World United in a Global Market (History)

Humanities

This first module of World History II explores the creation of a fully Global Market. Columbus and other European merchant and military explorers tied the entire world together in one commercial market and biological ecosystem. Nevertheless, Europe between the 1450s and even the early 1600 was no match for the larger empires of China, India, and much of the Muslim world in terms of population, wealth, and commerce, yet the initiative of these once dominant global powers began to weaken.

The age of Columbus was also the age of Machiavelli and the emergence of the modern European nation state. As we shall see this concept was not fully complete until the 19th century but nevertheless was well embodied in both the kingdoms of Portugal and Spain as our period opens. Later France and England would also produce powerful states. What are the features that made these states strong? How did competition between European states help drive innovation within Europe and expansion overseas?

Questions

1) Compare and contrast the the social and economic origins and accomplishment of the Chinese Admiral Zheng He and the Genoese merchant explorer Christopher Columbus.

2) Compare and contrast the Chinese states and societies of the era 1400 to 1600 to those of Europe. Why did China accrue so much power and wealth and the European state system generate instability but also innovation?