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Silver from the New World coursed through the arteries of world trade in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Its dispersal often resulted in political fragmentation, causing widespread disruptions in the world’s economy. Yet, the flow of silver also created wealth for states and individuals and financed cultural flourishing in many parts of the world. Ruling elites in China, the Islamic empires, and Europe used their newfound prosperity to patronize the arts and to build architectural masterpieces like the Palace of Versailles just outside Paris and the Taj Mahal in India, often as a means to legitimate vulnerable political positions. Book production and consumption soared, with some publications even finding their way across the world. Artists and writers in distant places reveled in their cultural attainments and celebrated the vitality of their ways of life. World prosperity supported cultural splendors and fostered knowledge of foreign ways, but the intellectual developments of these two centuries still remained rooted in the cultural soil of each of the different regions of the world. Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal architecture reflected Islamic precepts, and Chinese writing and painting continued to be based on their particular beliefs and traditions. Chinese and Muslim scholars remained convinced that their forms of knowledge and art were superior to those of others.
Chapter Objectives
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