Chapter 12 - The Worlds of the Fifteenth Century
Identifying the many sorts of societies that existed in the fifteenth century is one method to explain the globe. A well-traveled visitor in the fifteenth century would have seen bands of hunters and gatherers, villages of agri-cultural peoples, newly emerging chiefdoms or small states, pastoral communities, established civilizations, and empires—all of these social and political forms would have been visible to a well-traveled visitor.
Despite millennia of agricultural progress, Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) peoples continued to live in large parts of the planet.
The purpose of these planned fires was to remove the underbrush, making hunting simpler and promoting the growth of specific plant and animal species. Furthermore, aboriginal Australians exchanged products across hundreds of kilometers, formed intricate mythologies and religious activities, and developed sophisticated sculpting and rock painting traditions.
Although these and other gathering and hunting peoples continued to exist in the fifteenth century, their numbers and the territory they occupied had significantly decreased as the Agricultural Revolution swept the globe.
Pastoral communities have long had a greater immediate and dramatic impact on civilizations than hunting and gathering cultures or farming village societies. The Mongol incursion, and the massive empire it spawned, was the latest in a long line of assaults from the steppes, but it was far from the last.
Timur's army of pastoralists wreaked havoc on Russia, Persia, and India with a savagery that rivaled or exceeded that of his model, Chinggis Khan. Timur himself perished in 1405 while planning a Chinese assault.
Pastoral peoples of Africa remained independent of established empires for several centuries longer than those in Inner Asia, as they were not absorbed into European colonial governments until the late nineteenth century.
A traveler of this type may start their voyage in China, which has a long history of successful administration, Confucian and Daoist philosophy, a significant Buddhist presence, complex creative achievements, and a highly productive economy.
This book aimed to summarize or consolidate all prior literature on history, geography, philosophy, ethics, governance, and more, including contributions from over 2,000 experts. Yongle also moved the capital to Beijing, ordered the construction of the Forbidden City, a beautiful imperial palace, and the Temple of Heaven, where successive emperors performed Confucian-based rituals.
The state responded quickly to restore the devastation caused by the Mongols, returning millions of acres to agriculture, repairing canals, reservoirs, and irrigation works, and planting a billion trees in an effort to reforest China, according to some estimates.
Similar processes of demographic recovery, political stability, cultural blossoming, and foreign expansion were underway on the other side of the Eurasian continent.
In Ming dynasty China, a revitalized cultural blooming, known in European history as the Renaissance, coincided with the rebirth of all things Confucian. However, in Europe, this resurgence honored and recovered a classical Greco-Roman culture that had been lost or hidden previously.
While the vast majority of Renaissance authors and painters were males, Christine de Pizan (1363–1430), the daughter of a Venetian official who resided primarily in Paris, was a notable exception.
The Ottoman Empire, which existed in various forms from the fourteenth to the early twentieth century, was the most magnificent and long-lasting of the new Islamic powers.
In the globe of the fifteenth century and beyond, the Ottoman Empire was a hugely important state. It was one of the great empires of global history because of its vast area, lengthy existence, absorption of many different peoples, and economic and cultural sophistication.
Because virtually all of Persia's neighbors followed a Sunni version of Islam, this Shia kingdom created a stark division in the political and religious life of core Islam. The periodic military confrontation arose between the Ottoman and Safavid empires over a century (1534–1639), reflecting both territorial competition and severe religious disagreements.
Identifying the many sorts of societies that existed in the fifteenth century is one method to explain the globe. A well-traveled visitor in the fifteenth century would have seen bands of hunters and gatherers, villages of agri-cultural peoples, newly emerging chiefdoms or small states, pastoral communities, established civilizations, and empires—all of these social and political forms would have been visible to a well-traveled visitor.
Despite millennia of agricultural progress, Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) peoples continued to live in large parts of the planet.
The purpose of these planned fires was to remove the underbrush, making hunting simpler and promoting the growth of specific plant and animal species. Furthermore, aboriginal Australians exchanged products across hundreds of kilometers, formed intricate mythologies and religious activities, and developed sophisticated sculpting and rock painting traditions.
Although these and other gathering and hunting peoples continued to exist in the fifteenth century, their numbers and the territory they occupied had significantly decreased as the Agricultural Revolution swept the globe.
Pastoral communities have long had a greater immediate and dramatic impact on civilizations than hunting and gathering cultures or farming village societies. The Mongol incursion, and the massive empire it spawned, was the latest in a long line of assaults from the steppes, but it was far from the last.
Timur's army of pastoralists wreaked havoc on Russia, Persia, and India with a savagery that rivaled or exceeded that of his model, Chinggis Khan. Timur himself perished in 1405 while planning a Chinese assault.
Pastoral peoples of Africa remained independent of established empires for several centuries longer than those in Inner Asia, as they were not absorbed into European colonial governments until the late nineteenth century.
A traveler of this type may start their voyage in China, which has a long history of successful administration, Confucian and Daoist philosophy, a significant Buddhist presence, complex creative achievements, and a highly productive economy.
This book aimed to summarize or consolidate all prior literature on history, geography, philosophy, ethics, governance, and more, including contributions from over 2,000 experts. Yongle also moved the capital to Beijing, ordered the construction of the Forbidden City, a beautiful imperial palace, and the Temple of Heaven, where successive emperors performed Confucian-based rituals.
The state responded quickly to restore the devastation caused by the Mongols, returning millions of acres to agriculture, repairing canals, reservoirs, and irrigation works, and planting a billion trees in an effort to reforest China, according to some estimates.
Similar processes of demographic recovery, political stability, cultural blossoming, and foreign expansion were underway on the other side of the Eurasian continent.
In Ming dynasty China, a revitalized cultural blooming, known in European history as the Renaissance, coincided with the rebirth of all things Confucian. However, in Europe, this resurgence honored and recovered a classical Greco-Roman culture that had been lost or hidden previously.
While the vast majority of Renaissance authors and painters were males, Christine de Pizan (1363–1430), the daughter of a Venetian official who resided primarily in Paris, was a notable exception.
The Ottoman Empire, which existed in various forms from the fourteenth to the early twentieth century, was the most magnificent and long-lasting of the new Islamic powers.
In the globe of the fifteenth century and beyond, the Ottoman Empire was a hugely important state. It was one of the great empires of global history because of its vast area, lengthy existence, absorption of many different peoples, and economic and cultural sophistication.
Because virtually all of Persia's neighbors followed a Sunni version of Islam, this Shia kingdom created a stark division in the political and religious life of core Islam. The periodic military confrontation arose between the Ottoman and Safavid empires over a century (1534–1639), reflecting both territorial competition and severe religious disagreements.
