Over the course of the eighteenth century, a series of famines and economic crises deepened wealth inequality and narrowed access to political power on both sides of the Atlantic. As the growing influence of the public sphere and Enlightenment ideas of equality and liberty shaped opposition to colonial and monarchical privilege, the century concluded with a series of revolutionary movements and the adoption of novel democratic systems. The American Revolution, which initiated the...

Over the course of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the public sphere became an increasingly important component in the spread and development of Enlightenment ideas. As networks of informal socialization and intellectual exchange, coffeehouses provided a setting in which people from all social backgrounds who had the luxury of leisure could share ideas and opinions without fear of punishment from the state or church. Salons likewise served as important centers of philosophical...

The eighteenth century marked the beginning of a new spirit of intellectual exchange in Europe known as the Enlightenment. Inspired by the Scientific Revolution’s spirit of critical thinking, the ideas of the Italian Renaissance, and the legacy of Muslim, Greek, and Indian scientific foundations, the Enlightenment centered on the role of reason and generated a newfound optimism in philosophical principles such as liberty, rights, and the rejection of tyranny. Such ideals inspired many members...

Mechanization and industrialization, motivated and enabled by capitalism, created tremendous wealth for eighteenth- and nineteenth-century business owners and middle-class professionals, but their profits often came at a high cost to workers. The production of goods shifted from the handiwork of highly skilled middle-class artisans to mechanized production done by low-paid unskilled laborers. Workers did enjoy access to new consumer goods made cheaper by industrialization, but to afford those...

The Seven Years’ War (1754–1763) established a new balance of power in Europe in which Britain emerged as the dominant empire. The French surrendered their imperial possessions in North America and India to Britain, while the Spanish surrendered Florida and the French gave control of the Louisiana Territory to Spain. The Peace of Hubertusburg guaranteed Prussian control of Silesia and confirmed Prussia’s status as a major force in Europe. The British East India Company provided the British...

European settlers in North America were a diverse group with a wide array of motives. Many Spaniards came as part of a broader search for “God, Gold, and Glory.” French settlers also hoped to find wealth, although they were more likely than other Europeans to cooperate with rather than exploit Indigenous peoples, whom they saw as economic allies. The Virginia Company of England founded Jamestown in an effort to gain wealth, while English Puritans founded communities they hoped would earn...

To extract wealth from their colonies, over the course of the late fifteenth through the early nineteenth centuries, European nations shipped approximately twelve million enslaved African people across the Atlantic Ocean on the Middle Passage. Some ten million arrived alive to satisfy the labor needs of European planters, who grew cash crops like sugar, rice, and tobacco. These agricultural goods were shipped to Europe, and finished products made from them were shipped to Africa to purchase...

According to mercantilist theory, to achieve power, nations must maximize their store of precious metals by importing as few goods as possible while profitably exporting products to other countries. In embracing the theory, European governments imposed tariffs, granted monopolies, and subsidized industries. They also sought to acquire colonies to supply natural resources and serve as markets for domestically manufactured goods. England, France, and the Netherlands thus joined Spain and...

In the sixteenth century, many European Christians were critical of practices within the Catholic Church. Some scholars in northern Europe had turned to Christian humanism as a means of making people more pious and thus achieving religious reform. Martin Luther, a German monk, began the Protestant Reformation when he publicly objected to the church’s sale of indulgences. Luther was excommunicated, but the printing press enabled his ideas to spread throughout Europe. Luther taught that faith...

With the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans in 1453, Europeans found themselves forced to deal with Muslim middlemen to access the prized goods of South and East Asia. European countries thus began seeking an all-water route to the eastern lands they called the Indies, aided by navigational technologies from the Middle East and motivated by religious zeal and desire for profit. The Portuguese were the first to explore the Atlantic, claiming islands off the coast of Africa and voyaging...

The establishment of the Safavid state under Shah Ismail I in 1501 was followed by rapid territorial expansion, but conflict between factions of the Qizilbash military corps allowed the Ottoman and Uzbek empires to take advantage and capture territory. Shahs Tahmasp and Abbas I created a corps of enslaved people from the Caucasus to serve as their new elite military force and eventually replace the Qizilbash. The Safavid shahs were committed to Shi‘ite Islam and forcibly converted...

The Ottoman Empire was one of the most diverse political entities of its time. Sultans such as Suleiman I encouraged people of all ethnicities to settle there, and under the millet system, each religious community had its own leader, regulated its own affairs, and educated its own children. This diversity is reflected in the languages spoken in the empire. Turkish was for interacting with the government, Arabic for scholarship and in religious settings, and Persian for literature. The...

