What were the keys to success for non-European societies between 1400 and 1800?”

What were the keys to success for non-European societies between 1400 and 1800?”

Introduction

In this era, the most critical aspect of majorly was the great extension, network connection, and communication that linked societies and individuals tightly between 1400 and 1800. A development is known as “the great global convergence” happened in which every part of the world became intricately connected. Additionally, the world’s population began to increase dramatically, breaking the growth ceilings that had previously governed human affairs. The purpose of this paper is to describe and compare the keys success for Africa and Asia during the four centuries between 1400 and 1800.

For African societies, especially people in West Africa, wives and children were a significant resource in the community. Women were the sources of labor since they could cultivate the land, offer social support, prestige, and give security in old age (McKay et al. 2014, p. 570).  This resulted in intense competition for women as well as inequality in gaining them. Either, polygamy was a universal practice. Women were supposed to give birth to many children, and infertility was considered a more serious problem compared to infidelity (McKay et al. 2014, p. 571). Without children, a man was without honor, and a woman had her reputation damaged. Besides, marriages were primarily used for getting children. Children and women were then used as a source of cheap labor and wealth generation.

In Asia, the family was a prestigious aspect; however, there was no much about using wives as a source of wealth generation. In Ming China, the lives of people were shaped by the type of work they did despite that family remained a central part of everyday life (McKay et al. 2014, p. 599). People involved themselves in small businesses like manufacturing of luxury goods, papers, or textiles. Others like cotton production, trade-in salt, grain, or silver. Middle-class people started printing businesses in which they could print large numbers of books in order to reach the general audience. IN the 16^th century, more and more books were printed like short stories, novels, and plays in the local languages. For instance, Ming vernacular short stories were full of stories that depicted their worlds like students, prostitutes, shop clerks and merchants, matchmakers, and monks.

In both Asia and Africa, people dependent on agriculture.  In African societies, men did the heavy work like felling trees and clearing the land while their wives planted, weeded, and harvested. People in Africa started planting cassava, bananas, and plantains that came from Asia in between 1000 and 1400. While in the 16^th century, they could plant maize from Portugal and yams from America (McKay et al. 2014, p. 571). Besides, people living along the water bodies could supplement their diet with fish. Other proteins like poultry stew, bullock, or goat were available.

Farmers in Asia grew commercial crops like sugarcane, cotton, and indigo. Farming was also used as a way of destroying malaria bearing mosquitoes, which was the greatest killer for infants (Benjamin, 2009). Farmers also enriched diet by stocking the rice paddies with fish, and it continuously fertilized the rice fields. Besides, high food production led to growth in markets, population multiplication, and growth in towns and cities.

Another way of success in both these communities was through trade and industry. In Asia, people were involved in selling essential goods in these towns, such as oil for lamps, paper, tobacco, pins, matches, and incense. Besides, these markets offered services like pawnbrokers, craftsmen, moneylenders, barbers, locksmiths, carpenters, and joiners (McKay et al. 2014, p. 599). In Africa, in addition to agriculture, there was trade and industry. People faced challenges like few markets, slow transportation, and a low population that discouraged the trade. North African merchants, for the longest time, exchanged goods with the black Africans in the west in areas such as Timbuktu and Gao. The essential products that they exchanged included salt and gold. Also, people used pack animals like donkeys and camels to move to other places for trade purposes. Also, Wests African were involved in various crafts, with the textile industry being the most specialized. The earliest fabric was made from vegetable fiber. In the 15^th century, Mandinka and Wolof were involved in professional weaving producing beautiful cloths (McKay et al. 2014, p.573). Other markets in West Africa include fishers on riverbanks who bartered for fish with the locals.

Stateless societies and western African kingdoms were also part of success in Africa. Both supported agricultural economies. Kings rued defined areas through bureaucratic kingdoms, while the stateless societies had no central ruler (Robinson, 2004). For instance, the Sudanic empire ruled over the north-south trans-Saharan trade in salt, gold, and other items. These kingdoms belonged to Muslim rulers in the world that allowed them to access extensive trade networks (McKay et al. 2014, p. 590).

Conclusion

To sum up, the early modern world between 1400 and 1800 in Africa and Asia depended on various critical things for their success. They both depended on agriculture and trade for growth. Both believed in families, despite that Africans set up used families as a source of making more wealth. Women and children were viewed as a source of cheap labor in the African setting.

References

McKay, J. P., Hill, B. D., Buckler, J., Ebrey, P. B., Beck, R. B., Crowston, C. H., … & Davila, J. (2014). A History of World Societies, Value Edition, Volume I: To 1600. Macmillan Higher Education.

Benjamin, T. (2009). The Atlantic World: Europeans, Africans, Indians, and their shared history, 1400–1900. Cambridge University Press.

Robinson, D. (2004). Muslim societies in African history (Vol. 2). Cambridge University Press.