugawa Ieyasu assumed control and in
  1603 was granted the title shogun by the emperor
  TOKUGAWA SHOGUNATE
• The capital was moved to the city of EDO (now
  called Tokyo).

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• In the early days, Nobunaga used Christianity and
  Christian missionaries as tools to counter
  balance the power of the Buddhist monks BUT
  Hideyoshi and others saw the Europeans
  especially the Jesuits as threats to Japanese
  power and society.
• Hideyoshi ordered the Christian missionaries to
  leave Japan but few did at first
• 1614 Christianity officially banned
  missionaries who did not leave were killed
  converts forced to renounce or be imprisoned or
  killed. Christianity went underground.
• 1616 foreign traders limited to only a select
  number of ports
• 1630s Japanese forbidden to trade or sail
  overseas
• 1640s only a small number of Dutch and Chinese
  allowed in Nagasaki Bay on the island of
  Deshima to trade
• Western books banned exportation of gold and
  silver limited
• Foreigners could only live in select areas
• Even thought looked inward as the School of
  National Learning promoted a Japanese centric
  approach to all thought and learning.