HIST 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Bartolomeu Dias
Document Summary
Chinese ships had the nautical capacity to go anywhere in the world. They had no motive to go those distances - they had no idea americas existed. They knew very little about europe and had no reason to want to know more. They knew that there was many cultures in southeast asia. Merchants a person - usually a man who generated wealth by arranging for the transportation of products from where they were common and cheap to places where they were rare. Paid people for the products and transportation. Made more money than spent to move products. Merchants had different social roles and esteems in different countries. Government officials in china were more prestigious than the wealthiest landowners. Nobles and aristocrats was a hereditary status - in theory it was difficult to become a noble, but once the first noble was named, it was hereditary.
