Kgomotso Sebegoe
Formal Assessment –writing an essay
Introduction: The world around 1600
This essay is about how the world was like around the 1600’s.It is about the four different regions; China, Africa, India, European Societies and their empires. This essay is about the political power, travel and trade, technology and position and involvement in the world of all the different region and all their similarities and differences.
China (Ming dynasty)
The Ruling of the Ming dynasty began in 1368.The first Ming emperor was Hongwu , whose real name was Zhu Yuanzhang. Unlike most emperors who are born into rich dynasties Hongwu was born into a poor peasant family. Hongwu became a novice monk at a monastery, he grew up at the monastery and that
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China was part of a trade route called the Great Silk Road which connected it with Europe. The compass, porcelain, gunpowder was some of the Chinese inventions that made their way to Europe through The Great Silk Road. The Yongle emperor Zhu Di of the Ming dynasty had a favorite servant, Zheng He whom he sent of voyages to expand trade contacts, establish relationships with other foreign powers and bring back precious goods for the emperor. SO in 1405 they launched the first of seven voyages of explorations. He did this because he wanted to expand China’s tribute system; he wanted to have other nations pay tribute to China and not just the ones that were on Chinas …show more content…
The Songhai Empire had a monarchy government system which meant that it was ruled by a royal family. He Songhai Empire’s ruler was considered as sacred, which meant that the ordinary people were not allowed to see the King. Songhai officials did not have to be of noble birth they were chosen for their abilities and talents.
When Sonni Ali built up his navy and conquered a trading town called Jenne in 1473, it gave him control over the trade that happened along the Niger River. One of Sonni Ali’s travel and trade accomplishments was when his army and he occupied Timbuktu in 1488 and this was important because Timbuktu was situated in the Trans-Saharan trade route. Another neighboring state that Timbuktu conquered was the city of Gao.
Just like The Ming China the Songhai also invented gunpowder. Some of the other things which the Songhai invented were; silk and this is where the name silk road comes from, fireworks which are also still used today all over the world, the wheel which was not really used back then but is used in today’s life and the Songhai believed that they invented steel which is used to build a lot of things. The Songhai dynasty also played a role in building the Ming China’s Great Wall of China. The Songhai used salt as their