Cultural Development in Asia Proper, Middle East Asia, and

EuropeGrowth of Middle East Asia, China, Japan,

and Europe during the 17th and 18th centuries

Rise of Intellectual Prosperity in the Islamic World

Islam spread across Asia for centuries since its beginning.

Patrons--wealthy elites who gave generous amounts of money for cultural and artistic developments.

Three major Islamic Groups who really fostered cultural advancement…The OttomansThe SafavidsThe Mughals (of India)

The OttomansThey represent the area we now call what we

today call Turkey and parts of Palestine/Israel, Syria, Lebanon…

Achieved cultural unity through the leadership of sultans such as Mehmet II who recruited young boys and trained them to become bureaucrats, militia men, and other occupations and made these students directly accountable to the sultan.

Suleiman the Magnificent made laws that made set guidelines to citizens’ rights, how they should dress, and how they interact with non-Muslims.

MEHMET II

Ottomans, continuedEDUCATION, SCIENCE, and ARTS

Ottoman intellectuals who received patronage took on an interest in scientific ideas from Europe.

Ibrahim Muteferrika—a Hungarian convert to Islam established a printing press and began publishing works on science, geography, math, and history.

They applied their knowledge of science and math to creating elaborate open-spaced buildings

Civilians enjoyed pleasures such as lemons, soap, pepper, metal tools, coffee, and wine.

Coffee houses began to grow and popularity…How many of you thought that hanging out at the coffee house was a MODERN PHENOMENA?

Women valued as entertainers

The SafavidsModern-day Persians (Iranians)

Took on the stricter orthodox ulama (religious law) favored by Shi’a Muslims.

The monarchial rulers (shah) had an absolutist mentality which would ultimately lead to a future that would lead to a despising of shahs and creation of modern theocratic Iran where a Ayatollah and his clerics held rule.

Made wide-open elaborate buildings connecting to the outside world.

The MughalsIslamic India in the 15th to 17th Centuries A very cosmopolitan empire as trade dealings

between Europe, North Africa and China took place…

Taj Mahal and Shah Jahan—rulers celebrated the scientific advances especially in architecture. Prime example, the Taj Mahal, a mausoleum built for his beloved wife, Mumtaz Mahal, by the emperor Shah Jahan after she died giving birth to his 14th child!

China vs. JapanCenter of learning…

emperors & elites supported artists, poets, scientists, and teachers.

Booming internal economic market led to pop growth and extensive commercial networks

WOMEN were authors, editors, and publishers

WOMEN had restrictions too!

Increasing economic commercialization weakened government

Merit-based hiring of employees

Europeans loved Chinese libraries

The royal court patrons help support cultural advances in literature and beyond

Dramatic Theaters (the No and Kabuki), writing, and artistic painting flourished as cultural phenomena.

Risque books on the riseGeishaWomen were eventually

banned from performing in theatre.

Texts on the histories of China and Japan became popular

Chinese Buddhist monks gained popularity in Japan—helped lead to Zen Buddhism

How China & Japan Became Jingoistic

Mandate of HeavenChinese Technology and

Cartography—Magnetic compass, gunpowder, and printing press. Clocks and iron casted centuries before the Europeans. Astronomy

Chinese nationalism made any attempts of the Europeans to have a cultural impact very limited…for instance the Chinese too maintained the old belief that the world was flat and that there country was the only country in the world.

Chinese elites became racist glorified their white complexions. Opposed “dark skin” of peasants, the wavy-haired “devils” of SE Asia, and the “ash-white” pallor of the European.

Shinto in the 17th century the society

began abandoning Chinese social and religious influences

A culture of promoting native learning and promoted a formalized Japanese religious and cultural tradition.

18th century saw Japan opening its doors to a new cultural influence—that of the Dutch who traveled to Japan trying to do business and spread Christianity

The Dutch utilized their knowledge of their continental rivals’ (Portugal) language to do business with the Japanese and they began promoting European scientific ideas to the Japanese. Eventually the Japanese engaged in “Dutch Learning” and began to replace Chinese-based scientific, medical and geographical texts with those of the Europeans.

Europe’s Enlightenment17th and 18th century spreading of faith in reason and in

universal rights and laws…the spreading of literacy and ultimately global political

revolutionsAfter centuries of religious wars, conflicts that were

extensions of family squabbles over monarchial claims, and famine, Europeans strived to mentally search for a better way to live.

More middle class men and women became literate and began gaining the confidence to reason for themselves, to understand the world without calling on traditional authorities (aka the Church), and to publicly criticize what they considered morally degrading in society.

