Ch 11 thru 13

One has to wonder how different the world would be if China had continued it's large maritime expeditions. The willingness of foreign leaders to offer tributes to open opportunities for trade with China speaks to its wealth and adcancements. The Chinese fleet, which was much larger then Columbus', could have populated the America's. The Chinese felt themselves to be self-sufficient and with the death of Emperor Yogle "...the chief patron of the enterprise"(p372) abruptly ended it's maritime voyages.
Many of Chinas superior technologies had already traveled across the silk roads and expanded further During the reign of the Mongolian Empire. The Mongolin Empire did not leave it's influence in the form of religion. Instead it used relay systems which allowed the rapid transmission of information from one side of the empire to the other. The Mongolean Empire brought togethe the peoples of East Asia, Europe and Islam.
Unlike Islam, the Mongolean Empire and the many empires before them 15th century China was not interested in imperialism. There was a push toget back to the Confucian ways of doing things. The Ming Dynasty brought back the examination system, restored acres and repaired infrastructure which had deteriorated during Mongol rule. "During the  fifteenth century, China had recocered and was perhaps the best-governed and most prosperous of the worlds major civilizations."(P371)

As China returned to it's confuscian belief system Europe was also returning to it's classical thinkers with the beginning of the Renaissance. The Renaissance began in Italy around 1350 and ended around 1500.  They revisited classical Greek traditions and felt that they were removed from "the religous world of feudal Europe"(p373). Art excelled during the Renaissance. It was the time of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.

The Ottoman Empire lasted from the 1300's to the early twentieth century. The power of the empire made the Turks the "dominant people" of the Islamic wolrd, ruling now over Arabs"(P379) . The Ottoman Empire took control of Constantinple in 1453 destroying what was left of Christian Byzantium.