3 Driving Forces of History

Trade and Culture:

3 driving forces of history

1. Culture
2. Wealth
3. Power

• Growing global commerce enriches and shapes cultures worldwide.
• The major regions demonstrate pride in their traditions and celebrate political, economic, and

cultural achievements.

• Europeans and peoples of European descent in the Americas argue that their races and cultures

are superior to all others.

The Islamic World

1. The Ottomans’ unique cultural synthesis accommodates not only mystical Sufis and ultraorthodox ulama but also military men, administrators, and clerics.
2. The Safavid state proclaims the triumph of Shiism and Persian influences in the sumptuous new capital, Isfahan.
3. Mughal courtly culture values art and learning and welcomes non-Muslim contributions.

East Asia

1. China’s cultural flourishing, coming from within, is evident in the broad circulation of traditional ideas, publishing, and mapmaking.
2. Japan’s imperial court at Kyoto develops an elite culture of theater, stylized painting, tea ceremonies, and flower arranging.

Europe

1. Cultural flourishing known as the Enlightenment yields a faith in reason and a belief in humans’ ability to fathom the laws of nature and human behavior.
2.  European thinkers articulate a belief in unending human progress.
3.  Europeans expand into Australia and the South Pacific.

Africa

• Slave-trading states such as Asante, Oyo, and Benin celebrate royal power and wealth through art.

The Americas

• Even as Euro-Americans participate in the Enlightenment, their culture reflects Native American

and African influences.

While the world's most dynamic traditions and cultures of Asia did not die out,

Trade and empire building > contributed to the spread of secular knowledge and education

In the Americas and Oceania > conquest forced indigenous peoples to adapt to European ways > they found their cultural life undermined

• Because of pressures to convert > Native Americans adapted to European missionizing > by creating mixed forms of religious worship
• The knowledge exchange > not equal between Europeans and indigenous peoples\

• Burgeoning world trade > allowed wealthy rulers around the world the ability to patronize the arts > as a way to legitimize their power

• In Europe, enlightened absolutists > limited the power of the clergy and nobility

• by hiring bureaucrats to champion the knowledge of the period

• Culture as projection of power

• Each society > used distinctive aspects of their values, moral and religious principles, and political spaces in new ways > to project their political power

• Muslim elites > devoted large resources to cultural development in the three Islamic dynasties of the period

• The Ottoman
• Safavid
• Mughal

• Each developed > three distinct worlds of Muslim culture
• The Ottoman cultural synthesis

• 1) Ottoman culture blended Sufi mysticism with ultra-orthodox Ulama,
• 2) while balancing military & administrative traditions,
• 3) allowing autonomy to minority Christian & Jewish faiths

• The Ottoman cultural synthesis

• Religion and law

1) The Ottoman empire achieved > cultural unity with an outstanding achievement in