Ethan Ma
Mr. Kravitz
APUSH A
16 August 2018
The migrants in the central Mexican and Andean areas thrived from the cultivation of maize and potatoes. Maize was cultivated much more efficiently than the base crops in Europe and potatoes had much more nutritional value, ultimately leading to population growth and development of the greatest American empires, the Aztecs and the Incas. Throughout each empire, mass trading networks and fertile valleys helped the empires grow richer. The tribute systems also helped to maintain wealthy capital cities that governed the empires and increased its wealth.
One resource the Eastern Woodlands took advantage of was fire; They set fires to clear the landscape to plant crops and hunt animals easier. These cleared landscapes added to their existing planting areas, thus, further developing the Native American society. In the Great Lakes, there were many systems of lakes and rivers which enabled natives to be very mobile with the birchbark canoes. These open systems allowed for plenty of trade, places to hunt and fish, and new military alliances to join. In the Great Plains and Rockies, the domestication of horses assisted with trade and bison hunting. Many of these innovations throughout the Americas helped expand native societies.
The spiritual world has influenced the Native American daily lives in many ways, through animism and changes in gender roles. Women were linked with the Earth’s fertility because of their bodies’ generative functions. The women participated rituals like the Green Corn Ceremony which was believed to preserve the life around them. Men were different than women and they mainly focused on hunting and war. When men went to hunt game, they performed rituals to leave the guardian spirit of the animals unharmed. Men fought in war for many reasons, like proving themselves in battle or gaining ground against enemy. In wars where they lost warriors, they retaliated with mourning war – killing or capturing the enemy warriors.
There were many similarities and differences between European and Native American life. Both societies had a heavy reliance on agriculture, the cultivation of wheat, rye, oats, and other staple crops. The Europeans also ruled under the Christian church and it heavily led everyday lives. This was also seen with the animistic and spiritual beliefs of the Native Americans that changed their ways of war and hunt. In Europe, some major differences was the use of a patriarchal family structure while natives focused on equality, where everyone had jobs necessary for their survival. Europeans also practiced monotheism, the worship of one God while the natives believed in many spiritual life forms.
As a result of the increase in commerce, the European power structures began shifting from nobles, to merchants and artisans. This all began with many developments like the creation of the Hanseatic League, which was controlled by merchants in northern Europe, and the Crusades and expansion of Christianity in the 1300s. The merchants controlling the Hanseatic League eventually gathered enough wealth to influence politics, resulting in an upset in the current balance of power. The Crusades helped bring light to the silk roads and Mediterranean Sea and overall helped feed mercantilism. As merchants grew more powerful, monarchs also began to collect taxes and allowed trade through guilds for regulated trade.
The Christian Church had large influences on European events, like the Crusades. The Crusades were an attempt to win back Christ’s holy lands and new knights were created to support them, Teutonic Knights and Knights Templar. In the 15th century however, Christianity was no longer the unifying force in European society, the Protestant Reformation and Anglican Church had taken charge. Martin Luther and John Calvin began viewing the Catholic church as corrupt and triggered responses from the church and its orders, like the Jesuits. Eventually, this led to shaping the colonies of the Americas and the development of different views, the Protestants and the Roman Catholics.
The states of the savanna had many similarities to areas around the world like the reliance on the domestication of livestock and the cultivation of crops. The savannas cultivated mostly grain crops, sorghum and millet, but eventually cultivated yams as they had increased technology. They also domesticated cattle and camels to help increase the wealth and trade within West Africa. Like the Americas, Africa had gold, plenty of it and they traded it all throughout Africa and Europe in caravans. Under Mansa Musa’s rule, gold was treated like an everyday commodity and was distributed all throughout his journey, which soon attracted European attention. The Ghana and Sudanic empires became highly complex societies with the trans-Saharan trade at their base.
African leaders were reluctant to trade with Europeans because of the new foreign goods they could get in return. The Africans traded goods over the trans-Saharan with gold, copper, salt, and slaves for textiles and other goods. The Akan states had plenty of goldfields, known as the Gold Coast and the Bight of Benin was named Slave Coast. Along these coasts, African leaders hoped to exchange their slaves and gold for weapons and military power. As a result of the Portuguese exploration throughout the African coasts, Africans often gained new innovations that helped sail easier like the lateen sail and the caravel. On the coasts, the Portuguese also traded wine, fish, and salt for gold and ivory.
Europeans created many trading relations with Africa while on their route to finding an ocean route to Asia. The Europeans had discovered the the Atlantic Islands – the Canaries, the Cape Verde Islands, and Sao Tome – which were soon established as laboratories for the growth of new Mediterranean agriculture. Here, planters grew cash crops like sugar, wheat, woad, and more. Europeans mostly stayed on offshore lands and along the coasts because of the strong defense on the interior and coastal kingdoms. The Europeans were not defended against malaria, yellow fever, and dysentery so they stayed off coasts with the permission of the local kings, which was how they developed good relations with the Africans. Because of their African allies, Europeans were able to take over Arabs as leaders in the Asian trade.
Europeans all establish slave trading posts along the West African coast because of the large economic possibilities. Coerced labor became one of the foundations in most societies as slaves could be used as bondage, sold for food, and taken as war captives. In the Songhai Empire, Sonni Ali organized tribes to raid the stateless so that they could be traded as slaves with the Europeans. The African leaders were corrupt and wanted weapons from Europe, so they sold millions of Africans in the trans-Saharan slave trade. Europeans also began to exploit human trafficking, heavy labor on sugar plantations, and fortified trading posts to eventually force diaspora among the African peoples.