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Indian Ocean was the centre of both commercial and culturalactivities during the ancient and medieval periods. The 'SilkRoute' connecting the West with China through Central Asia andthe sea route from South East Asia to the West were the maintrade routes.

During the Greco-Roman and feudal ages goods necessary forthe Mediterranean people from the East passed through theseroutes.

Indian Ocean trade was controlled by the Jews, Arabs and Turksafter the spread of Islam. They controlled the trade through thePersian Gulf and Red Sea. The port city of Constantinople(present day Istambul) connecting the Mediterranean with theBlack Sea was held by the Greco-Roman traders who controlled

EMERGENCE OF THEMODERN WORLD 1

Map 1-Trade Routes

List out the major trade routes and the countries connectedby them from Map 1

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the Central Asian trade. Even whenfeudalism emerged after the decline of theRoman Empire, the Byzantine Empire withits capital Constantinople continued toflourish.

The Roman Catholic church imposed strictcensorship on the quest for knowledge andrational thinking during the feudal age. Butin the eastern world, i.e., in Islamic countriesand India and China, notable contributionswere made in the fields of literature, physics,mathematics, medical science, etc. Arabtraders brought to Europe products like gunpowder and paper as well as technologieslike the mariner's compass and subjects likealgebra. This cultural relation was furtherpromoted during the time of the Crusades.

Map 2-Indian Ocean World

Notice Map 2. How does the position of Constantinople make it important?Discuss.

Byzantine Empire

Byzantium was a small city founded by the Greekson the Bosphorus which connects theMediterranean and the Black Sea. It was themeeting place of ancient Greek and Persiancultures. Later this city and the adjacent regionof Asia Minor became parts of the Roman Empire.This city was the centre of trade between the Eastand West. Because of its strategic importance, theRoman emperor Constantine made the city hissecond capital in the 4th century A.D andrenamed it as Constantinople. By the end of the4th century, when the Roman Empire was dividedinto two, Constantinople became the capital of theEastern Roman Empire, also known as ByzantineEmpire.

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EMERGENCE OF THE MODERN WORLD

Mediterranean WorldOf the three peninsulas jutting into theMediterranean sea from Europe, Italyoccupies the central position. The Alps inthe north and the fertile Lombardy plainsjust south of it make Italy distinct from theother peninsulas. You have already learntabout the rise of an empire with itsheadquarters at the Italian city of Romewhich became a great centre of wealth andcivilization. This empire declined andseveral feudal chieftains assumed power.After a few centuries, a number ofcommercial cities arose in the Italianpeninsula.

The residents of these cities were traderswho bought eastern goods from the Arabsand sold them to the landlords and feudalchieftains of Western Europe. Besides trade,they also practised money-lending. Thus a

wealthy class of merchants emerged in thesecities. The Italian peninsula surrounded byseveral small islands was congenial foroceanic trade. In each of these cities severalrich families joined together with a view topromoting trade activities. These familiescontrolled the administration of the cities. Itwas different from the administration of thefeudal states in the rest of Europe.

Italian CitiesThe main commercial cities which grew upin the Mediterranean were Venice, Milan,Piza, Florence, Genoa, Bologna and Naples.Wealthy families like the Visconti in Milanand the Medici in Florence managed theadministration of the cities. The populationof the cities varied from five thousand to onelakh. The trade and administration of these

Italian cities

What were the factorsbehind the growth. Howdid their administrativestructure differ fromthose in feudal Europe?

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cities were controlled by wealthy familiesnumbering between one hundred and onethousand. The land trade throughConstantinople and the oceanic trade whichcontrolled West Asia and North Africaenabled these merchants to become mastersof the Mediterranean. Gibraltar, the gatewayto the Atlantic, was also controlled by them.Thus the Indian Ocean world, which hithertoacted as the hub around which world tradeand civilisation revolved, was graduallyreplaced by the Mediterranean. The morningstar of the modern age had risen in the West.

The wealthy families of the Italian cities ledan extravagant life. They built beautifulhouses. For this they brought architects andartists from different parts of the world.Sculptors, artists and men of letters from faroff places thus reached Italian cities. Amongthem were the people from the decliningByzantine Empire. The exponents of arts,literature and science from both the East andWest thus reached these cities. It generateda new awakening in the intellectual field.

