Apply social science skills to understand the world in 1500: the major states and empires across the globe, including the Ottoman, Mughal, and Ming, the African kingdom of Songhai, Japan, and the Aztec and Inca empires, alongside the European states, and the patterns of trade and interaction among them (WHII.2).

What this topic is asking

Standard WHII.2 opens the WHII course by asking you to understand the world in 1500, the global situation on the eve of European overseas expansion. The point is to see that 1500 was a multipolar world: powerful, advanced empires existed across Asia, Africa, the Americas, and Europe, and Europe was just one region among several, not yet the dominant power it would become. The standard asks you to identify the major states and empires and their patterns of trade and interaction. This sets the stage for the Age of Exploration, which would soon connect these worlds.

A world of empires

The empires of Asia and Africa

• The Ottoman Empire was a powerful Muslim empire centered in Anatolia (modern Turkey). By 1500 it controlled much of the Middle East and southeastern Europe, and it had captured Constantinople in 1453, ending the Byzantine Empire. It was a major military and trading power straddling Europe, Asia, and Africa.
• The Mughal Empire was rising in India, a wealthy Muslim-ruled empire that would govern much of the subcontinent and produce great art and architecture.
• Ming China was one of the wealthiest and most advanced civilizations in the world, with a strong government, a Confucian bureaucracy, and a rich economy.
• Japan was a feudal society of lords, samurai, and a figurehead emperor, somewhat isolated on its islands.
• Songhai was the last and largest of the great West African kingdoms, controlling the trans-Saharan gold and salt trade and centers of Islamic learning such as Timbuktu.

The empires of the Americas and the states of Europe

In the Americas, two great empires flourished, completely unknown to the rest of the world. The Aztec ruled central Mexico from Tenochtitlan, and the Inca ruled a vast empire along the Andes of South America from Cuzco. Both were large, organized, and sophisticated, though they lacked some Old World technologies (such as iron tools, the wheel for transport, and large draft animals).

In Europe, no single empire dominated; instead, several competing states, Spain, Portugal, France, and England, were growing stronger and more centralized. Crucially, the western European states sat on the Atlantic, well placed to launch ocean voyages, and they were eager to find direct sea routes to the riches of Asia, bypassing the Ottoman and Italian middlemen who controlled existing trade.

Patterns of trade and interaction

Although these worlds were largely separate, they were connected by long-distance trade routes, the Silk Roads, the Indian Ocean network, and the trans-Saharan routes, that moved goods and ideas across the Eastern Hemisphere. European demand for Asian spices, silk, and other luxuries was strong, but these goods passed through many hands, making them costly. This created a powerful motive for European states to seek their own routes, setting the stage for the Age of Exploration that would link the Eastern and Western Hemispheres for the first time.

Try this

Q1. Name the major empire in each of the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia in 1500. [Recall]

• Cue. Middle East: the Ottoman Empire. South Asia: the Mughal Empire. East Asia: Ming China (with feudal Japan nearby).

Q2. Explain why it is inaccurate to say Europe dominated the world in 1500. [Short explanation]

• Cue. In 1500 powerful empires existed on every inhabited continent (Ottoman, Mughal, Ming, Songhai, Aztec, Inca); Europe was one region among several, often less wealthy than Asian empires, and did not yet rule Asia, Africa, or the Americas.