Advanced Placement World History Summer Assignment 2018 Mrs
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Advanced Placement World History Summer Assignment 2018 Mrs. Sesso, Director of Social Studies Mrs. Barresi and Mrs. Botta, AP World History Teachers Name___________________________________ Due Date____________________________ Text: A History of the World in 100 Objects, by Neil MacGregor Evaluate the Western versus Eastern attitudes toward trade in the Early Modern Era. When examined together, the following objects provide us insight into the nature of global trade during the Early Modern period. Read each section and answer the questions that follow in the space provided. Your written work should include specific examples and evidence from the text as well as your knowledge of World History. Object #72 - Ming Banknote, Paper money from China, c.1375-1425. (pgs 465-469) 1. Explain why paper money was considered revolutionary. What did it rely on in order to work? 2. Describe the advantages in using paper money. 3. Describe a typical Ming banknote. What was significant about the design of the note? 4. How did the Ming rulers use paper currency to legitimize their rule? 5. What problems eventually emerged with the use of the banknote? How did this change the Chinese, and later, the Global economy? Object #79 – Kakiemon Elephants, porcelain figures from Japan c.1650-1700. (pgs 511-515) 1. Why were the elephants a significant symbol in the East Asian world? 2. How are the Kakiemon elephants a direct consequence of Japans’s relations with her neighbors China and Japan? 3. How are the elephants evidence of close trading links between Asia and Western Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries? Why was there a demand in Europe for these items? 4. How did porcelain-making techniques get to Japan? Trace the steps. 5. Explain how the Kakiemon elephants had a global market despite Japan’s isolation policy? Object #80 – Pieces of Eight, Spanish coins minted in Potosi, Bolivia, minted c.1573-1598. (pgs 517-522) 1. How did the the Potosi mines in Bolivia change how Spain interacted with global powers? 2. What were the human costs of producing silver in Spanish America? 3. How did the Spanish pieces of eight develop into the first truly global currency? Trace the steps from the Western Hemisphere to the Eastern Hemisphere. 4. What evidence is there that the pieces of eight were a global commodity? Give multiple examples. 5. How did the abundance of silver negative affect the Spanish empire? Using your knowledge of World History along with specific evidence from your analysis of the three objects, answer the following essential question: Evaluate the Western versus Eastern attitudes toward trade in the Early Modern Era. Be sure to address economic, social, and political elements in your answer. (Be sure to use standard essay format including thesis, body paragraphs and a conclusion) 7'2 ~ Ming Banknote Paper money, from China AD 1375-1425 Do you believe in fairies? Say quick that you believe. If you believe, clap your hands!' The famous moment when Peter Pan asks the audience to save Tiukerbell by joining him in believing in fairies is an unfailing winner. That ability to convince others tO believe in something they can't see but wish to be true is a trick that has been effective in all sorts of ways throughout history. Take the case of paper money: someone in China centuries ago printed a value on a piece of paper and asked everyone eise to agree with them that the paper was actually worth what it said it was. You could say that the paper notes, like the Darling children in Peter Pan, were supposed to be 'as good as gold', or in this case ~s good as copper - literally worth the number of copper coins printed on the note. The whole modern banking system of paper and credit is built on this one simple act of faith. Paper money is truly one of the revolutionary inventions of human history. This object is one of these early paper money notes, which the Chi nese called feiqian- 'flying cash'- and it's from the time of the Ming, around r4oo. Mervyn King, the Governor of the Bauk of England, has this to say on the reasons for this invention: I think in some way the right aphorism is that 'evil is the root of all money' I Money was it:tvented in order to get round the problems of trust ing other individuals. But then the issue was-could you trust the person issuing the money? So the state became the natural issuer of money. And then the question ist can we ~ust the state? And in many ways that's a question about whether we can trust ourselves in the future. THE THRESHOLD OF THE MODERN WORLD 72. : MING BANKNOTE Most of the world until this time was exchanging money in coins of regime has been destroyed through war or revolution, then the currency gold, silver and copper that had an intrinsic value you could judge by collapses. weight. But the Chinese saw that paper money has obvious advan ·And indeed this is exactly what had happened in China around I3 50, tages over quantities of coin: it's light, easily transportable and big as the Mongol Empire disintegrated. So one of the challenges for the enough to carry words and images to announce not only its value but new Ming Dyna&ty, which took over in 1368, was not just to reorder the authority of the government that backs it and the assumptions on the state, but to re-establish the currency. The first Ming emperor was a which it rests. Properly managed, paper money is a powerful tool in rough provincial warlord, Zhu Yuanzhang, who as a ruler embarked maintaining an effective state. on an ambitious programme to build a Chinese society which would At first glance, this note doesn't look at all like modern paper money. I be stable, highly educated and shaped by the principles of ·the great It is paper, obviously enough, and it's larger than a sheet of A4.!t's a philosopher Confucius, as the historian Timothy Brook details: soft, velvety grey colour, and it'$ made out of -muiberry bark, which was the legally approved material for Chinese paper money at the time. :: The goal of the founding Ming emperor was that children should be able The fibres of mulberry bark are long and flexible, so even today, though to read, write and count. It was an idea that he had that everyone should it's around 6oo years old, the paper is still soft and pliable. be literate, and he thought literacy was a good idea because it had com It is fully printed on only one side, a woodblock stamp in black ink mercial implications - the economy would run more effectively - and it with Chinese characters and decorative features arranged in a series of had moral implications: he wanted school children to read the sayings of rows and columns. Along the top, six bold characters announce that · Confucius, to read the basic texts about filial piety and respecting dders, I and he hoped that literacy would accompany the general re~stabilization this is the cGreat Ming Circulating Treasure Certificate'. Below this there is a decorative border of dragons going all round the sheet-drag of the realm.! would imagine a quarter of the population could read what's ons of course being one of the traditional symbols of China and of its ·l on this note, which by European standards at the time was remarkable. emperor. Just inside the border are two columns of text, the one on the I· As part of this impressive political programme, the new Ming emperor left announcing again that this is the 'Great Ming Treasure Certificate' decided to relaunch the paper currency. A sound but flexible monetary and the one on the right saying that this is 'To Circulate for Ever'. system would, he knew, encourage a stable society. So he founded the That's quite a claim. How permanent can for ever be? stamping In :: Imperial Board of Revenue and then, in I 37 4, a 'treasure note control the promise on to the very note, the Ming state seems to be asserting .I bureau'. Paper notes began to be issued the following year. that it too will be around for ever to honour it: I asked Mervyn King to The first challenge was fighting forgery. All paper currencies run the comment on this brave assertion: . risk of counterfeiting, because of the enormous gulf between the low I think it's a contract, an implicit contract, between people and the deci~ real value of the piece of paper and the high promissory value that sions the;y believe will be taken in the years and decades to come, about appears on it. This Ming note carries on it a government promise of a preserving the value of that money. It is a piece of paper- there is noth I reward to anyone who denounces a counterfeiter. And alongside this ing intrinsic in value to it- its value is determined by the stability of the carrot, there was a terrifying stick for any potential forger: If institutions that lie behind the issuance of that paper money. people To counterfeit is death. The informant will receive 2.50 taels of silver have confidence that those institutions will continue, if they have confi ·l and in addition the entire property of the criminal. dence that their commitment to stability can be believed, then they will accept and use paper money, and it will become a normal part of circu .I The much bigger challenge was to keep the worth of the new currency latio~.