History 1500-Present World Civilization From

¶ … History 1500-Present World Civilization from 1500 AD to Present Worldwide trade from 1500 to 1800 AD: the Rise and Implications Europe was expanding its boundaries at the end of the medieval world: Spain and Portugal had navigated the globe. The Crusades had opened roads to the East, and the sea lanes had given way to a new world in which nations sought God, gold, and glory.

The world has always become smaller with the advent of new technology -- and the new technology in 1500 was navigational and nautical; by 1800 that technology had become increasingly more "scientific" and even militaristic. America had been colonized and the trade routes from East to West to East and back again were flourishing. Italy saw the rise of the merchant class, and their wealth soon spread throughout Europe.

A demand for goods, silks, spices (from the East), and tobacco from new world (once the colonies took root) made Europe a trading outpost. Goods came in and goods went out. Tomatoes (now famous for being associated with Italian pasta sauce) were not even native to Italy: they arrived as an import from the new world -- that is one indication of the way in which global trade was on the rise. Flora and fauna went back and forth across the sea.

New Englanders changed the landscape of America to fit their liking. The southern states plowed the fields and planted cotton and tobacco. The implications of global trade at this time were, of course, a change in philosophy. Philosophies in Europe centered on whether the Native American could be considered a human being. Another implication was the rise of the slave trade from Africa to the American colonies (a practice that was also hotly contested in England). Fashions changed, artwork was imported, and philosophical ideas were altered.

The old world of Christendom was crumbling under the weight of the Protestant revolts and the Peace of Westphalia in 1648 (which essentially established religious liberty on the continent) -- but the Church was still expanding through missions in the new world. However, the English (intensely Protestant by this time) were able to capitalize on the freedom found in the new world -- and the U.S. became not a Catholic country but a Protestant one. The old world was finished.

The new world would be an ironic combination of skepticism, Puritanism, and materialism. Leading Thinkers of the Scientific Revolution There were several leading thinkers of the Scientific Revolution, ranging from Copernicus to Galileo to Newton. The Revolution coincided with the High Renaissance and the Protestant Reformation. In other words, the Church was being attacked on all sides: the focus was on man -- not God; humanism was the rage; Christendom had had enough of clergy who failed to inspire; religion lost focus. The world wanted new definitions.

Galileo helped provide those new definitions. By using the Copernican model of the universe (heliocentric as opposed to Ptolemy's geocentric model), Galileo illustrated a concept in which the old world hierarchies were left out: the universe did not revolve around the Earth; God did not reside in the Heavens; but instead the heavens were essentially infinite -- the universe was endless and the Earth was just one of many planets in a solar system that was itself just a small part of the big picture.

No longer was the planet a focal point or place of significance. The planet on which the Incarnation had taken place was now shown to be just a speck itself revolving around the sun. The old world mythology was replaced by a new "scientific" cosmology. Galileo "proved" it so with his telescope. Of course, his idea was nothing more than a hypothesis and no more provable than Ptolemy's -- and the Church resisted it, of course. Robert Bellarmine wrote "his displeasure with Copernican theory" to Paolo Antonio Foscarini in 1615.

Bellarmine was a cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church, a doctor of theology and later to be declared a saint. Foscarini was a Carmelite who, with Galileo, had taken some interest in Copernicus' heliocentric model of the universe. In 1616, Foscarini's book defending heliocentrism was placed on the Church's Index of Forbidden Books. By 1633 Galileo would also be forbidden to spread his heliocentric doctrine, which he had put in the vernacular Italian as opposed to the language of the learned, Latin.

Thus, while the new astronomers were attempting to set up a new model of the universe, the Church attempted to preserve its own perspective: namely, that the earth, man and God made Man were the center of the cosmos. Yet, through technological innovations, the Church's control over the gathering and disseminating of information was slipping. Galileo had studied the heavens using his new telescope, while Bellarmine's studies had been grounded in philosophy, theology and Scripture. Bellarmine represented the old science. Galileo the new.

Newtonian mathematics would assist in the destruction of the old world and the philosophical emphasis on empirical data as opposed to intellect and reason ala Aristotle. The philosophies of the Enlightenment were an outgrowth. Hume developed his skepticism and placed priority on knowledge gathered through empirical analysis. Rousseau idolized Nature -- and rejected the idea that human nature was fallen by Original Sin. The ideas of revolution -- "liberty, equality, fraternity" spread like wildfire now that the Church had lost its position of authority.

Philosophers wanted to assert their own authority. Again, God was displaced -- Man assumed the throne. The conflict between scientific study grounded in theological traditions and scientific study emphasized by technological cues marked the end of the medieval world and the beginning of the modern world. Spanish Conquest Columbus claimed the new world for Spain in 1492. Balboa was exploring Colombia within the decade. Cortez led his men against the Aztecs in 1520 and in 1550 began the Spanish conquest of the Mayan civilization. Pizarro battled the Inca in the 1530s.

Everywhere viceroys were established as Spain took over the areas of South America. One factor that helps explain the rapid Spanish conquest is the fact that the Indian tribes were not united among themselves. They also had no use of the weaponry that the Spanish conquistadors had. The Europeans also had one other weapon that the Aztecs, the Mayans, and the Inca did not have -- germ warfare.

Smallpox was as deadly to the Native Americans as anything else, and a vast number of the natives died simply because they came into contact with European diseases like smallpox, against which their bodies had no immunity. The most important events in the Spanish Conquest of the Americas begin, of course, with the landing of Christopher Columbus in the Caribbean Islands at the end of the 15th century -- which was followed by the arrival of the conquistadors -- Balboa, Cortez, Pizarro and many others.

