CHINESE & EUROPEAN EXPANSION
 
 

  I.  China 
  	A.  “The Leader” (late 1200s)
   		1.  technologically advanced
   		2.  market towns
  	B.  Dynastic Transition
   		1.  Mongol rule (1279-1368)
    			a) foreign masters
    			b) population (decline & shift)
   		2.  Ming (1368-1644)
    			a) Voyages of Zheng He (1405-1433)
    			b) government intervention
    			c) philosophical attitude 
     				--  Confucian ethic
     				-- “culture of complacency” 
 II.  Europe 
  	A.  Medieval Period (~700-1350)
   		1.  Early Middle Ages
    			a) manorialism
    			b) feudalism
    			c) Christian ethic
   		2.  High Middle Ages
    			a) urban middle class
    			b) guilds & city-states
    			c) the Church
  	B.  Renaissance (~1300-1500s)
   		1.  intellectual transformation
    			a) humanism
    			b) individualism
    			c) secularism
   		2.  cultural transformation
    			a) Florence
    			b) artists
    			c) new technologies
   		3.  ironies
    			a) bubonic plague
    			b) Hundred Years War (1337-1453) 
  	C.  Atlantic Exploration
   		1.  Portugal
    			a) Bartholomeu Dias (1488)
    			b) Vasco da Gama (1498)
   		2.  Spain
    			a) Christopher Columbus (1492)
    			b) Ferdinand Magellan (1519)
   
 
Think/Write Question 
Which do you think best explains the decline of China and the rise of Europe in the 15th century?  
Was it philosophical, motivational, or political?