Before 1448, European had to use the Silk Road to trade with Asia. In 1453, Muslim took over Constantinople; the only way to Asia had been cut. European nations started to use the Maritime way, and they took over many places in Asia as their access to an easier trade system. Among these European nations, like what they did to America, their goals and the way they achieved their initiatives in Asia are different from one another. Portuguese was the first group that explored the way to Asia without going through Muslims. Because of their special geography, Portugal had advanced technology. They had “outgun” ships and controlled the sea area. They also established bases in key locations of the places they conquered. They created “trading post empire” by force. They conquered ports and big cities, but not the whole place. Portuguese’s goal was gaining the control of commerce instead of territory and controlling population. Their …show more content…
Unlike Spain and Portugal, Dutch used private trading companies. The Holland Government gave these companies power to make war and govern the Native people. They set their goal on Indonesia. They attempted to control the shipping and production of the Asian spices such as: cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg and soon. Dutch forced people only to trade with them, if they refused, their productions would be destroyed. Dutch wanted pure profits from Asia. They used military (bloody methods) to ruin the Native people and their trade system instead of economic competitions. British also used private trading companies and they focused on India. Because British settlers were private companies, they mainly focused on Indian cottons, which were considered as “diamond” in Europe. To sell cottons back to Europe would give them huge wealth. At that time, Mughal Empire was still strong compare to British settlers. British decided to trade with Mughal Empire, and swallowed it step by
This led to a focus on a trading system because Europeans didn’t want to take on territorial responsibilities. During the Old imperialism era, Europeans set up trading posts, ports, and docks. These trading centers benefited the places the mother country was supplying too. They had objectives to protect their trading centers in native places and none to obtain territories in them. Europe’s trade within and between native lands led to cultural diversity which may have caused a small breach in unity. However, the old Imperialism era ended due to high costs in taking over territories and too much time to supply the mother country. There was no time to build up a superior, organized, skilled army for anyone. Also, due to the Industrial Revolution there was now a faster more efficient way to create and manufacture products. Throughout Western Europe, political authority was completely controlled by central governments, while leaders, such as Isabela I, were busy with the concept of how to increase the power of the state. National wealth was widely viewed as the groundwork of national power, governmental controls soon dominated nearly all of the state's domestic economy.
Changes and continuities in commerce in the Indian ocean region from 650 to 1750 C.E.
It analyzes the interaction between the Chinese, Indians, and Arabs. This chapter examines the trade situation before and after the European invaded. Around 1500, was the first time the trade began and it was one of the greatest generators of the economy. Therefore, it was really important for places like Asia, Africa, and Arabs to get access to the Indian Ocean.
In the time period from 1450-1750, Asia began to use multiple strategies to to build their empires. Many aspects of their culture including their government, religion, and education were refined and changed. During their time period, Europe began to move into Asia in order to gain influence. While the empires of Eastern Asia focused more on their governments and education, the Europeans came and attempt to spread their religious ideas, especially Catholic countries.
Throughout early history, civilizations often sought to receive resources from afar to sustain their societies and keep themselves thriving, and to this end trade relations and eventually trade routes began to emerge. This aided civilizations in their discovery of foreign items that they may use to better their societies. These items traded ranged from complex technology to something as simple as nutmeg. The main trade routes that were utilized in East and South Asia were the silk road and the Indian Ocean Trade Network. In the 7th- 12th centuries, both the silk road and Indian ocean trade route had affected east and south Asia by the introduction of religions such as Buddhism changing government forms and altering the belief systems of society and changing how individuals live their daily lives, however differences were present in the impact that these routes had on daily lives, such as the Indian Ocean Trade Route giving rise to an entire new culture in Africa known as the Swahili and leading to the innovation of the sailing boat known as the Dhow, and the silk road led to the transmission of religion and resources throughout Eurasia and it led to utilization of caravans and animals as a means of trade.