RenaissanceThe word 'Renaissance' means rebirth orrevival. But it connotes the awakening of theartistic and intellectual activities which hadtaken place in the Italian cities and the restof the European countries in the 14th and15th centuries. It was the revival of theancient Greco-Roman civilisation whichsuffered a setback under the feudal lords andthe Catholic Church during the MiddleAges. It also means the emergence of thespirit of enquiry and criticism whichrejected the irrational faith imposed by theCatholic Church. It did not happen in asingle day.

The wealthy families of the Italian citiesstarted looking into the past in search oftheir roots. It was an enquiry into the past tofind out if the roots of their heritage extendedto the ancient Greco-Roman cultures. As aresult, manuscripts of several ancient textswere discovered. The scholars appointed by

How did the Italian cities become the meeting place of Western andEastern knowledge?

them showed keen interest in the history ofthese cultures. They had to learn the ancientGreek and Latin languages to understandthese texts. The prevailing medieval Latinwas different from that of the ancient period.This led to the study of philology, sinceancient Greek and Latin had gone out of use.The texts in those languages were translatedinto the newly emerging vernacular ofItalian. Along with this, new texts were alsoproduced. Thus Italian grew very fast.

Certain features which distinguished themedieval from the modern emerged duringthe Renaissance. They were:

• Spirit of inquiry• Spirit of criticism

• Rational thinking

• Growth of vernacular literature

• Humanism - the concept that man is themeasure of all things

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EMERGENCE OF THE MODERN WORLD

Italian RenaissanceRenaissance in Italy is thought to havecommenced with the literary contributionsof Petrarch who lived in the 14th century.He wrote several sonnets dealing with lovein the style of the ancient Greek writers. Hissonnets deal with human feelings andaspirations which were different from thepraise of gods, holy men and angelsproduced during the medieval period. TheDecameron of Boccaccio dealt with theimmoral life led by the feudal lords. It wasa collection of one hundred stories in whichthe influence of the Arabian Nights could beseen. The Divine Comedy of Dante criticisedcertain medieval religious beliefs. It deals

with an imaginary journey undertaken byDante along with the ancient Roman poetVirgil into heaven and hell in search of hislove who died an untimely death. All thesetexts are replete with the Renaissance spiritof criticism and humanism.

Renaissance ArtThe Italian artists inaugurated a new style inarchitecture, sculpture and painting.Renaissance art was enriched by the creationsof artists like Leanardo da Vinci, MichaelAngelo, Titian, Donatello, Brunelleschi andmany others. Leonardo da Vinci madehimself immortal by his painting Mona Lisa,the picture of a beautiful lady with herenigmatic smile. This painting is of theenchanting face of a lady, the style of whichwas different from the monotonous mannerin which angels were painted in the medievalperiod. The painting, Last Supper, where Jesussits composedly while his twelve discipleslook suspiciously at each other, reflects thehumanist expression of Da Vinci. In his VirginMary, the grief stricken countenance of Marycaused by the loss of her son is painted. Thenotebooks of Da Vinci reveal that besides hisexcellence as an artist, he was aware of thecirculation of blood and mechanical flight.

Petrarch

Why is Petrarchcalled the Father of

humanism?

How did changes in the mode of production reflect themselves in the humanlife of the age of Renaissance? Discuss.

Dante

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Renaissance in other parts ofEurope

Renaissance spread to other European

countries from Italy through traders and

money lenders. Vernacular languages like

Spanish, English, Dutch, German, etc. grew

during this period.

The Spanish poet Cervantes wrote the Don

Quixote which depicts the hallucinations of

the war-crazy medieval feudal knights. This

text narrates the story of Count Quixote who

passes through bylanes on horseback

chopping the wayside plants and creepers

and tilting at wind mills.

In Praise of Folly written in Dutch by Erasmus

ridicules the out dated faith of the Catholic

Church.

Though it is believed that the English

Renaissance started with the publication of

Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, it

reached its culmination in the 16th century.

The world-famous playwright William

Mona LisaLast Supper

William Shakespeare

Shakespeare and the blind bard John Milton

were among the illustrious writers of the

age.

Political Thought

Nicolo Machiavelli was the most important

among the political thinkers of the

Renaissance period. His Prince marks the

beginning of modern political thought. In

this work he depicted a ruler who loved his

subjects and was keen on the welfare of the

people. This was a departure from the style

of the anarchical feudal duchies of the

medieval times.

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EMERGENCE OF THE MODERN WORLD

The English theologian Sir Thomas Moorewrote Utopia in which he presented anidealistic society based on equality and

peace where there was no poverty, miseryor crime. The word 'utopia' means 'nowhere'.This book sowed the seeds of socialism.