By the sixteenth century, the religion of Islam had spread far beyond its point of origin in Southwest Asia. Islamic communities, large empires, and a number of Islamic kingdoms thrived in West and East Africa, southeastern Europe, India, and Southeast Asia. But although no single powerful caliphate held all these areas together, the religion of Islam allowed for a degree of cohesiveness and unity, despite theological disagreements. As a result, trade in all types of goods unified the wider...

Kanem-Bornu, which dominated Central Sudan and maintained an active caravan trade with the states of North Africa in the thirteenth century, was destabilized by revolts and rebellions in the fourteenth century. Although it regained preeminence in the sixteenth century, by the end of that century, its power was at an end. The collapse of both Songhai and Kanem-Bornu allowed emergent polities like Dahomey, Oyo, and Segou to flourish, but tensions soon arose among them as competition for trade...

City-states on the east coast of Africa grew in size and prosperity as they took advantage of wind patterns to participate in Indian Ocean trade. Their people were united by a shared religion, Islam, and a shared language, Swahili. Products from the interior of the African continent were sold by the Swahili traders to merchants from Arabia, Persia, and India. In exchange, they purchased goods from India, Southeast Asia, and China. Enslaved Africans were also sold in the Swahili city-states....

The basis of the Songhai Empire’s wealth was much the same as for the kingdoms that preceded it: salt, cloth, and gold. Sunni Ali’s program of annexation greatly expanded Songhai. Growth continued under his successors, especially Askia the Great, who used Islam to further his control and brought Songhai into its golden age. Not only did its rulers consolidate state control over trans-Saharan trade, but they also made the empire an unparalleled center of Islamic learning and study in West...

Until the sixteenth century, caravans routinely plied the sands of the Sahara, moving goods, especially gold, from distant West Africa to centers of trade in North Africa and Egypt. Towns in West Africa became cosmopolitan stopping points, and as merchants, rulers, and caravan leaders converted to Islam for both spiritual and financial reasons, Islam flourished alongside the caravan business. In the thirteenth century, Sundiata Keita gained dominance over the Malinke and Soninke people,...

East Asia was drawn into the network of global maritime trade in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The Portuguese and Spanish arrived in Japan when powerful daimyos were each fighting to unify the country and bring it under their rule. Guns brought by Europeans began to play an important role in Japanese warfare. Many Japanese also began to convert to Christianity. In 1603, Tokugawa Ieyasu became the shogun of a united Japan, and wishing to control the samurai and fearing Christian...

The Malaccan Sultanate was established around 1400 by Parameswara, the last king of Singapura. The city’s location on both sides of the Malaccan Straits destined it for success, because the straits were the route taken by trading ships between the Indian Ocean and the Pacific. The city grew wealthy and attracted a diverse population of merchants from many countries, and the sultanate thrived under the leadership of Mansur Shah, who expanded its territory. Its prosperity was also aided by its...

Although Zahir al-Din Muhammad Babur, a Muslim who founded the Mughal Empire, made little effort to assimilate to Indian culture, his grandson Akbar forged a culture that incorporated Indian and Persian, Hindu and Muslim elements. Under him, the Mughal Empire grew to encompass most of northern and much of central India, including the Sultanate of Gujarat, the heart of a rich Indian Ocean trade. Under Aurangzeb, who attempted an Islamic revival and was largely intolerant of the Hindu...

Knowing the past, the human story, has long been considered a mark of civilization, and its study has never been more important. The study of world history provides the skills necessary to meet global workforce needs while at the same time developing a sense of self and place in our global community. You will gain critical-thinking and analysis skills that will help you fulfill the role of a global citizen in our interconnected world. This text will help you approach history with an open...

Early forms of guns were difficult to use and often inaccurate, but as they improved, rulers began to replace cavalry with infantry armed with guns. Where mounted warriors had been members of the aristocracy, this change often cost them their privileged position in society. Gunpowder also made it easier for armies to destroy fortifications, ending siege warfare. Centralized governments that adopted firearms technology and could levy taxes to pay for it grew more powerful and were able to...

The Abbasids, Ayyubids, and Ottomans all depended on enslaved or formerly enslaved people to staff their armies and run their administrations. Christian boys were taken from their parents, forced to convert to Islam, and trained as soldiers and administrators. In the Abbasid and Ayyubid states, they were called mamluks. In the Ottoman state they were Janissaries. Enslaved women might also become members of the sultan’s harem and bear him children. Enslaved people were often placed in...

Following the sack of Constantinople by crusaders and the Mongols’ defeat of the Seljuk Turks, the Ottomans emerged as a power in northwestern Anatolia. Under Osman’s successors, they crossed the Dardanelles into Europe, defeating the Serbs at the Battle of Kosovo. When the Mongol conqueror Timur invaded the region, he defeated Bayezid, and the subsequent conflict among Bayezid’s sons splintered the Ottoman state. Timur’s empire came to include Persia, central Asia, and northern India, but...