Chapter 12: The Worlds of the Fifteenth Century

The fifteenth century consisted of various types of societies: bands of hunter and gatherers, villages of agricultural peoples, newly emerging chiefdoms or small states, pastoral communities and established civilizations and empires. The gathering and hunting people of Australia differed from those of the northwest coast of North America in various ways. One reason Australia differed from the northwest coast of North America is the hunter and gatherers were separated into 250 groups, borrowing ideas (fishhooks, netting techniques, rituals, artistic styles, etc.) from outsiders, but ultimately did not have a presence of agricultural practices and farmers. However, in North America, the people created a very complex hunter and gatherer society as they resided in a permanent village with economic specialization, large housing, and ranked societies. The hunters and gatherers of North America experienced a more advanced type of society rather than those in Australia. In another part of this chapter, Strayer discusses China and Europe, comparing the two civilizations. He compares the Ming Dynasty of China with European civilizations. I always appreciate how Strayer tends to link various chapters with another. For example, Strayer discusses the achievements of Ming dynasty China, explaining how they recovered after the disruption that was caused by the Mongol rule (as mentioned in the last chapter). China's prosperity continues as the Ming dynasty made progress, restoring canal networks. There were some political and cultural differences in the histories of fifteenth-century China and Western Europe: both set out ships to explore the world but had different intentions, Europe's culture was impacted differently with the Renaissance rather than the Ming dynasty. In the other part of the chapter Strayer mentions the Americas and the Aztec Empire. The Aztec state was largely the work of the Mexica people, "a semi-nomadic group from northern Mexico who had migrated southward and by 1325 had established themselves on a small island in Lake Texcoco" (522). The Aztec religious thinking supported the empire in a way where priests and rulers became interdependent. Overall, the peoples of the fifteenth century interacted with one another through large-scale political systems that connected culturally different people, religious connections, and trade.