HIST1601 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Inca Empire, Zheng He, Eunuch
HIST1601 Week 3 Lecture: Voyages of Exploration
Using historical sources: synthesis of primary and secondary sources
Can focus on a particular aspect of the topic, instead of just being broad
Ruthless on what and what not to include
• Aims of the course: to think like an historian
• Unlock meaning
• CONTEXT
• Like a Renaissance scholar
What kind of source?
• Documents
• Visual sources
• What did people think? How and why did they act? What did they accomplish?
Visual Sources:
• Can be hard to understand the intentions
• Past meaning could be difficult
• Maps shed light on relationships between countries, eg networks of trade
What do they tell us?
• Information
• Need to ask who created the source and why created it
• What biases and assumptions
• Forgeries?
Writing historical accounts?
• Answer the question
• Present some narrative, relating to event or era
• Explain some social, cultural, economic or political development
• Make clear main point and argument
How to Write?
• Use the links
Voyages of Exploration
The Silk Road:
• Continuing impact of earlier exchange networks
The great age of exploration:
• Arab traders
• Renaissance – wealth and power – 3G’s God, Gold and Glory, desire to search ourard and
learn new things, impact of printing
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
• Colonisation of regions
Trade Networks:
• Muslim traders
• 1000AD/CE
• Indian ocean dominated by small city-states
• Silk road increased trade
Marco Polo:
• Born in Venice
• Left for China
• Stayed for 17 years
• Returned by sea, the Indian ocean
• First to leave a detailed chronicle
East Asia and Europe
Expansion and trade networks:
• Driven by technology
• Invention of paper and printing – books allowed people to have guides/ maps
• Information was cheaper
• Nanjing was the largest city in the world
• Chinese were very advanced
Europe:
• Did not live longer
• Far commercial reach and military power
• 1350-1700 – most momentous expansion in networks and history
Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)
• Expeditions
• Sent out huge fleets (15th century)
• Emperor Yongle sent 7 expeditions
• Let by a Muslim eunuch, Zheng He
Zheng He, Vasco de Gama and Christopher Columbus
Why didn’t the Chinese take oer the orld?
• Indian Ocean markets close
• Few dangerous opponents
• Huge wealth in China
• Little incentive to send ships
• Later emperors abandoned expeditions
• Cost too much and diverted attention from northern frontier
• Expeditions = too little, political, military and economic value
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Using historical sources: synthesis of primary and secondary sources. Can focus on a particular aspect of the topic, instead of just being broad. Ruthless on what and what not to include: aims of the course: to think like an historian, unlock meaning, context. Visual sources: can be hard to understand the intentions, past meaning could be difficult, maps shed light on relationships between countries, eg networks of trade. Writing historical accounts: answer the question, present some narrative, relating to event or era, explain some social, cultural, economic or political development, make clear main point and argument. The silk road: continuing impact of earlier exchange networks. The great age of exploration: arab traders, renaissance wealth and power 3g"s (cid:894)god, gold and glory(cid:895), desire to search our(cid:449)ard and learn new things, impact of printing, colonisation of regions. Trade networks: muslim traders, 1000ad/ce, silk road increased trade.
