Here are a few questions to get the conversation started.
Chapter 20:
Discuss the Similarities in the causes for decline in all of the Islamic empires in the Early Modern Period.
Explain how the decline of the Islamic Empires is related to the rise of the West.
What are some of the similarities in the problems confronting both the early modern Muslim empires and the earlier Umayyad and Abbasid empires?
Compare the social and economic organization of the Ottomans and Safavids.
What are the reasons for the failure of the Mughal Empire?
What weaknesses were common in all of the Muslim empires?
What are the causes for the failure of the Ottoman Empire?
Chapter 21:
Discuss the social or economic organization of Africa changed as a result of European contact
How did slavery impact the development of state formation in sub-Saharan Africa?
What was the demographic impact of the African slave trade on Africa and the Americas?
Chapter 22:
Compare the European intrusion into the African commercial system with their entry into the Afro-Asian trade network.
Discuss the European impact on Asian civilization during the period of early Western expansion.
Before the European arrived, what was the nature of the Asian sea trading network?
How did the Ming restore the traditional Chinese forms of government?
Why did the Chinese withdraw from commercial expansion?
Why did the Japanese resort to isolation as a response to European expansion?