The Aztec civilization fell in the 1520s, the Incas fell in the 1530s and the Mayan civilization began to be dismantled midway through the 16th century. Life, Liberty, the Pursuit of Happiness -- and Slavery Indeed, there were those who objected to slavery in the early colonies of America. But the abolitionists as they were called did not really begin to be heard until the 19th century, after the Revolutionary War and before the Civil War.

Rousseau, in France, had commented on slavery and life and liberty in his essay The Social Contract -- but his sense of Naturalism placed more emphasis on what would later be known as the will to power. Slavery, according to Rousseau, was the lot of the weak and those who let themselves be made into slaves. Of course, the framers of the Constitution were aware of the fact that slavery was an issue -- but it was one which they thought would finally resolve itself.

A discontinuance of the slave trade was foreseen, and from there it appeared that slavery would eventually simply come to an end. However, the Protestant ethos of the American states, as they continued to expand Westward was promoted by the idea of "manifest destiny" -- which implied that Americans were something like God's chosen people and that the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) had a special mission in the world -- which was to completely take over. (This belief is still in play today -- see the Middle East).

W.E.B. Du Bois, at the end of the 19th century -- after slavery had been abolished (but the Negro still kept in a state of subservience), began an examination into what was beginning to be known as the "Negro problem." For Du Bois that problem was the maltreatment of blacks through inequality, poverty, and lack of social standing. For the American elite, it was a problem of escalating numbers -- as Du Bois points out early in The Philadelphia Negro.

Indeed, the black population and the Catholic population (increasing through emigration) both posed a threat to the ruling WASP classes. The PR machine of the WASP ruling classes continued to promote the ideology of the American Dream -- of life, liberty and happiness -- even in the face of racial superiority (advocated by the eugenics movement of the 20th century), segregation, and of course the slavery that had preceded it all.

The American Dream was repeatedly exposed as a lie by American dramatists, ranging from Eugene O'Neill to Edward Albee to Arthur Miller -- but the PR machine had already been established: Orwell's warning was not heeded -- and "ignorance" became "strength." Millions now enjoy economic, social, and cultural slavery -- and don't even know it -- because they all believe they are experiencing "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The only question they have is why are they so miserable? Women of the Ming and Qing Dynasties -- compared with women of other cultures Women had a subordinate role in the Ming and Qing dynasties, only able to influence political power (as Lady Wan did) through subversion.

In the home, however, the woman did have some authority -- but she was still largely subservient, as the practice of foot-binding shows -- a practice which continued up until modern times, when feminist crusades and missionaries combined to show the East what the West thought of such a practice. Foot-binding did not, of course, cause women to be physically impaired -- it was more of an aesthetic physical attribute that the Chinese admired -- small feet on women; but it could sometimes lead to infection.

Chinese women -- like other Asian women -- were commonly submissive in many ways. However, one way in which women in China differed from, say, women in the Middle East was the fact that men in China could not divorce their wives if they had entered into the marriage in poverty -- especially if the woman's dowry was valuable. In the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, for example) the situation was much different. Women had little say over what men wanted.

If a man wants to divorce, it is done -- it is that simple. Of course, Shariah Law favors the man over the woman and the institution of marriage in Shariah is at loggerheads with modern ideas of marriage for love's sake; and the old customs are not going away any time soon. Outside pressure, from groups such as the United Nations Council for Human Rights, has attempted to resolve the inequalities of the Middle East.

But Middle East politics are largely traditionally governed -- and that tradition is thoroughly patriarchal. Likewise, in Africa, women are part of tribal customs that are centuries old -- and often brutal. Women have little role in the way tribes are governed. They have an impact within their own communities, as far as social circumstances go. But as Africa itself is exploited by Big Oil, in the Niger Delta for example, women are likewise exploited by Africa.

While the West has liberalized the woman's role, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East each offer their own perspective on the woman's function in society. Asia attempts to mix modernity with tradition, and Africa subjugates the woman and exploits her for labor. And the Middle East sees her as hardly having anything resembling social equality whatsoever. Fall of the Islamic States The Islamic States were already at a disadvantage before the Mongols invaded in the 13th century to forever change the Islamic world.

The Islamic caliphate had neglected the keep the military in proper condition so that they were of virtually no account when the Mongols invaded. But that was not the only the problem. The Islamic States were not united in belief.

The Sunni and the Shi'ite Muslims had been warring for centuries, and while the caliphate was of the former type, there existed in the States a serious minority dedicated to the Shi'ite type -- and it was this latter type who saw the Mongol invasion as a way to rid themselves of the their Sunni leader. In fact, these Muslims joined with the invaders in some parts of the Islam world to help fight the Sunni.

Therefore, there is some speculation that the Mongols were aided by dissent within the in Islamic States. The Mongols were likewise aided by some Christians, who saw them as a way to rid themselves of Islam rule. Islam, it must be understand, had enemies both outside and inside that wanted to see an end to its rule. However, Islam to a large extent was able to convert the Mongol -- and many of them accepted the Islam religion.

Islamic power never quite reached the heights it had in the centuries before the invasion, but the Ottomans attempted a revival of the Islamic power and threatened Europe in the coming centuries. American Revolution The American Revolution was, in a way, a testing ground for the French Revolution that followed -- which gives a better understanding of Revolution in general and the ideas that were at the heart of it.

While the Americans drafted their Declaration of Independence in 1776, asserting their individual rights -- the National Assembly of France drafted its Declaration of the Rights of Man a decade later in 1789 -- a document which set the platform for liberty, equality, and fraternity as the cornerstone for politics around the world. The American Declaration of Independence likewise drips with the Romantic/Enlightenment doctrine of the time, espousing dogma that has since become known as the American.