63 pages • 2 hours read
The Silk Roads: A New History of the World
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Chapters 11-14Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 11 Summary
Chapter 11, “The Road of Gold,” describes the exploration of the Atlantic as a “new dawn” that “propelled Europe to centre-stage” (197) in world affairs at the end of the 15th century. Even before Columbus sailed to the Americas in 1492, the Portuguese and Spanish were forming new trade routes in the East Atlantic and West Africa. The gold markets of West Africa, associated with figures such as the Malian emperor Mansa Musa, were very important, as was the African slave trade that “exploded” during this period. Portugal in particular became rich from the slave trade, through which they played a key role in the exploration of the African coastline.
By sponsoring Columbus’s voyage in 1492, Ferdinand and Isabella, the rulers of Castile and Aragon, were able to compete with Portuguese expansion. Of course, the lands Columbus found were not India (as he claimed) but a continent new to Europeans, one that later became known as America. Though his initial reports of treasure were grossly exaggerated, it was not long before Columbus—and those who came after him—discovered vast quantities of pearls, silver, and gold. “Inevitably,” Frankopan notes, “exploration turned to conquest” (206), as the Spanish devastated the populations of the Caribbean and the Americas through war and disease. The untold wealth that subsequently flowed to the rulers of Spain gave them tremendous sway within Europe. The new wealth also sparked a cultural transformation in Europe, leading to the Renaissance.
Chapter 12 Summary
As illustrated in Chapter 12, “The Road of Silver,” it was not only Columbus’s discovery of the Americas but also da Gama’s discovery of a new sea route to India that contributed the stimulation of the European economy at the end of the 15th century. Competition between Spain and Portugal led to settlements such as the Treaty of Tordesillas (1494) outlining how new discoveries should be treated.
Meanwhile, other European powers as well as the Muslim world struggled to compete with Portugal and Spain. The violence of the Portuguese, at least initially, troubled Muslim populations in the East, but relations soon normalized and “the discovery of the route to the East generally became a story of co-operation rather than conquest” (222).
The result of the European discoveries—and the wealth they generated—was the end of the 15th-century credit crunch, as Europeans vastly increased their demand for luxury goods from Asia. Demand for these goods in turn produced fierce competition in the East between the Portuguese, the Venetians, and the Ottomans. Other powers in Asia, such as the Safavid Dynasty in Persia and the Mughal Empire in India, also prospered as bullion flowed from the Americas to Europe to Asia.
In 1571, Spain founded the settlement of Manila, in the Philippines, strengthening their mercantile position further by allowing them to ship silver across the Atlantic as well as the Pacific. China especially became an important market for silver, both because of its ability “to supply the export market in volume and to step up production accordingly,” and because in China silver was simply valued much more highly than other precious metals. Though the influx of silver initially led to a cultural burgeoning, the result was eventually “a serious economic and political crisis” (235) as inflation rose and China was forced to adjust its valuation of silver.
Chapter 13 Summary
Chapter 13, “The Road to Northern Europe,” shows how England competed with Spain and Portugal by investing in its Royal Navy and becoming a maritime power. In its attempt to challenge Spain and Portugal’s control of routes to the Americas and Asia, England also began to align itself with Muslim powers such as the Ottomans and to send out expeditions and form trading routes, initially with little success.
Meanwhile, Spain’s rampant military, combined with their intolerance on matters of religion, led to increased domestic pressures as well as tension with their neighbors. At the end of the 16th century, the Dutch were able to throw themselves into international trade, making headway at the expense of Spain and other rivals. The success of the Dutch was the result of advances in shipbuilding, cartography, and a new approach to business that stressed sharing risks among many investors. What followed was a Dutch Golden Age in commerce as well as culture.
European success came above all from militarism and military technology. But international success also contributed to instability in Europe and ushered in an age of “relentless consolidation and covetousness” as European nations fought among themselves.
