Answer: Social
-The epidemics killed the young, old, and weak in increasingly large amount.
-Mandarins: a special class of powerful officials went out as emissaries of the central government to ensure that local officials implemented imperial policy
Culture
-Yongle organized the preparation of a vast encyclopedia that compiled all significant works of Chinese history, philosophy, and literature (Yongle Encyclopedia)
-The Yongle Encyclopedia sparked interest to ming rulers in supporting native Chinese cultural tradition.
- Hongwu tried to erase all mongol culture and promoted Chinese cultural traditions especially neo-/confucian schools.
- Painters, sculptors, and architects drew inspiration from the Greeks and Romans
- Classical Greek and Latin values encouraged humanists to reconsider medieval ethical teaching
Religion
-Ambitious missionaries tried to convert Mongols and Chinese people to Roman Catholic Christianity because until the 13th century, Christianity had not spread as far east as China.
-Unlike legal scholars, they did not insist on strict Islamic laws, rather a devotion to Allah
-John of Montecorvino was an Italian Franciscan who went to China in 1291 and became the first archbishop of Khanbaliq in 1307.
-Despite these missionaries, in the eastern Mediterranean region, Christianity was still a minority religion.
Interactions
-Other lands didn't actively promote trade, but domestic trade surged within China, reflecting increasing productivity and prosperity.
- Portuguese mariners soon dominated trade between Europe and Asia, since they attempted to control all-shipping in the Indian Ocean.
-Portuguese traders took advantage of the long established African commerce in slaves, but they also changed the slave trade by increasing its numbers and by sending them to new destinations
- Portuguese mariners went on voyages and discovered the Madiras and Azores Islands, all inhabited, which they soon colonized.
-Administrative techniques made their way to the Alps due to the expenses of the Hundred Years' War
Political
-Hongwu went out to erase Mongol rule and establish a government on the model of traditional Chinese dynasties.
- The employment of mandarins and eunuchs enhanced the authority of the central government.
- Hongwu established the Ming ("brilliant") Dynasty
- Authorities decided to freeze wages and forbid workers to leave their homes due to epidemics.
- Rulers in both lands took asserted authority of central government of nobility
Technology
-By the mid-thirteenth century gunpowder had reached Europe and Europeans began to experiment with it.
- Muslims introduced sugarcane to European crusaders, who instantly enjoyed the accessibility of refined sugar which led to the increased demand for plantation workers and slaves.
- Roman architects had built domed, but their technology and engineering did not survive the collapse of the Roman empire.
- Brunelleschi's dome as a symbol of the city's wealth and its leadership in artistic and cultural affairs.
Economic
-The development of fresh sources of finance, usually through new taxes levied directly on citizens and subjects.
- Promoted the manufacture of porcelain, lacquerware, fine silk, and cotton textiles.
- The new rulers conscripted laborers to rebuild irrigation systems that had fallen into disrepair during the previous century, and agricultural production.
- Mongol conquests destroyed and brought upon economic decline of many cities
- Zheng He's voyages demonstrated clearly that China could exercise military, political, and economic influence throughout the Indian Ocean basin.
Demography
-Around 1300 C.E. a global climatic change caused temperatures to decline throughout the world called the Little Ice Age
-This caused agricultural production to slow dramatically, leading to famine and even starvation.
-Mongols, merchants, and other travelers helped to spread the Bubonic Plague along trade routes.
-China's population reduced by 10 million through the 70 years of the epidemic plague.
-Europe's population reduced by 25%, but later when the plague settled down the population went back almost 2x their original size.
