Section 1 Exam Essays

**
Potential essay questions for the first mid-term exam (Early-modern world)**

Essay 1

Age of exploration: Why was it that Iberians (Portuguese and Spanish) were the first to engage in the globe-spanning explorations of the late fifteenth and sixteenth centuries? Why not other European polities or East Asia, the Islamic World, or polities from Africa or the Americas?

Notes and recommendations (specific):

--Note that both sides to this question—why the Iberians and why not other peoples and polities—are equally important and deserve equal attention, energy, and space.

Geography
Resources
Desire for spice trade

Essay 2

The Columbian Exchange: What are the most significant influences or legacies of the Columbian exchange for the period 1500-1688?

Notes and recommendations (specific):

--How do you define “significant”? Be sure to explain and defend your choice of criteria. Don’t just state or assert it!

--Consider non-human actors and factors. Not all cases for significance need focus on humans!

--Be sure to think globally! If the cases or examples you discuss are primarily or even exclusively European (or North American), the chances are very good you are not thinking globally!

NOTES

How do I define significant?

• Having a lasting impact on the population

Death of much of the native population

• Cortes brought smallpox over via animals (maybe pigs)
  • The diseases came from Eurasian animals - so Europeans had some immunity; Native Americans did not have that immunity
• Also brought cholera, measels
• Native population dropped drastically, from about 4 million (1492) to a few thousand (1540s)
  Spread of food
• Old world sugar grew really well in tropical americas
• Many foods just couldn't exist as they do today without the Colombian exchange
  • bananas in the new world
  • chili peppers in thai food
  • italian food w/o marinara
  • cocoa + sugar = chocolate
• Cassava came from the New world and went to Africa
  • Became a staple
  • Led to much increased population in sub-saharan Africa
  • Sweet potato did similar things in East Asia
  • White potato similar impacts, grow in the ground
• Tobacco
  • became a staple of elite culture in the modern world
• Corn!
  • now the largest grain in terms of production and consumption

Essay 3

Role and status of women: In which region—Africa, the Islamic World, East Asia, or Europe—did women enjoy the most freedom, autonomy, and respect in the period 1500-1688? Why?

Notes and recommendations (specific):

--Note that freedom, autonomy, and respect are not necessarily the same thing! For example, one can easily envision (and perhaps even come up with specific examples of) a culture in which women are accorded a high degree of respect (perhaps for their irreplaceable role in the family) but allowed very little autonomy.

--Be sure to think critically! Are the examples or evidence you use representative or exceptional?

--Note that the **last part of the prompt—“why?”—**is just as important as the first part and deserves equal attention, energy, and space!

NOTES
Women experienced the most freedom in the Islamic world

• In the Ottoman Empire, Suleyman the Magnificant consulted with his wife, Roxelana often
  • Mahd e olya was a respectful title given to the mother's of shah's in China
  • Taj Mahal - built for wife out of respect
  • Why: Quran instructs men to treat women with upmost respect and similar to men
• In East Asia, women were seen as less than under Confucianism
  • part of the five central tenets states that men should be in power over women
  • Women were pressured to practice feet binding
  • In Japan, women seldom received education
• Europe
  • While European women experienced some freedom, the power structure of the catholic church
  • Examine treatment of women in the New World
  • European women like Sor Juana De La Cruz
• Africa
  • Women had had some autonomy in pre-colonial times
  • However, during European colonization, their rights were severely reduced

Essay 4

Global belief systems: Compare and contrast several belief systems (religions, philosophies, etc.) from across the early-modern world. Which are more significant: the similarities or differences?

Notes and recommendations (specific)

--Be sure to think globally! If the cases or examples you discuss are exclusively European or even Abrahamic, the chances are very good you are not thinking globally!

--Be as specific and precise as you can both about the particular belief systems but also about possible variations within them.

Islam

• Abrahamic
• Believe in the prophet Muhammed & the Quran
  Christianity
• Abrahamic
• Belief in Jesus
• Monotheistic
  Taoism
• Believe the best course of action is nothing
• Originated in China

Essay 5

The “big picture”: Was the world a better place in 1688 than it was in 1500?

Notes and recommendations (specific)

--How do you define “better”? Be sure to explain and defend your choice of criteria. Don’t just state or assert it! See the specific notes and recommendations for the “big picture” question on the final exam for a hopefully illuminating example.

--Pay close attention to time and change over time. Your points of comparison need not adhere solely to the specific years in question (i.e. 1500 and 1688). But they need to be reasonably close. For example, arguing that the world was a better place in 1688 because of the liberating influences of the American and French Revolutions is anachronistic (these revolutions took place more than a century after 1688) and therefore invalid.

--Note that 1688: A Global History will (obviously) be of great use in answering this question and providing specific evidence and examples to support your answers!

--Be sure to think globally! An important element to consider here is the distribution of population in the world. The following figures are rough estimates taken from 1700Links to an external site.:

Six largest non-European polities (estimated percentage of global population):

--Mughal Empire (23%)

--Qing Empire (22%)

--Ottoman Empire (4%)

--Tokugawa Japan (4%)

--Chosŏn (Joseon) Korea (1.8%)

--Safavid Empire (1.5%)

Total = 56.3%

The chances are pretty good, then, that changes that influenced these places are going to be among the most globally significant changes of the period. Think, too, about what is missing here: why are there no polities from the Western hemisphere on this list? What changes might this absence be an indication of?

By contrast, here are estimates of the six largest European polities in the same period (estimated percentage of global population):

--Holy Roman Empire (4%)

--Spain (including possessions) (3.6%)

--France (3.1%)

--Russia (2%)

--Hapsburg Monarchy (1.5%)

--England, Scotland, and possessions (1.3%)

Total = 15.5%

The chances are good, then, that changes that influenced only Europe during this period are not likely to be the most significant global changes.

The following pie chart illustrates the same phenomenonLinks to an external site. (albeit apparently in not the exact same proportions for reasons unclear). Note that the “other” category is also larger than all of Europe combined!