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The Early Modern World

See Main Page for a guide to all contents of all sections.

Contents

The Early Modern World System
- The European "Age of Discovery"
- South and South East Asia
- East Asia
- The Middle East: Ottomans and Safavids - Rivals of European Powers
- Africa
- Eastern Europe Becomes a Peripheral Area
Mercantile Capitalism
Reflections on the Trade and the New Economy

The Early Modern World System

The European "Age of Discovery"
- WEB See Discovers' Web [At Tue.nl]
  Includes a List of Online Primary Sources
- WEB See Columbus and the Age of Discovery
  A splendid, and searchable, collection of over 1100 text articles on Columbus and the encounter of two worlds
- WEB See Columbus Navigation Homepage
  With maps of the various voyages.
- The Discovery of North America by Leif Ericsson, c. 1000 from The Saga of Eric the Red, (1387) [At this Site]
- Christopher Columbus (1451-1506): Selections from Journal, 1492 [At Medieval Sourcebook]
- Christopher Columbus (1451-1506): Letter to Lord Raphael Sanchez, 14 March 1493 [At UVA]
- Christopher Columbus (1451-1506): Letter to King and Queen of Spain, prob. 1494 [At Medieval Sourcebook] or here [At AmericanRev]
- Vasco da Gama (1460-1524): Round Africa to India, 1497-1498 CE [At this Site]
- Amerigo Vespucci (1452-1512): Account of His First Voyage, 1497 [At this Site]
- Fra Soncino: Letter to Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, Regarding John Cabot's First Voyage, 1497 CE [At this Site]
- John Cabot (c.1450-1499): Voyage to North America, 1497 [At this Site]
- Hans Mayr: The Voyage and Acts of Dom Francisco, 1505- [At this Site]
  Activities in Africa
- Ferdinand Magellan's Voyage Round the World, 1519-1522 CE [At this Site]
- Francis Pretty: Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Round The World, 1580 [At this Site]
- Sir Walter Raleigh (1554-1618): The Discovery of Guiana, 1595 [At this Site]
- Sidi Ali Reis (16th Century CE): Mirat ul Memalik (The Mirror of Countries), 1557 CE [At this Site]
  Europeans were not the only ones to look at other cultures. This is a Turkish Admiral's account of his travels in the world of India and the Middle East.
For the Americas
see sections on
- Colonial North America and
- Colonial Latin America
South and South-East Asia
- WEB Indian History Sourcebook
- England, India, and The East Indies, 1617 [At Indian History Sourcebook]
  Various sources, including a letter from Great Moghul Jahangir to James I, King of England.
- The East India Trade [At Scholiast]
- Charles D'Avenant: An Essay on the East-India Trade, 1697 [At Yale]
East Asia
- St. Francis Xavier: Letter from India, to the Society of Jesus at Rome, 1543 [At this Site]
- St. Francis Xavier: Letter on the Missions, to St. Ignatius de Loyola, 1549 [At this Site]
- St. Francis Xavier: Letter from Japan, to the Society of Jesus at Goa, 1551 [At this Site]
- St. Francis Xavier: Letter from Japan, to the Society of Jesus in Europe, 1552 [At this Site]
- Documents on the Chinese Rites Controversy, 1692, 1715, 1721, excerpts [At this Site]
  How the Catholic Church "lost" China.
- Will Adams: My Coming to Japan, 1611 [At this Site]
- Hsu Kuang-chi: Memorial to Fra Matteo Ricci, 1617 [At this Site]
- Mendez Pinto: The Woman with the Cross, c. 1630 [At this Site]
  A Chinese Christian woman.
- Père du Halde: Teaching Science to the Manchu Emperor, c. 1680 [At this Site]
- Père du Halde: The Manchu Emperor and Chinese Music, c. 1680 [At this Site]
- Père du Halde: Chinese Punishments, c. 1680 [At this Site]
- Père Gerbillon: A Visit to a Lama, c. 1690 [At this Site]
The Middle East: Ottomans and Safavids - Rivals of European Powers
- See Islamic History Sourcebook
- Old Serbian Tales: Marko and the Turks, c. 1450 [At this Site]
- James M. Ludlow: The Tribute of Children, 1493 [At this Site]
- A Visit to the Wife of Suleiman the Magnificent (Translated from a Genoese Letter), c. 1550 [At this Site]
- Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (1689-1762): Dining With The Sultana, 1718 [At this Site]
- Ogier Ghiselin de Busbecq: The Turkish Letters, excerpts, 1555-1562 [At this Site]
Africa
- WEB African History Sourcebook
- Leo Africanus Description of Timbuktu [At WSU]
- Ibn Battuta: Malian Women, [At Internet Archive, from CCNY]
- Glimpses of the Kingdom of Ghana, 1067 [At Internet Archive, from CCNY]
- Al Bakri: Description of Ghana [At Internet Archive, from CCNY]
- Hans Mayr: The Voyage and Acts of Dom Francisco, 1505- [At this Site]
  Activities in Africa
- Richard Eden: Decades of the New World, 1555 [At WSU]
  European traders at the royal court of Benin.
- Chart: Atlantic Slave Trade: Carriers and Destinations of Enslaved People [At this Site]
- John Wesley (1703-91): Thoughts Upon Slavery, 1774 [At UMC]
  Wesley was opposed to slavery, but this is interesting as it includes explict descriptions of the way in which people were enslaved and treated. A great example of the moral force of Evangelical Christianity.
Eastern Europe Becomes a Peripheral Area
- Gutherrschaft/Grundherrschaft
- The Second Serfdom
- Henry Blount: A Voyage Into The Levant, 1634 [At this Site]
  In this case the "Levant" means Hungary.
- Paul, Archdeacon of Aleppo: Wallachia in 1657 from The Travels of Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch [At this Site]
- The Secret History of the Reign of Jan Sobieski, 1683 AD. [At this Site]
  Sobieski's victory over the Ottoman Turks in 1683.

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Mercantile Capitalism

WEB Trade Products in Early Modern History [At UMN]
Charter of the Dutch West India Company, 1621 [At Yale]
Tulip History [At bulb.com]
Tulipomania [Modern Report][At History House]

Mississippi Bubble: France 1716-1720
South Sea Bubble: Britain 1717-1720
2ND The South Sea Bubble [Modern Report][At History House]

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Reflections on the Trade and the New Economy

Thomas Mun (1571-1641): England's Treasure By Forraign Trade, excerpts, 1664 [At this Site]
Thomas Mun (1571-1641): England's Treasure by Foreign Trade, pub 1664, extracts, [At Then Again] and extracts [At Hanover]
Josiah Child: Brief Observations Concerning Trade and Interest of Money, 1668 [At Yale]
John Locke (1632-1704): Further Considerations Concerning Raising the Value of Money [At Yale]
Governor Glen: The Role of the Indians in the Rivalry Between France, Spain, and England, 1761 [At The American Revolution Site]
Adam Smith: From The Wealth of Nations, 1776: Of Colonies, and The Cost of Empire [At The American Revolution Site]
Daniel Defoe (c. 1659-1731): Robinson Crusoe [At Project Gutenberg][Full text]
The classic colonialist novel.
Summary of Immanuel Wallerstein's World System Theory [At this Site][Modern summary]

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NOTES: Dates of accession of material added since July 1998 can be seen in the New Additions page.. The date of inception was 9/22/1997. Links to files at other site are indicated by [At some indication of the site name or location]. Locally available texts are marked by [At this Site]. WEB indicates a link to one of small number of high quality web sites which provide either more texts or an especially valuable overview.