Chapter 14 Summary
Chapter 14, “The Road to Empire,” begins by explaining how powers in the East, including the Ottoman Empire, began to stagnate as Northern Europe grew in importance. Meanwhile, social upheaval in Europe led some populations (such as the Puritans) to move West to New England, seeking a new life. England also strengthened its commercial position in the East at the expense of the Portuguese and the Dutch, producing a “maritime revolution” (259).
The competition between European powers also had important effects on the world of the East. Cities in lands such as India changed hands, and Eastern intermediaries grew wealthy by learning to take advantage of the new commercial networks. By the middle of the 18th century, the British had gained the upper hand in India, often expanding their power through brutal means. After losing its colonies in North America through the American War of Independence, England further tightened its hold on India.
Chapters 11-14 Analysis
Chapters 11-14 explore the dramatic shift in Power Dynamics Between East and West that occurred as a result of the European voyages of discovery at the end of the 15th century. These changes “propelled Europe to centre-stage” (197), largely at the expense of powers in the East as well as native populations in the newly discovered Americas. Frankopan discusses how Columbus’s voyage the Americas in 1492 and da Gama’s in 1498 were especially important in opening up new routes to the West as well as the East, allowing Europe to play a central role in global affairs that the content had never known before. Frankopan stresses the magnitude of the commercial and cultural transformations that countries such as Spain experienced as a result of their newfound wealth, transformations that seemed “little short of miraculous” (210).
What were the reasons for this change in Europe’s global importance? Frankopan critiques the Eurocentric explanation, arising from the reasons the Europeans themselves gave for their success in the 15th century and after—namely, that the Europeans had been restored to the position they held in the time of the Greek and Roman empires of antiquity. As Frankopan explains, this view has little to do with historical reality:
In truth, France, Germany, Austria, Spain, Portugal and England had nothing to do with Athens and the world of the ancient Greeks, and were largely peripheral in the history of Rome from its earliest days to its demise. This was glossed over as artists, writers and architects went to work, borrowing themes, ideas and texts from antiquity to provide a narrative that chose selectively from the past to create a story which over time became not only increasingly plausible but standard (213).
Frankopan himself finds different reasons for Europe’s success, pointing above all to “Europe’s entrenched relationship with violence and militarism that allowed it to place itself at the centre of the world after the great expeditions of the 1490s” (250) and emphasizing the importance of “relentless advances in weapons, warfare and tactics” (252; cf. 197) in allowing the West to successfully dominate other populations.
These chapters continue to highlight The Relationship Between Trade and Cultural Exchange. As Europe’s commercial importance grew massively in the late 15th century, Europe suddenly transformed into a place “where vibrant new ideas were encouraged, where new tastes were indulged, where intellectuals and scientists jostled and competed for patrons and funding” (212-13). The Europeans adopted important technology and ideas from their contact with Eastern civilizations like China. Technology in particular played a key role in the rise of many European powers, especially the Dutch and English. It was “superb shipbuilding” (246) combined with “common sense and hard work” (247) that allowed the Dutch to break away from Spanish control and set up their extremely successful commercial outposts abroad in the 16th century. Similarly, it was the “maritime revolution” undergone by England in the 17th century that led to the rise of the British Empire.
Many of the technological advances that made modern Europe originated in the East. Indeed, many of the conflicts between European powers throughout the modern era were fought over control of Asia. The Portuguese, Dutch, and British, for instance, competed for commercial supremacy in India. In tackling such tensions, Frankopan’s shows The Importance of Trade in Global History, as the commercial networks linking more and more of the world also served to make societies, peoples, and kingdoms more and more interconnected. In other words, changes in one part of the world tended to have an impact on many other parts of the world. A rise in the wealth of Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries led to a rise in the demand for goods and enslaved people, and demand in Europe often led to increased wealth for intermediary powers such as the Ottoman and Persian empires. Similarly, the influx of silver mined by the Spanish in South America had important consequences for China, a major consumer of silver, contributing to an economic and political crisis in the country in the 17th century. Globalization was therefore in full swing centuries ago—and was “no less problematic” (235) then than it is today.
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