Did the spirit of enquiry, criticism and humanism expressed in the Renaissanceart and literature reflect themselves in the political thought of the age? Discuss.

ReformationThe changes which occurred in the socio-economic sectors reflected themselves in thereligious life also. The reform movementwhich took place in the Catholic Church inthe 16th century was known as the ProtestantReformation. Protests had arisen evenearlier against the church. For instance, JohnWycliff of Oxford and John Huss of Praguequestioned the corruption and worldlinessprevailing in the Church. But their effortscould not produce the desired results.

St. Peters' Church in Rome

Many pious believers, especially those whodwelt in cities, were reluctant to join thepriestly profession because of the corruptpractices of the clergy. The number ofheretics increased in many parts of Europe.Another reason was the growth of trade. Thenewly emerging merchant class supportedthe princes more than the clergy.

The Church faced a financial crisis in the 16thcentury. The attempt to renovate the St.Peters' Church in Rome involved hugefinancial burden. To overcome this crisis thePope created many offices and sold them.The most notorious was the sale of'Indulgences'. It was believed that theIndulgence would save the holder from thetrial and hell. The Church collected moneythrough the sale of Indulgences. Thisresulted in the huge abuse of power.

Martin LutherMartin Luther questioned the immorality inthe sale in Indulgences. He was professor oftheology in the University of Wittenberg inGermany. He formulated his arguments as'Ninety five Theses ' and nailed them on thefront door of the church at Wittenberg. ThePope excommunicated him. Those whosupported Luther were known asProtestants.

Martin Luther

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Following the invention of printing press,the Bible reached the common man. This

enabled the people to realise the corrupt and

immoral practices prevailing in the Church.

It helped to increase the followers of Lutherin Germany and outside.

Ulrich Swingli of Switzerland and John

Calvin of France were the other leaders of

Reformation. The followers of John Calvinwere known as Huguenots. The English

Reformation had a political character. It was

Henry VIII who gave leadership to this.

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the

Anglican Church was accepted as the official

Church of England.

Door of the Wittenberg church

The Renaissance ideas brought about changes in the Catholic Church. Examinethis statement.

Counter ReformationThe Protestant Reformation demandedefforts of reform within the Catholic Church.This was known as the Counter Reformationor Catholic Reformation. It was after PopePaul II who assumed office in 1534 thatefforts at reforms began. The CatholicChurch defended itself against criticisms inthe Council of Trent which met from 1545 to1563 at Trent in Germany. It was a councilof Catholic priests which initiated the reformactivities within the Church.

It prepared a list of books propagatingheresy and banned them. It is known as theIndex. It established the Court of Inquisitionfor the trial and punishment of heresy . Thosewho were found guilty were punishedseverely and many were burnt at stake.

Another agency of reform was the Societyof Jesus founded by Ignatius Loyola, whowas a former Spanish soldier. It was anorganisation formed on military lines. TheJesuit Order was the missionary

Ignatius Loyola

organisation under Loyola's leadership forthe propagation of Catholic faith.

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EMERGENCE OF THE MODERN WORLD

Religious WarsThe reformation caused ceaseless wars. Themost important of these was known as theThirty Years' War. It was a war between theCatholic royal family of Hapsburgs and theProtestant princes of Germany. In additionto religious causes there were local issuesalso to be settled. Internal politics and conflictof power too were issues in these wars.Gradually almost all European countriesjoined the war. The war wrought great havocin Europe. Many died in the war and many

more perished due to the famine caused bythe war. The war came to an end by the Treatyof Westphalia in 1648. It was a series oftreaties signed by the rulers of the HolyRoman Empire, Austria, Spain, France andSweden. The main feature of this treaty wasthat political leaders joined together andsettled boundary disputes. The Pope lost hispolitical power. It led to the emergence ofnation states in Europe.

Identify the major features of the Protestant and CounterReformations.

Geographical DiscoveriesThe geographical explorations of the 15thand 16th centuries and the discovery of newterritories and sea routes opened a newchapter in the history of the world. Severalfactors together led to these discoveries. Theaccounts of Marco Polo who travelled to theEast got wide publicity in Europe. Theyaroused the curiosity about the wealth andlives of the people of countries like Chinaand India.

