Magellan’s circumnavigation of the world produced the first world travelers: those who had visited all parts of the globe, including the Americas. The discovery of a "New World" profoundly changed economic and political relationships across the globe as Europeans became stronger competitors within international trading networks. The great Asian empires—Ming, Ottoman, and Mughal—continued to enjoy supremacy, but the balance of military and economic might began to tip in favor of the Europeans.

Revival of Trade

In the fifteenth century, European merchants revived shattered trading networks and built new ones—particularly maritime networks in the Indian Ocean and the China Sea. In search of vast profits, European merchants explored the coast of Africa and eventually found a direct passage to Asia. At the same time, Columbus found sponsorship to try a westward route and ran into the Americas. Europeans sought converts and wealth in Asia. What they learned, however, was just how far behind Asia Europe really was.

The Revival of the Chinese Economy

Commercial activity during the Ming dynasty soared, even after the capital moved north to Beijing. A rising population, which doubled during the Ming, meant larger markets, thus stimulating economic production. Rebuilding the Grand Canal provided a link between northern and southern China and thus stimulated the growth of commercial centers along its banks. Cities became huge. Nanjing had over one million people, while Canton and Foshan alone housed more people than all the city dwellers of Europe combined.

Merchants were generally tolerated by the fifteenth century. Chinese, particularly the court, kept most (and the best) of China’s goods, but a healthy percentage of the goods made it into interregional trading networks where they were exchanged for silver. China’s burgeoning economy lacked only specie, ensuring that China’s trading partners had to supply it if they wanted to get Chinese goods. Japan supplied much of China’s silver, but that trade was later eclipsed when huge stores of American silver were discovered.

Revival of Indian Ocean Trade

Trade in the Indian Ocean also rose as Muslim merchants sailed everywhere from Africa to Southeast Asia in search of profits. In the center sat the Indian subcontinent, with its vast cities, exotic goods, and productive manufacturing centers. Indian traders, although also restrained by China’s demands for silver, did not find themselves under the thumb of any single political authority. They thus enjoyed more flexibility in long-distance trade than their Chinese counterparts. The most significant trading port in the Indian Ocean was Melaka, which bridged trade between the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. As an entrepot of world trade, Melaka possessed an extraordinarily diverse community, eventually joined by Western Europeans.

Overland Commerce and Ottoman Expansion

Overland trading did not cease with rising marine trade but, in fact, expanded along some routes. A northern route linked the Baltic Sea and northern China while a southern route brought Chinese and Indian goods through Ottoman lands into Europe. On the southern route, Aleppo in Syria dominated silk trade for all the Middle East. There, merchants held special status and were celebrated in literature for their courage and cunning in organizing enormous caravans.

Ottoman authorities showed particular interest in trade and gained considerably from it through taxes. Refreshment stations were built to accommodate merchants, their animals, and wares. Military stations protected trade from Bedouin raiders, who plundered both caravans and refreshment stations. Taxes on trade gave the Ottomans revenues for building military might and helped expansion westward across northern African into the Balkans. By the middle of the fifteenth century, the Ottomans were able to take Constantinople and rename it Istanbul.

Christendom was shocked. Ottoman expansion had taken a bastion of Christianity, threatened Venice, and controlled the Mediterranean. The spread of Ottoman control worried European merchants, who feared that they would be excluded from Asian markets just as global trade was expanding. Islamic traders were fierce rivals. European naval attacks against Ottoman control of the Mediterranean, however, failed. Europe would have to find another way to access Asia.

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