The countries of the East at the beginning of the Modern Age (second half of the XV century and the beginning of the XVI century), had the following panorama. India was dominated by the Mongols. It was part of the Empire of the great Mughal . Turkey after conquering Constantinople in 1453, the Turkish sultan Mohammet II seized Servia (1454), part of Greece, including Athens, Otranto on the heel of the Italian boot and some islands of the Aegean Sea. At the beginning of the Modern Age, the Mongolic dynasty of The Ming ruled in China. which lasted from the year 1368 to the year 1644.
Turkey
We have already seen, when studying the Taking of Constantinople in 1453, that the Turks were originally from Central Asia, and that they belonged to the yellow race.
Conquests in Europe and Asia
After conquering Constantinople in 1453, the Turkish sultan Mohammet II seized Serbia (1454), part of Greece, including Athens, Otranto on the heel of the Italian boot and some islands in the Aegean Sea. In thirty years he had turned Turkey, with her swift victories, into a mighty empire that Europe feared for more than a century.
His successors, Selim I and Suleiman the Magnificent, seized Mesopotamia (Persian territory), Syria, Egypt, Hungary, even threatening Vienna (Austria).
During the Middle Ages, the Turks were divided into three large groups:
a) The Turkish Aghonces , who lived in Turkestan and from there launched devastating expeditions to the East and to the West;
b) The Seljuk Turks , who formed an Empire in Syria. These Turks invaded the Holy Places of Jerusalem and provoked the Crusader expeditions.
c) The Ottoman Turks , who dominated the Seljuks and took over Constantinople and Asia Minor in 1453.
At the beginning of the Modern Age, these peoples carried out three events that are of interest to our study:
- The Seljuk Turks In 1518, by means of pirate parties, they invaded the coasts of North Africa, and seized Tunis and Algiers. With fleets of oar-driven galleys, they scoured the Mediterranean, taking young men, women, and children to sell as slaves. Philip II, King of Spain, undertook a fight against them and defeated them at the Battle of Lepanto.
- The Ottoman Turks , after seizing Constantinople, they continued their conquests in the Balkan Peninsula, enslaving Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, the Morea Peninsula in Greece, and part of Austria. They thus founded a great Empire, made up of two parts:Asiatic Turkey and European Turkey. His most notable monarchs were:
— MAHOMED II , who after taking Constantinople embarked on the conquest of Southeastern Europe and had to deal with seasoned Christian leaders. The most notable of these was Jorge Castriota (Prince of Albania), whom Pope Calixtus III called "the Athlete of Christ", for his heroism and for his faith in the crusade against the Mohammedan Turks. The prince was defeated and the sultan set out to conquer Italy, but a sudden illness took him to his grave (1481).
— BAJACET II , son of Mahomed, ascended to the throne after beating his brother, who also aspired to the sultanate. This monarch showed kind and peaceful spirit. He continued the conquests started by his father, but so slowly and humanely, that he displeased his wicked sons. One of them, named Selim, with the help of the Janissaries, dethroned Bayezid.
— SELIM I , called Selim the Fierce, because of his cruelty, resumed the wars in the East and in the West. Fighting against the Persians, he ordered a slaughter of 40,000 enemies. In Egypt he smashed the Mamluk army and then seized Arabia and proclaimed himself Caliph.
_ SULIMAN THE MAGNIFICENT , the best of the Turkish sultans of this period. He was an excellent statesman, who organized the Empire and brought it to great splendor.
he began his fight against the kings of Europe, following the challenge made by Louis of Hungary, for having ordered the death of Suleiman's ambassadors They went to ask him for a tribute. Outraged the Sultan, he invaded the Balkans and seized Hungary. King Louis perished in the fighting.
As at this time (1525) -the King of France Francis I was at war against the Emperor of Germany. Carlos V or Carlos I of Spain, Solimán allied himself with the French monarch and undertook a campaign to conquer Vienna, capital of the German Empire. After several months of siege, Solimán had to withdraw, convinced that it was impossible to overcome the tenacious resistance of the defenders. He moved his armies to the Mediterranean and continued to strive to conquer Europe to enlarge his Empire and impose the religion of Muhammad. His campaigns lasted more than forty years and during them Suleiman constituted a serious danger to Christianity; but finally, sick and disillusioned, he died in the year 1566.
