AP World History
Period 4 - Early Modern Period 1450 - 1750 C.E.
From the POV of the Americas
Unit 4 - Global Interactions 1450-1750 CE
● Key Concept 4.1: Globalizing Networks of Communication and Exchange
● Key Concept 4.2: New Forms of Social Organization and Modes of Production
● Key Concept 4.3: State Colonization and Imperial Expansion
Theme 1: Interactions between humans and the environment
➔ Many migrated to the Americas for religious and economic opportunity, mostly
economic.
➔ Horses, pigs, and cattle were introduced into the Americas (Native Americans who
had horses got them from Europeans)
➔ Natives taught Europeans how to grow corn, also introduced sweet potatoes into
Africa, and they liked them so much they’ll swear they always had them.
➔ Europeans who brought dormant diseases with them devastated native populations,
even wiping some out completely, especially those in South America, but few
Europeans died from native diseases.
Theme 2: Development and Interaction of Cultures
● Conquistadors mistaken for gods and allowed into Aztec civilization
● Europeans killed many of the native people
Theme 3: State building, Expansion, and Conflict
● Aztec
o
o
o
Tributary system - conquered tribes under the Aztecs gave things such as crops, animals or even
slaves and in return got protection or were not completely wiped out.
Chinampas - used for farming on rivers / lake.
Blood Sacrifice - the Aztecs believed that if there wasn’t a blood sacrifice then the gods would
become angry and cause the sky to fall in turn starting the apocalypse.
● Inca
o
Road Systems - expansive roads allowed control and trade throughout empire
● North American Tribes
Theme 4: Creation, Expansion, and Interaction of
Economic Systems
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●
●
●
Reliance on tributary system
Incan roads were essential to trade
Integration of South American silver trade and cash crops into European economy
Encomienda system (natives tied to land)
Theme 5: Development and Transformation of Social
Structures
● Sociedad de las castas
● Creation of new social classes:
o “mestizo” (native+European)
o “mulatto” (African+European)
From the POV of the “Old World”
Unit 4 - Global Interactions 1450-1750 CE
● Key Concept 4.1: Globalizing Networks of Communication and Exchange
● Key Concept 4.2: New Forms of Social Organization and Modes of Production
● Key Concept 4.3: State Colonization and Imperial Expansion
Theme 1: Interaction between humans and the environment
● In Europe, populations grew greatly due to the new crops gained from America.
Europeans could live in bad places to farm due to imports from the Americas
supplying them with what they need.
● The same occurred in Africa to a lesser extent due to them having less money.
Slavery occurred later as Natives were used for labor initially.
Theme 2: Development and Interaction of Cultures
● Scientific Revolution: allowed for more accurate results and logical thinking
● Enlightenment: promoted challenging old beliefs to make way for change
● Stylistic fusion: multicultural arts (Indian artists taught by Persian teachers and
influenced by European Renaissance)
Theme 2: Development and Interaction of Cultures
●
●
●
●
Protestantism - Scripture, justification of faith, universal priesthood of believers
Vodun - Practiced by Ewe people in Africa
Zen - School of Buddhism developed in China
Sikhism - Punjab religion of the Indian subcontinent
Theme 3: State Building, Expansion, and Conflict
● Encomienda systems: took advantage of existing customs to tie natives to the land
and extract labor from them
● Silver mining: used native people because they were more acclimated to the
mountainous climate
● Slavery: traded for Africans and forced them to work in cash crops--sugar was the
deadliest
● Indentured servitude: a form of temporary slavery (semicoercive)
★ Alternatively they could have industrialized, but being a
dependent zone this was unlikely
Theme 3: State-Building, Expansion, and Conflict
SPAIN
PORTUGAL
FRANCE
BRITAIN
POLITICAL
Viceroy;
King’s laws
Donatários
Fully subject to
French king
Distant, often
neglectful
ECONOMIC
Silver
Sugar and gold
Fur
Fishing, ash
crops
SOCIAL
Distinct racial
hierarchy
Imported many
Africans (high
mortality rate)
Fur traders
valuable to
French
Trade, debt
Theme 3: State Building, Expansion, and Conflict
● Influenced by the Enlightenment period
● Economic/Intellectual Advancement
● Westernization forces brought on by tsars
o Ex. Peter the Great
● Coerced labor by serfs; slow to industrialize
● Wide gap between serfs and nobles
Theme 3: State-Building, Expansion, and Conflict
● European states created far-reaching sea empires through imperialism while China
and Japan mostly expanded throughout bordering lands
Theme 3: State Building, Expansion and Conflict
● Ottoman - gunpowder empire that expanded through conquest and threatened
European neighbors; failed to industrialize
● China - central bureaucracy, empire naturally isolated; high silver demand in
China and silk demand elsewhere facilitated trade through barriers; slow to
industrialize
● Safavid - gunpowder empire that threatened Ottomans; failed to industrialize
● Tokugawa - integrated Western styles and clothing after Perry forced the end of
their strict “trade only with Dutch” policies
● Mughal - large gunpowder empire in Egypt; trade connections and stylistic fusion
with West
Theme 3: State-Building, Expansion, and Conflict
● Europe - Maritime empires, exploration in Americas, and conflict with England
facing off with Spain
● Asia - Gunpowder empires were a major conflict, used military power to expand
● Africa - Political power shifted to the gold coast
● Americas - Several empires quickly set out on their own exploration, fights over
land
● Similarities - Fighting over territory
Development and Transformation of Social Structures
● Chinese footbinding (Tang/Song dynasty)
● Most religions gave women spiritual equality to men but legally they did not have
the same rights
Characteristics of the Early Modern Period
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●
●
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ASIA: silver demand, weakening economy
AFRICA: slave trade (export), invasion
AMERICAS: mines and plantations, invasion
EUROPE: imperialization of other regions
Other Key Objectives
● Land empire vs. sea empire:
● Direct or long-distance control
● Integration or support
Periodization Review
❖ Silver trade
❖ Coercive labor
❖ Cash crops
❖ Integration of Americas
❖ Industrialization-Not until the end
❖ Renaissance/Reformation
❖ Scientific Revolution