The+Early+Modern+Period



__**THE WORLD MAP CHANGES**__ __**TRIGGERS FOR CHANGE**__
 * Over this centuries, a number of new empires came into being, replacing smaller political units characteristic of the preceding post-classical period.
 * Several European countries acquired overseas empires the first time this option had ever been so dramatically developed, while new land-based empires arose in Asia and Eastern Europe.
 * International trade flourished between Asia, Africa and Europe across some overland routes but also via sea ways in the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea.


 * The Ottoman Turks ,an Islamic group, conquered Constantinople ,a great Christian city, which worried Christian leaders elsewhere in the world who turned to new activities to compensate for the loss of influence and territory.
 * The steady progression of explorations by Europeans ,along the Atlantic coast of Africa, was motivated in part by the desire to find ways to trade with east Asia that would circumvent the centers of Islamic power.
 * European mariners began to use compasses and other navigational devices, first introduced by the Chinese and the Arabs while also learning how to design better sailing ships.
 * The growing use of guns and gun powder which was invented by the Chinese was adapted by the Europeans and these new guns played a vital role in the creation of new empires both on land and overseas while also affecting political patterns within Africa, Japan, and Europe though with less sweeping results.
 * __THE BIG CHANGES__**

The changes in world empires and trade routes and the effects of new naval and military technologies highlight the distinctive features of the early modern period.

//A NEW GLOBAL ECONOMY// //International trade increased, for the first time including the Americas in the exchange. This was a major step in bringing the various regions of the world closer together and exposing them more widely to international influences.//

//BIOLOGICAL EXCHANGE// //NEW EMPIRES//
 * //The inclusion of the Americas in the global trade set in motion a number of biological exchanges of enormous consequences.//
 * 1) //Foods in Americas, like corn and the potato, began to be grown in Asia and, later, Europe.//
 * //Combined with local improvements i//n //agriculture, population increased.//
 * //Diseases were introduced into the Americas and the Pacific Island territories by the Europeans and they resulted in a decrease in native populations whereas immigration increased.//
 * //The massive African slave trade was in part a response to a labor shortage in the Americas.//
 * //New foods helped generate population increase world wide, trumping the devastation wrought by new diseases, but new diseases and unprecedented levels of death were agonizing realities for many regions.//
 * //The gun powder empires formed large political units and building and maintaining these new political structures required huge energies and huge expenses.//
 * //Empires in India, the Middle East, southeastern Europe, and Russia challenged political traditions in their imperial territories, while Spain, Portugal, France, England, and the Netherlands exerted pressure on their new overseas holdings.//
 * //The world position of Western Europe increased. Systematic patterns of inequality began to characterize some of the societies that supplied foods and raw material to Western Europe.//
 * //New economic and military agents and competitors challenged many established societies in Asia and Africa.//
 * //Europe became wealthier and ever more powerful as it supplied processed goods and commercial services to these same regions.//
 * __CONTINUITY__**


 * Some existing trade routes continued to be important avenues of global exchange.
 * The spread of world religions continued, with Islam reaching southeast Asia and parts of southeastern Europe and, even more dramatically, with conversions to Christianity in the Americas.
 * No systematic changes occurred in gender relations in the early modern period.
 * No technological breakthroughs occurred until after 1750.
 * With political change, signaled by the rise of empires, was more general, several societies emphasized continuity in this realm as well.
 * __IMPACT ON DAILY LIFE: WORK__**

__**TRENDS AND SOCIETIES IN THE EARLY MODERN PERIOD**__
 * Native Americans died in thousands due to the large amounts of immigrants from Europe and Africa who brought diseases such as small pox and measles.
 * Due to the Europeans paying Chinese merchants in silver, the Chinese government required that all things be paid in silver including taxes, which resulted into more poverty for the Chinese people.
 * For the Africans that had survived the journey to America, they were now subjected to live their lives as slaves.
 * Since the early modern world was commercial and crowded, working harder became a growing pressure which was demanded by the growing populations and put on villages, families, factory workers, and Protestants.
 * Child labor became more common in many regions and it increased because many European children were pressed into service as indentured laborers and groups of orphans might be transported to work sites or the new factories or maybe sent to North America and work as indentured servants.
 * Even in old age, people were compelled to work harder if they wanted to survive.
 * The pressure to work harder and longer was a personal side to the systemic changes that were reshaping the world.


 * European changes would ultimately affect other parts of the world as well.
 * Russia, selecting aspects of Western society as a model for change, developed one of the most novel gunpowder empires, with major impact on the power balance in eastern Europe, east Asia, and part of the Muslim world.
 * East Asia responded in its own, largely successful way to the new world economy.
 * In these areas internal dynamics had more to do with developments that occurred between 1450-1750

Machaivelle Russia

Africa and the Atlantic Slave Trade African Societies, slavery and the Slave Trade

White settlers and Africans in Southern Africa Model UN

Muslim Empires Nationalism, Industralization, Imperialism