This was encouraged by the Neo-Scientific advances by Copernicus (1473-1542), Galieli (1564-1642), scientific inquiry by Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) laws of gravity and others like him led to Europe’s monarchs serving as patrons

Europe’s EnlightenmentFEMALE PHILOSOPHES

The French mathematician/scientist Marquise de Chatelet-Lomont (1706-1749) translated Newton’s Principia Mathematica into French and she was the lover of Voltaire…who infamously said, “She was a great man whose only fault was in being a woman.”

Diamante Faini—Italian mathematician who advocated that women increase their knowledge of science

Despite the new thinking, old ideas remained such as schools remaining church-governed and men-only for the elite. Governments punished radical thinkers, peasants suffered under taxes. Strong Christian belief in God and His relationship with nature and fellow humans via Christian doctrines and local customs

Europe’s Enlightenment THE MALE PHILOSOPHES

Enlightened philosophers (philosophes) believed in the power of human reasoning and the perfection of humanity. Rejected the idea of man’s sinful nature and helplessness in the face of earthly evils, and promoted for the improvement of human societies. Called for religious toleration

John Locke (1632-1704)—man is born with clean slate /experiences /the inalienable rights that are self-evident

Voltaire (1694-1778) –criticized prisoner mistreatment in the Bastille

Denis Diderot (17613-1748)—criticized the absolutist policies of French kings Louis XIV and Louis XV

Adam Smith (1723-1790)—exposed the inefficiency of mercantilism

Jean-Jacques Rosseau (1712-1778)—people should reject government violated the social contract of the people.

Downside to this movement—very strong anti-Islamic, anti-Semetic, anti-Catholic, and anti-Chinese sentiment in ideas and in writings during this period.

Also a belief similar to the Chinese that Europe was advancing over the rest of the world in its acquisition of goods and universal knowledge.

 

Cultural Flourishing in Africa

The 1700s were good to African kingdoms Upper classes in these kingdoms funded new cultural

achievements from the wealth of the slave trade. West African elites encouraged local artisans to produce

carvings, statutes, masks, and other objects that would glorify the power and achievements of rulers—this practice similar to what royal patrons had done in Europe, Asia, and the Islamic world with respect to architecture and painting.

The Asante kingdom—grew rich from slave trade (Show map of Asante kingdom) Kente cloth adjourned with lots of colors were worn by the Asante

rulers and the kingdom had lots of GOLD The Oyo Empire (Nigeria)—this kingdom had a mastery in

bronze works Benin—tragic irony as this empire was known as one of the

most brutal slave-trading regimes while at the same time producing high quality art such as brass heads of leaders.

Formation of Hybrid Cultures in the Americas

For Native Americans, they faced pressure to adapt their cultures to that of the European colonists.

Europeans believed that their conquest of Native lands were for spiritual means as they sought to “Christianize and civilize” them.

The Jesuit (Roman Catholic order) had far more militaristic impact on forcing Native Americans and African slaves to convert to Christianity than they did in Asia and the Islamic world—why? (My guess: GUNS)

Means used to get compliance: Smashing idols, razing temples, whippings, mutilations and sexual assaults—and exploiting their knowledge of the cultures of the Native American peoples they conquered.

Hybrid Cultures in the Americas, continued…

Native Americans did fight back as some captured colonists were forced to adapt to the ways of their captors.

Many interracial marriages/sexual intercourses (due to shortage of women) took place with the Native Americans and many Native American women had power due to their economic-based connections with other Native American groups…Unfortunately, African women (99%) slaves were raped

The interethnic mixing in some parts of North America such as in parts of present-day Louisiana, Florida, and the Caribbean, a powerful elite class, the Creoles, emerged.

Hybrid Cultures in the Americas, conclusion…

In many colony cities of Spanish and Portuguese emigrants, Creole patrons helped bring about reading clubs and salons where fresh ideas began to spread

When English settlers first came to North America, women had clout as they were few in number and men were willing to listen to them if they wanted consensual relations to take place.

Imperialism in “Oceania”Following 1770, Europeans began setting their

sites for Australia, New Zealand, and the islands of the South Pacific.

These voyages were funded by the wealthy.Captain Cook (1728-1779)—an immensely

famous explorer who provided scientific data for England

His voyages to Australia led to the desire to colonize the island continent and use it for a prison colony for England’s undesirables to reside.

The original inhabitants of Australia, the Aborigines, were decimated by disease and forced expansion in much the same way that the Native Americans had been in North and South America.