The geographical explorations werelaunched in search of spices and otherprecious things of the East. Countries likeSpain and Portugal tried to put an end tothe monopoly of Mediterranean trade heldby the Italian cities. The commodities fromthe East reached Europe through the Red Seaand Persian Gulf. But these routes werecontrolled by the Arabs and hence not safefor the Europeans. They had to travel to theEast through the costly land route. When theTurks captured Constantinople in 1453, thisroute too was closed to the Europeans. Thusthey were compelled to discover an

alternative sea route to India and other Asiancountries. By the beginning of the 15thcentury big ships began to be constructed.A new Mariner's compass and the device ofthe Astrolobe came to be used widely inEurope. These devices enabled theEuropean sailors to set out on long voyages.The Portuguese and the Spaniards were thepioneers in this field. Prince Henry theNavigator of Portugal founded a school

Marco Polo

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where training was given to young sailorsin maritime explorations and navigation. In1488 the sailors sent from this school underthe leadership of Bartholomew Diaz reachedthe southernmost tip of Africa. ThePortuguese hoped that they could reachIndia by crossing the Arabian sea from there.Following this, other European countriesalso joined the race of maritime explorations.The Spanish navigator ChristopherColumbus applied the logic of sailing west-ward to reach the East as the earth wasspherical. In 1492 he reached the eastern coastof American continent. It was called the'New World' by the Europeans. In 1498 theexpedition led by Vasco da Gama reachedIndia by circumnavigating the Cape of GoodHope.

First route of voyage of Christopher Columbus (Christopher Columbus in inset)

Cape of Good Hope

The Portuguese King John II sent anexpedition under the captaincy ofBartholomew Diaz with a view to findingout a sea route to India. When he reachedthe southernmost tip of Africa, he couldnot proceed further because of heavystorms. He called it the Cape of Stormsand returned to Portugal . But John IIhoped that a route to India could be foundby rounding the cape. Hence he named itas Cape of Good Hope.

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EMERGENCE OF THE MODERN WORLD

A team of explorers under the leadershipFerdinand Magellan set out in 1519 tocircumnavigate the world. When he reachedPhilippines, he was killed by the natives inan encounter. His crew reached Spain in1522. Thus was accomplished the firstcircumnavigation of the world. The projectof explorations was followed by manyEuropean countries. The first batch ofvoyagers who explored the eastern coast ofNorth America was led by John Cabbot.Thus were discovered Newfoundland,Labradore, Hudson Bay, etc., where theEnglish and the French established theircolonies.

The results of GeographicalDiscoveriesThe Geographical Discoveries andexplorations produced far-reaching results.Asian trade made the Europeans rich. It ledto the rise of colonial empires. Papaya,banana, pineapple, tea, tobacco, etc. reacheddifferent parts of the world. Large scaleaggressions and migrations took place. It ledto the rise of slave trade. Thesedevelopments led to the rise of greattransformations in environment, agriculture,human civilisations and similar fields.

As a result of colonialism, the Maya, Inca,Toltec and Aztec civilizations of SouthAmerica were destroyed. A sizable portionof the native population was destroyed byepidemics like small pox, chicken pox,syphilis, etc. brought by the Europeans.

The main objective of the Europeans in Asiawas the monopoly of trade. They wieldedpolitical power and used military force toconquer territories to achieve it. This led tothe large scale colonisation of Asia andAfrica. The rich natural resources of the

Vasco da Gama

Sailors Country Landdiscovered

John Cabbot England Newfoudland

Balboa Spain Panama

Cabral Portugal Brazil

.......... .......... ..........

.......... .......... ..........

Complete the chart

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colonies came under the control of thecolonisers and they became wealthy by thisexploitation.

West European countries like Portugal,Spain, France and England came to exercisea monopoly of world trade. ThusMediterranean trade began to declinegradually. As a result of colonisation thecultural gulf between East and West

widened. Deliberate attempts were made todestroy native culture in the colonies.

The commercial relations with the coloniesled to the rise of the wealthy middle class inEurope. The old system of usury gave wayto banking. Merchants joined together andformed joint stock companies. The EnglishEast India Company is an example.

'The geographical discoveries and maritime explorations brought abouttremendous changes in the political structure and economic sector of Europeancountries'. Discuss.

Progress of ScienceHeralding a new age, science made greatprogress. Philosophers began to observe theuniverse in a new manner and tried toexplain natural phenomena with newmethods. The versatile genius, Leonardo DaVinci, observed anatomy and nature keenlyand drew his pictures.

Copernicus put forward the helio-centrictheory in the place of the prevalent

geocentric theory. But it was not acceptableat that time. Galileo Galili invented thetelescope and proved that Copernicus wasright. The rejection of the geocentric theorycompletely transformed the Europeanworld view. Sir Isaac Newton's bookPrincipia Mathematica put forward thetheories of gravitation and laws of motion.

