Everything Everywhere Daily: History, Science, Geography & More - The Year 1500

Episode Date: August 14, 2024

A little over 500 years ago, the world underwent massive change.  Empires were growing, religious and political institutions were changing, science was advancing, and art was undergoing a revolution.  It was the start of what many historians called the Early Modern period. A period that began the slow and painful transition to what became the modern world.  Learn more about the world in the year 1500 on the 1500th episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.  Sponsors Sign up for ButcherBox today by going to Butcherbox.com/daily and use code daily at checkout to get $30 off your first box! Subscribe to the podcast!  https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Ben Long & Cameron Kieffer   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A little over 500 years ago, the world underwent a massive change. Empires were growing, religious and political institutions were changing, science was advancing, and art was undergoing a revolution. It started what many historians call the early modern period, a period that began the slow and painful transition to what ended up becoming the modern world. Learn more about the world in the year 1500, on the 1500th episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. What if your perceptions about the past were wrong? ThruLine is a podcast that takes you back in time to uncover the parts of the story that may have gone unnoticed.

It effectively turned day into night. And how it shaped the world now. Time travel with us every week on the ThruLine podcast from NPR. The Genesis for this episode comes from my listeners over on the Facebook group. I asked everyone what they thought I should do for episode number. 1500, and several people suggested that I'd do an episode on the year 1500, and the more I thought about it, the more it seemed like a good idea. Previously, I did an episode on why your mental map is wrong. For example, people often don't realize that the west coast of South America

is at a longitude similar to the east coast of Florida, or that Canada is closer to Africa than the United States. Most people also have a mistaken mental timeline. They confuse when things took place in relation to other important events. One element of having a mistake and mental timeline is that we suffer from what I call temporal compression. The further we get away from the present, the more we tend to lump together longer periods of time. If we talk about the Sumerian Empire or the various Egyptian dynasties, we may lump together thousands of years.

When we talk about the Middle Ages, we may lump together centuries. Yet when we talk about our world, we identify changes that take place over the course of months or even weeks. So focusing on the year 1500 is in some sense very arbitrary. It isn't as if something happened that year that radically changed everything in an instant. Rather, it's a nice round number that allows us to put a pin in our mental timeline. Fifteen hundred is important insofar as it is the arbitrary point that many historians use as the start of what they call the early modern period. We live in the modern period and in the big source. sweep of history, the start of the early modern period can be thought of as the very early

beginnings of the period we live in today. So with that, what was the world like in 1500? Well, we should probably start with what was perhaps the most important thing that has happened in the last 500 years, the Colombian exchange, the contact of the old world with the new. In the year 1500, the Americas were still mostly untouched by Europeans. Columbus had a first voyage only eight years previously, and the number of expeditions from Europe was still extremely small. Almost no one in the Americas had ever seen a European, and the diseases that were to come had barely started. Santo Domingo was founded as a Spanish settlement, but it was really nothing more than an outpost at this time. The year 1500 saw the Portuguese explorer Pedro Alvarez

Cabral land in Brazil and claim it for Portugal. The next several decades would see a large-scale increase in the European presence in the region. There were two major empires in the new world at this time. The Aztec Empire, centered in present-day Mexico, was at its height under Emperor Awezadal, followed by Magda Zuma II. The empire was expanding its territory through conquest and demanding tribute from neighboring regions. In South America, the Incan Empire, under Emperor Hwina Kappak was also expanding. The Empire's sophisticated administrative and road systems were remarkable achievements for the era and the region. 1500 was right smack in the middle of the Age of Discovery,

which had started almost 80 years prior and would continue for over another century. Continuing westward on our trip around the world, the Polynesians, some of the greatest navigators in the world, had settled most of the islands that they would eventually end up settling. They had already reached Hawaii and New Zealand, two of the last places they would reach in the previous several centuries. At this point, the Aboriginal people in Australia were,

still uncontacted. It would be another century before the first year Europeans ever found the continent. Japan was in the midst of the Sengoku period, a time of social upheaval and political intrigue, and near constant military conflict. The period began in 1467 in the Onan War and would last until the early 17th century. Power in Japan at this time was fragmented among numerous feudal lords known as Daimos, who controlled various regions of Japan. These warlords were engaged in constant battles for territorial influence. By 1500, there really was no central authority in Japan, as the Ashikaga Shogunate had become weak and largely symbolic. In contrast to Japan, Korea was experiencing a relatively stable and prosperous period under the Josun dynasty, which had been established in 1392.

By 1500, Korea was well into what is defined now as the early Josan period. In 1500, Korea was under the rule of King Yosun Gan, one of the most infamous monarchs, in Korean history. His reign was marked by tyranny and cruelty. Yoseng Gan is particularly remembered for his brutal purges of scholars and officials who he saw as a threat to his rule. China was still under the rule of the Ming Dynasty. It was still quite rich and powerful, but it was now past its peak, which probably coincided with the cessation of Admiral Zheng He's voyages in 1433. With China's inward turn, they began the long decline that eventually led to the 19th century humiliation they suffered at the hands of European powers.