- The Ottoman Turks prevented the Orient from trading with Europe. Consequently all trade routes were closed.
Turkish splendor
With Suleiman the Magnificent (nickname given to him by the Christians), the Turkish empire reached its apogee. This splendor was due to:
- To the remarkable military and governmental abilities of those three Turkish sultans;
- To the religious fanaticism of the people who waged the Holy War against those who did not follow Mohammedanism;
- To the technique of having permanent armies made up of battle-hardened infantry (the genízaros), made up of young foreigners taken from their homes as children and later educated until they were 25 years old in Mohammedanism by Turkish professors; a fearsome and numerous cavalry (the spahis); while German and Italian artillerymen made their cannons.
The division between the Christian kingdoms of Europe contributed to the ease of his victories.
Decline of the Turkish Empire
The decline of the Turkish Empire began with the son of Suleiman whose fleet was defeated at Lepanto (1571) by the Christians. This decline was accentuated throughout the seventeenth century.
India
The Hindu or Indian people are, without a doubt, the most peaceful people in the world. He has never waged a war of conquest. It has never had religious wars.
Its culture has always allowed it to be a generous and understanding people. In the course of their history, the Indians have been conquered by the Persians, by the Greeks, by the Arabs, by the Mongols and by the English. However, they have always endured these oppressions with resignation and have even seen their soil bloodied by the struggles of the conquerors themselves.
The Little Kingdoms
A few years before the beginning of the Modern Age, India was made up of small kingdoms, many of which were subjugated by the Delhi Sultanate. But Tamerlane, ferocious Mongol conqueror, who had founded his kingdom in Samarkand (modern southern Russia) invaded India seizing Delhi (1398). These kingdoms (Bengala, Jaunpur, Malva, Gojerat) took advantage of this to become independent from the sultanate.
Resurgence of the Delhi Sultanate
This Empire had been founded by Genghis Khan (1206-1227) and expanded by Tamerlane, as seen above. A Mongol captain (Khizr Khan) took possession of the Delhi Sultanate in 1414 proclaiming its independence and was recognized as a sayid (direct successor of Muhammad). His successors tried to restore the old authority of the sultan of Delhi over the territories that had become independent from his rule.
Lodi, a warrior of Turkish origin, managed to seize the government of Delhi (1451) and had to fight continuously against the main rebels, managing to recover the Punjab.
Delhi conquered
The situation continued chaotic, in the midst of struggles between the small states, until a new conqueror arrived, Babar, a Turkish descendant of Tamerlane and Genghis Khan, who entered India and conquered the Sultanate of Delhi (1525).
Among the Mongol Emperors imposed on India at the beginning of Modern Times, three are worth mentioning:
- BABER , ruler of Turkestan and Hindustan, who founded the dynasty of the Baberidas or Great Mongols. (1483).
- AKBAR , illustrious monarch, promoter of commerce and art, whose government marks the beginning of a new era, the Eastern Era, from 542 to 1605 AD
- AUNRENG ZEIB , who came to the throne in 1658, after the murder of his 3 brothers and the imprisonment of his father, and who despite these crimes, knew how to protect letters and the arts, improved public administration and brought the Empire to great splendor .
After these reigns, India was divided into small principalities, similar to the feudal lordships of Europe, thereby arousing the ambition of foreign peoples. When the Portuguese began their conquest of the eastern region in 1493, they found India divided and weakened. Therefore the conquerors easily enslaved her.
China
China did not cover the entire territory of present-day China. It occupied only the eastern region.
This nation, made up of hard-working people who knew how to venerate their sovereign, their sages and their artists, had semi-savage peoples as neighbors, fierce in war and feared throughout Asia. To the North lived the Mongols and the Manchus , of the yellow race and who tried to invade the South to tear the Chinese nation apart. To the Northwest lived the Huns and its neighbors the Turks , also yellow, whose cruelty was famous.