Copernicus Telescope of Galileo (Galileo in inset)

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EMERGENCE OF THE MODERN WORLD

Medical science, chemistry, mathematics,physics, natural science, new knowledgeabout magnetism and electricity, etc. madeconsiderable progress.

By introducing a new method in the studyof science and experiments, Galileo effecteda revolution in science. His scientific methodwas followed by Francis Bacon andDescartes. Great contributions were made in

the fields of astronomy, physics, zoology,human physiology, etc. The Swedishscientist Carl Linneaus contributed much tothe branches of zoology, botany and medicalscience. He is considered as the father oftaxonomy, scientific classification of animalsand ecology. He introduced the practice ofbinomial nomenclature in the classificationof plants and animals.

Sir Isaac Newton Carl Linneaus

The progress achieved by science after the Renaissance opened a new age in history.The Renaissance thoughts and ideas led to many inventions which transformedhuman life. Can you find out the changes caused by each invention?

EnlightenmentThe Renaissance ideas of rationalism andhumanism were repeated in the age ofEnlightenment also. Enlightenment was anadvancement in the intellectual activities ofman which tried to explain the natural worldand the role of man in it in the light ofrationalism. The conflict between religiousfaith and rationalism was the feature ofEnlightenment. The Enlightenment thinkerstried to understand and explain things in thelight of reason based on facts and evidences.

The main ideas of this age can be summedup as follows.

• Contemporary age is that of progress.• Reason is the unerring guide to

knowledge.• Nature is a machine, the working of

which cannot be altered by man.• A simple and natural society is an ideal

one.• There is no original sin.

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Montesquieu believed that the separation ofpowers between legislative, executive andjudicial functions of government wouldensure more political freedom. He also putforward the principle of checks andbalances.

Voltaire stood for religious freedom, freetrade and civil liberties. He supported thesocial reform movements. He was a critic ofintolerance, religious orthodoxy and theinequalities of the contemporary society.Rousseau believed that man is essentiallygood in the state of nature - a 'noble savage'.Social experiences make men unhappy andcorrupt. In his treatise Social Contract, hestated that state came into being as a resultof a contract arrived at by the peoplethemselves.

Science was popularised by the philosophes.The Scientific Revolution led to theemergence of scientific organisations. Inaddition to the Encyclopedie, many otherpublications emerged in the study ofscience. The scientific method for enquiryand invention was made universal by theEnlightenment. People showed keen interestin the inquiry into 'truth' and 'naturalphenomena'. Philosophers began to writeabout governance, politics and humanrights. The political revolutions of Europein the 18th and 19th centuries wereinfluenced by the Enlightenment.Rationalism became the slogan of the age.

Though Enlightenment began in England, itsbest expression could be seen in France. Thetheory of causation of Descartes and Spinozakindled the Enlightenment but the realexponents of this movement were Sir IsaacNewton and John Locke. The contributionof Newton was that he gave a mechanisticinterpretation of nature. John Locke who isknown as the father of epistemology arguedthat the basis of knowledge is empirical.

Enlightenment Thinkers

Denis Diderot 1713-1784

Montesquieu 1689-1755

Voltaire 1694-1778

Rousseau 1712-1778

Immanuel Kant 1724-1804

Thomas Paine 1737-1809

Thomas Jefferson 1743-1826

Diderot was interested in subjects likelanguage, literature, drama, law,philosophy, mathematics, etc. Hevehemently opposed the faith held by theCatholic Church. He was the editor of themulti-volume Encyclopedie, which was acollection of articles by the French writersof the 18th century. The ideas and opinionsexpressed in these articles led to the spreadof science and philosophy. New insights intothe emerging political institutions came upduring the age of Enlightenment.

Voltaire

Rousseau

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EMERGENCE OF THE MODERN WORLD

Activities

• The decline of feudalism and the progress of trade pavedthe way for European Renaissance. Evaluate this statementin the Italian context.

• What were the changes brought about by the invention ofprinting press in religion and literature in Europe?

• All walks of human life in Europe were influenced by thevalues of Renaissance. Analyse the above statement.

• Prepare an album of Renaissance paintings

• How did the German Reformation influence the rest ofEurope?

• How did the Geographical Discoveries enable theEuropean countries to establish their hegemony over therest of Europe?

• How did the basic ideas of Enlightenment help in theprogress of Science? Analyse and prepare a note?

• Prepare a chart of the countries and the leaders of theGeographical Discoveries.