India was in a state similar to Japan where there was no single power. The Delhi Sultanate was in decline, and in 26 years it would be replaced by the Mughal Empire after the Battle of Panapad. However, in 1500, India was a patchwork of powerful regional states like the Vijayanagara Empire in the South and the sultans of Bengal and Gujarat. In 1500, Central Asia was undergoing significant political change. changes, as the Timurid Empire, once a dominant power in the region, was in decline. The Uzbek tribes, led by Mohamed Shabani Khan, were rising to prominence, capturing key cities

like Samarkand, and establishing the Shabanid dynasty. This marked the end of Timurid control in the beginning of Uzbek dominance in the region. The fragmentation of power led to ongoing conflicts between the remaining Timurid princes and the Uzbeks, with Babur, a Timurid descendant being forced out of Central Asia, eventually laying the groundwork for his later conquest in India and the establishment of the Mughal Empire. The region's role as a crossroad for trade between East and West persisted, although the rise of maritime trade routes began to diminish the importance of the Silk Road. Overall, Central Asia in 1500 was a region of both decline and transformation,

with new powers emerging amidst the legacy and decline of the Mongol and Timurid empires. In 1500, Persia was on the brink of a major transformation with the rise of the Safavid dynasty. The region was divided amongst many local rulers, but Shah Ismail I, the first, the founder of the Safavid Empire, began his campaign to unify Persia under his rule. In 1501, he successfully established the Safavid state, which would become one of the most powerful empires in the region. But perhaps the most powerful state in the Islamic world in 1500 had to be the Ottoman Turks. They conquered Constantinople in 1453 and established a lock on all of the spice trade, between Asia and Europe, which indirectly contributed to Europe seeking alternate trade routes to Asia.

By 1500, it was expanding into Eastern Europe, North Africa, and the Arabian Peninsula. The Ottomans would continue to expand their empire for the next two centuries. In Africa, there were two major powers. The Songhai Empire was the dominant power in West Africa, controlling important trade routes across the Sahara. Under Emperor Askiya Muhammad, the empire was at its peak, and was known for it. for its wealth, culture, and learning, particularly in cities like Timbuktu. European contact was increasing, especially along the West African coast, where Portuguese established trading posts and began engaging in the transatlantic slave trade.

On the East African coast, the Swahili city states such as Zanzibar, Mombasa, and Dara Salam thrived as centers of trade, linking Africa with the Indian Ocean Trade Network. Goods like gold, ivory, and slaves were traded with Arab Persians and Indian merchants. The Portuguese were beginning to challenge Arab control of these trade routes, with Vasco da Gama's voyage to India in 1498, marking the start of European influence in the region. And this finally brings us to Europe, where there was a lot going on and a lot that was about to happen. Perhaps the biggest overall thing was that the Catholic Church was probably at its peak in terms of power and influence. There was already widespread discontent regarding corruption and the selling of indulgences.

The Pope in 1500 was Alexander the 6th, a member of the influential Borgia family in Spain. He declared the year 1500 to be a jubilee year and ceremonially opened a sealed door at Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. It was to be one of the last major events held at Old St. Peter's, as it would be demolished in just five years to make way for a new basilica, which still stands today. In just 17 years, Martin Luther would nail his 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg, Germany, officially starting the Protestant Reformation. Spain had just completed the Reconquista in 1492, and the Spanish Inquisition was in full swing, targeting Muslims and Jews in Spain for conversion. With the reconquista behind them, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella were on the cusp of establishing one of the largest empires in history with their colonies in the

new world. Maximilian I was the Holy Roman Emperor at the time, and he was working to consolidate his power and expand the influence of the Habsburgs. France under Louis X12th was involved in the Italian war seeking to expand its territory, and in England the Tudor dynasty was strengthening under Henry the 7th following the end of the War of the Roses in 1487. In Italy, the Renaissance was in full swing, with artists, thinkers, and scientists exploring new ideas and forms of expression. Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael were active during this period, contributing immensely to art, science, and architecture. Michelangelo was still a young man of 25 and had just completed one of his greatest works

the Pieta the year before. Leonardo da Vinci was still working and had begun his second period in Florence in 1500, but he was getting towards the end of his career. However, he had yet to start his most famous painting, the Mona Lisa. Behind all of these changes in Europe, there were several technical innovations that were now starting to seriously change the political, military, and cultural landscape. The printing press, which was developed by Johanna Scuttenberg just 50 years earlier, had now become widespread and was revolutionizing the dissemination of information.

By 1500, printed books were becoming more common, helping to spread new ideas across Europe, and it would soon play a part in the Protestant Reformation. Advances in navigation, including improved maps and the use of the astrolab and magnetic compass, were critical to the success of European explorers. It's what allowed them to sail across the open ocean, which was something that was generally avoided in the past because of the danger it involved.

Finally, gunpowder weapons, including cannons and muskets, were transforming warfare, giving European powers a significant advantage in their conquests. While gunpowder had been introduced to Europe well before 1500, it was only now starting to become the default weapon in combat. The people who lived in the year 1500 couldn't have known it, but there were big changes afoot in the world. In just 100 years, the world would be a very different. place, and the changes to the world would only accelerate up until the present day.

So while the date is rather arbitrary, the year 1500 is as good a place as any to start to define the beginning of the modern era. The executive producer of Everything Everywhere Daily is Charles Daniel. The associate producers are Benji Long and Cameron Kiever. I want to give a big shout out to everyone who supports the show over on Patreon, including the show's producers. Your support helps me put out a show every single day. day. And also, Patreon is currently the only place where Everything Everywhere daily merchandise is

available to the top tier of supporters. If you'd like to talk to other listeners of the show and members of the Completionist Club, you can join the Everything Everywhere Daily Facebook group or Discord server. Links to everything are in the show notes.