Precisely to defend himself against such bloodthirsty enemies, the Chinese Emperor Tsin-Chi-Hoang-Ti (Sinchiuantí) had ordered the construction of The Great Wall , colossal stone wall 17 meters high and 5 meters wide, which covered an area of 2,500 kilometers and served for a long time to stop the invaders from the North.
However, the Mongol barbarians, in the year 1215 AD, stormed the Great Wall and took the Chinese capital (Beijing). The Chinese nation was thus enslaved .
These same Mongols were not content with having conquered China. When they were ruled by Tamerlane (1333-1405), they organized three fearsome expeditions:
a) One to conquer India , which was then dominated by the Arabs. An ancestor of Tamerlane had founded with part of it the Empire of the great Mughal (1526).
b) Another to conquer Persia , also held by the Arabs. The Baghdad Caliphate was shattered.
c) Another to conquer the South of Russia . This expedition was called the Golden Horde, because its leader, King Batu, used to direct the war and administration from a Horde or gold shop. The Mongols of the Golden Horde ravaged Hungary and the Balkans. They took over southern Russia and were only defeated in 1840 by the Russian tsar Ivan, the terrible.
The Ming Dynasty
At the beginning of the Modern Age, the Mongolic dynasty of The Ming ruled in China. which lasted from the year 1368 to the year 1644. When the Modern Age was half a century away (1403), Yung-Lo ascended the throne, a wise ruler who embellished Nanjing, the capital; but then he moved it to Peking, to better contain the remnants of the Mongols who threatened his empire from the north. He died in 1425, succeeded by Hung-Hi, who ruled for a few months. He assumed the throne Siuen-té, who governed 10 years with singular success and managed to expel the Eastern Tartars who had invaded it for the first time. Chin-Tung occupied the throne in 1436, but in an expedition against the Tartars he was taken prisoner, remaining that way for several years, for which he renounced the throne in favor of his brother, who ruled until 1457. Only then was he given freedom in exchange of a rich ransom. He returned to rule under the name of Tien-Shan until 1465.
The most notable Mongol ruler of China was Kublai Khan (1259-1294), whose brilliant court was made up of progressive nobles and prudent advisers. His palace was famous throughout Asia for its dazzling beauty.
Europeans knew very little of the existence of these Eastern Empires. They heard about two distant countries full of riches called Cathay (China) and Cipango (Japan).
Marco Polo
But a book written by MARCO POLO, narrating his travels through those distant towns, aroused great interest in getting to know them and since then travel and trade were encouraged.
One day two Venetian jewelers came to the court of Kublai Khan:Nicholas and Maffeo Polo. They went in search of precious stones. They told him about Europe and its culture. Kublai Khan was keenly interested and dispatched the Venetians as his envoys to Pope Clement I, asking him for a hundred men to dedicate themselves to explaining the Christian Religion and the seven liberal arts in China. The commissioners fulfilled the order and returned to the Asian court, taking MARCO POLO (son of Nicolás) with them. This young man, after having lived in the court of Kublai Khan and having visited other Asian countries, returned to Europe and wrote his famous travel book.
The trips between Asia and Europe
Since then, trade between Asia and Europe has been very intense. Traders mainly used three routes:
First route
It started from China and went through Pamir, Samarkand - Caspian Sea and Black Sea. This was the famous Silk Road .
Second route
It started from India and continued through Mesopotamia – Black Sea – Mediterranean Sea.
Third route
It started from China, bordered Asia and followed the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf and ended in the Mediterranean Sea.
Through these routes, merchants brought to Europe silks, pearls, porcelain, fine woods, incense, aleo, benzoin, and, above all, the species (cloves, pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, etc.).
Coffee was brought from Java to Europe by the Dutch. They also brought tea to the Chinese, shortly after Vasco da Gama's expedition (1493).
Decadence and Europeans
In the times that followed, China entered a stage of decline and Europeans began to arrive in its territory, the first being the Portuguese sailors Jorge Alvares (1514) and Rafael Perestrello (1515), who set foot on Chinese soil, arriving the second to Guangzhou.