People living the the 15th century had multiple reasons for venturing beyond its confinement of land. Scientific curiosity of the world played a major part in the advancement of naval travel, but it was not the main cause of exploration in these times. The Age of Exploration was sparked by Europeans wanting to find sea routes to East Asia, which they called the Indies. Merchants and crusaders were bringing goods to Europe from Africa, the Middle East, and Asia. These trade routes were controlled by the Muslims and the Italians. However, flaws
Portugal was one of the, if not the only, technological and economic geniuses of the fifteenth century. As a result of their genius, Portugal was able to build one of the first caravels and sail around the coast of Africa in an attempt to find a sea route to India. As a result of this attempt,
India is a great example about how they were too weak. India is probably in the best position for trade, due to its central location between Africa and Asia. India was a great area for trade.Before the West’s power overtook India, it was small not unified. In document 5 a person can be seen weaving on their own. This is before they were introduced to industrial textile production. The British wanted to take control of India and combine with them to become bigger and stronger. Britain saw India as a market and is a source of raw materials they built roads and impressive railroads to transport factory made goods across the subcontinent. These roads and railroads are used to carry materials such as coal and cotton to coastal ports to transfer the factories in England. This description of India can relate to Document 6, in this document a railroad is seen being built under British control. Railroads are an example of modernization taking over this country.
European nations in the 15th century began exploring new lands with three motives: religion, wealth, and glory. It was made possible by advances in naval fleet building and navigation, first pioneered by the Portuguese. Europeans began to be involved in extensive exploration, coming in contact with Africa, Americas and their prime target Asia. The main targets of the pioneering Portugese and Spanish was to find and alternate trade route for the Indies trade and also promote Christianity to the new lands. As the century unfolded, the search for newer territories to colonize and shortern routes to the exotic land of spices and silk became the initial driving force for the intensive early exploration by the Europeans .
Furthermore the Europeans saw the Ottoman Empire as a threat and feared a new Muslim surge toward Europe. Additionally, the loss of the last European outposts in the Holy Land also eliminated the only European trading posts in the Eastern Mediterranean. All European trade with Asia had to then pass through Muslim merchants, who made it very expensive, only adding to European’s enmity to the new owners of what was renamed Istanbul. All of this impelled Europeans to go exploring new ways to get to China and India to resume the sought after trade for luxury
- Because Spain and Portugal were rivals, they were always trying to out beat each other. Since the Portuguese set up trading posts in Africa first, other European countries started and later on Spain set up posts too. Because the Portuguese didn’t like taking water routes, it took them longer to get to India through land to get spices and jewels. While this was happening, the Spanish people became unified and seeing that they were now stronger, planned to outstrip their rivals of the Indian
British imperialized India, by indirectly controlling India until the British thought the indians were of use for the British. When the British learned India could help them politically, economically, and socially . The British realized they couldn’t let the Indians overthrow their role so when riots started breaking out in India, Europe took harsher direct rule over India. India did not benefit from British imperialism either politically, economically, or socially.
The British originally came in as a decent sized company in East India, but when the sepoys attacked that company, England sent their whole army and navy to get the sepoys under control, but while doing that they also took over all of India. Although economically and socially the Indians did benefit in some ways, the British established a massive infrastructure by controlling India and having a huge political, economic, and social impact on India that helped them more than it helped the Indians.
The Silk Roads created many opportunities for trade in Europe. Many empires and kingdoms traded many materials and products. Silk, teas, salts, sugars, spices, and many more goods, were traded throughout Europe. This helped many ideas and cultures spread. For instance, various religions and rituals were spread. This caused different cultures to infiltrate empires of different religions. China, specifically, had a taste of many different religions during this time. From Buddhism in the Han Dynasty, to the Islam in the Tang, China had many cultures travel
They Imported gold and silver. The had tariffs on imports were quite low. Foreign commerce was mostly carried on by the Arabs since the Mughals like the Indians did not like to travel by sea. Also, Internal land trade was carried on by large merchant castes, that were active in handicrafts and banking as well.