EDWARD'S LECTURE NOTES:
More notes at http://tanguay.info/learntracker
C O U R S E
A History of the World since 1300
Jeremy Adelman, Princeton University
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C O U R S E L E C T U R E Political Reverberations of Ming Consolidation Notes taken on June 18, 2014 by Edward Tanguay |
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16th century China exemplifies the ways in which the arrival of new wealth can lead to new concentrations of authority and power
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but it is hard to predict at the outset the affect this wealth will have, not only on the country but on the surrounding political landscape
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what was happening in China (Ming dynasty 1368–1644) began to have an effect on its surroundings
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Japan
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hitherto the primary source of silver for China
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Japan in the 17th century was beset with internal quarrels not unlike Europe at this time
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regional warlords and ruling households called Diamyos struggling for power
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you would think that the civil wars would have helped Europe penetrate and conquer Japan as they did South America, and e.g. the Dutch in South Asia
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indeed merchants and missionaries did arrive at the doorstep in Japan
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however, the external threat can have different effects on a country
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reasons why Japan did not get colonized
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1. had an shared Buddhist faith
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2. proximity to China, they need to stay together
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3. Japan had fought off aggressive armies before, e.g. the Mongols, Portuguese, Dutch
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Japan holding together against the external forces (European/China), resulted in the consolidation of the Tokogawa Shogunate
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kept the Europeans to their outskirts
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up a militaristic state system
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Korea
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a country squeezed between Japan and China, powerful neighbors
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receiving increasing pressures from the north as well: Russia
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Russia
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Muscovy was turning into Russia
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silver powered in to Lithuania and Poland
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merchants moved to Russia to by staples: e.g. furs
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the center of Eurasia was beginning to get filled in, fueled by money and capital
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the main lure of the region furs and pelts, e.g. from beavers, by the Nenet hunters in Siberia
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drove the frontier into Siberia, a phenomenon similar to North America in the 19th century
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fighting protracted war against Mongols
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1580s a series of triumphs by Russia
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Russia eventually reached the Pacific ocean
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Peter the Great (1672-1725)
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created new capital, St. Petersburg
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led a cultural revolution that replaced some of the traditionalist and medieval social and political system with a modern, scientific, Europe-oriented, and rationalist system
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expansion eventually led to encounter with China in central Asia