Unit 3.1 - Gunpowder Empires Expand

key terms/events and significance

Gunpowder Empires

• Definition: Refer to empires that quickly expanded their lands through the use of gunpowder weapons

• Significance: Spread from China to the rest of the world with the Mongol conquests

Printing Press

• Definition: An invention of Johannes Gutenberg (printing press)

• Significance:

  • Increase in literacy

  • 95 theses of Martin Luther were spread and mass-produced

Qing Dynasty

• Definition: In 1644, the powerful Manchu from the neighboring Manchuria seized power & established the Qing Dynasty → ruled until 1911

• Significance:

  • Kangxi (1661 - 1722): presided over a period of stability & expansion / smallpox vaccine

  • Qianlong (1736 - 1796): a poet / well-administered China & gov’s tax collection at its zenith → got corrupted → White Lotus Rebellion resulted in 100000 peasants’ deaths

Ottoman Empire

• Definition:

  • A major power extending into modern-day Turkey as well as the Balkan areas of Europe, parts of North Africa & Southeast Asia

  • Reached its peak under Suleiman I

• Significance:

  • Largest and most enduring of the great Islamic empires of this period → lasted until its defeat in 1918 by the Allies in WWI

  • Offer lots of social mobility

Mehmed II

• Definition: The Conqueror / 1451 - 1481 / Seized Constantinople (1453)

• Significance:

  • Changed the city to Istanbul - the city prospered again

  • Istanbul became the center of Islam after the Mamluk dynasty’s power declined

Suleiman I

• Definition:

  • The Ottoman Empire reached its peak under his rule (1520-1566)

  • Failed to take Vienna twice

• Significance: Ottomans’ ability to send troops as far into Christian Europe caused great fear.

Safavid Empire

• Definition:

  • Began in the Safavid order of Sufism (established in northern Azerbaijan & expanded into modern Iran)

  • Young Ismail (14/15) conquered all of Iran and was proclaimed Shah (emperor/king) in 1501

• Significance: Conflict over control of trade routes & emphasis on Shi'a Islam caused frequent hostilities with the Sunni Ottoman Empire → hostility lives on in Iran & Iraq

Mughal Empire

• Definition:

  • One of the richest & best-governed states in the world, thanks to overseas trading (with Arab traders)

  • Akbar was the most capable of the Mughal rulers and established an efficient gov & a system of fairly administered laws

• Significance:

  • Utilized the caste system to maintain power (basis of educational opportunities in Indian society)

  • Overseas trade flourished during the relatively peaceful period

  • Monumental architectural accomplishments are remaining testaments to the wealth & sophistication of the empire

Explain the decline of each of the Islamic Gunpowder Empires.

• Ottoman: European forces (mostly Spaniards & Venetians) defeated Ottomans after Suleiman's death / they fell to weak sultans and strong European neighbors / the wives and concubines tried to promote their own children → women became powerful behind the scenes

• Safavid: Ineffectual leaders / lavish lifestyles & military spending with falling revenues → weakened economy / couldn’t quell rebellion / seized by Ottomans & Russians after weakened

• Mughal: Shah Iahan’s son and successor inherited an empire weakened by corruption & failure to keep up with military innovations / drained the empire’s treasury (Aurangzeb) to expand the empire to the South / couldn’t put down peasants’ uprising / intolerance of religions → frequent rebellions & conflicts / Britain and France’s interference + gained power in India