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VENICE 1 VENETIAN 2 POSSESSIONS 3 PAPAL STATES 75° 1492 MOLDAVIA 4 the world on the brink of european TEUTONIC 5 expansion; the aztec and inca empires at KNIGHTS their peak PSKOV 6 Sami Yakuts Arctic Circle Inuit RYAZAN 7 Inuit ICELAND Samoyeds Palaeo-Siberians The European discovery of the Americas by Christopher (to Denmark) Tungus SWEDEN Columbus in 1492 was one of the major turning points of NORWAY (in union with (in union with Denmark) MOSCOW world history, an event that began Europe’s progress from Denmark) Khanate of 5 6 its situation at the margins of the known world to a position SCOTLAND Khanate Sibir of global dominance. The significance of the discovery did Aleuts Sub-Arctic caribou hunters DENMARK of Kazan 7 not become evident for several decades, however. ENGLAND POLAND- Khanate of the HOLY LITHUANIA Ainu Columbus’s voyage across the Atlantic, in the service Central Golden Horde Great ROMAN (Tatars) Kyrgyz of Castile, and the parallel voyages of exploration along plateau Woodlands FRANCE Kazakhs OIRAT KHANATE Plains EMPIRE hunter- hunter-gatherers HUNGARY 4 (Mongols) the African coast by the Portuguese were the product of a NAVARRE 1 Khanate of Uzbeks Jürchen fisher- bison 45° 3 Astrakhan European sense of vulnerability and exclusion. Europeans West coast fishers, gatherers hunters Woodlands and plains CASTILE OTTOMAN TURK CHAGATAI hunters and gatherers farmers PORTUGAL KHANATE resented having to buy eastern spices and Chinese silks Desert hunter- EMPIRE 1 ARAGON gatherers Azores GEORGIA through Muslim middlemen at great cost. Europeans KASHMIR Beijing KOREA Mississippian (to Portugal) AK KOYUNLU Puebloans were also alarmed by the resurgence of Muslim power temple 9 JAPAN HAFSID 2 (White sheep TIMURID mound 8 TIBET represented by the Ottoman Turk empire, which in 1453 CALIPHATE 3 Turk) EMIRATES SULTANATE 4 builders Madeira MING Cairo EMIRATE OF NEPAL extinguished the sad remnants of the Byzantine empire by (to Portugal) ASSAM EMPIRE Hangzhou Canary MAMLUK DELHI conquering Constantinople. Maize Touaregs 15 16 18 Islands SULTANATE farmers Bedouin The Portuguese hoped to trade directly with the east, (to Castile) Arguin Bedouin Arawak Arabs OMAN 15 BENGAL Tenochtitlán (to Portugal) Arabs 19 Tropic of Cancer and gain allies against the Muslims, by finding a route 5 GUJARAT 17 ÄIR JIZAN LAOS ARAKAN around Africa. This was achieved by Bartolomeu Dias WOLOF TAKRUR DARFUR HADRAMAUT AZTEC EMPIRE SONGHAY 2 ORISSA BORNU 12 BAHMANI DAI VIET in 1487–88. Columbus believed he could do the same by MIXTECS SIAM Carib Cape YEMEN Vijayanagara PEGU 20 11 SULTANATE SMALL sailing west across the Atlantic: it was soon realized that Maya chiefdoms chiefdoms Verde MALI FUNJ 10 CHAMPA MALAY MAYA CITY Islands BORGU KINGDOMS VIJAYANAGARA Micronesians he had actually discovered an unsuspected ‘New World’. (to ADAL SINHALESE STATES STATES IFE KINGDOM Portugal) 13 KINGDOMS The Aztec and Inca empires, the greatest states that the SULTANATE 21 North Andean 14 BENIN ETHIOPIA Americas had so far seen, were equally unaware of the Arawak SULTANATE OF chiefdoms Cacheu Elmina MALACCA existence of the Old World. Polynesians (to Portugal) (to Portugal) OF ACEH Equator China, in 1492 the world’s richest and most Amazonian Fernando Póo (to Portugal) SWAHILI CITY 15 SMALL INDIAN STATES SMALL chiefdoms Príncipe (to Portugal) STATES MALAY 22 SMALL 16 RAJPUTS MAJAPAHIT technologically advanced state, had turned inwards. Earlier São Tomé (to Portugal) STATES Papuans KINGDOMS 17 in the 15th century the Ming emperors had sent a series of Tupi KONGO BURMESE KINGDOMS Bantu farmers and 18 great naval expeditions to Southeast Asia, India and East SHAN KINGDOMS pastoralists 19 LANNATHAI Melanesians Africa to announce to the known world that China was a WATTASID CALIPHATE 8 20 CAMBODIA great power again after the years of Mongol occupation. But ZAYYANID CALIPHATE 9 MUTAPA Malagasy 21 SULTANATE OF BRUNEI a resurgence of Mongol power forced the Ming to abandon MOSSI KINGDOMS 10 BUTUA INCA Savanna SWAHILI 22 SULTANATE OF TERNATE HAUSA CITY STATES 11 Tropic of Capricorn their maritime enterprises and concentrate on fortifying EMPIRE hunter- CITY 12 their northern frontier. gatherers ALODIA STATES Australian Aborigines Guarani AKAN KINGDOMS 13 San Five Largest Cities 000s (approximate) OYO 14 Polynesians Khoikhoi Urbanized societies/ pastoralists 2. Vijayanagara 4. Hangzhou Hunter-gatherers kingdoms Pampas Settled farming cultures hunters Empires and peoples Maoris Tasmanians 670 455 400 250 210 Pastoral nomads Uninhabited 45° Complex farming Portuguese Fishers and marine societies/chiefdoms possessions mammal hunters 1. Beijing 3. Cairo 5. Tenochtitlán 110 Dias 1487-88 Columbus 1492

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