Topic 3.1: European, East Asian, and Gunpowder Empires Expand

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering the expansion, administration, and decline of European, East Asian, and Gunpowder Empires from 1450 to 1750.

Gunpowder Empires

Large, multiethnic states in Southwest, Central, and South Asia—principally the Ottoman, Safavid, and Mughal Empires, along with Russia—that relied on firearms to conquer and control territories.

Armed Trade

A system of commerce where expanding empires traded goods with one another while maintaining troops and armaments at the ready to defend their right to trade.

Gutenberg Printing Press

A mid-15th-century European invention that catalyzed a substantial increase in literacy across the continent.

New Monarchies

European monarchies in the 1500s—such as the Tudors in England, the Valois in France, and Isabella and Ferdinand in Spain—that centralized authority by controlling taxes, the army, and aspects of religion.

Ivan IV

Known as Ivan the Terrible, the Russian ruler crowned tsar in 1547 who expanded Russian territory eastward into the khanates of Kazan, Astrakhan, and Siberia using gunpowder.

Cossacks

Bands of fierce peasant warriors hired by major Russian landowners, the Stroganovs, to fight native Siberian tribes and khans to conquer the Volga River region.

Volga River

A river emptying into the Caspian Sea that Russia captured, giving Moscow direct trade access to Persia and the Ottoman Empire without crossing Crimean Tartar territory.

Ming Dynasty

The Chinese dynasty that overthrew the Mongol Yuan Dynasty in 1368, refurbished the Great Wall, and stabilized the East Asian region until its fall in 1644.

Manchu

A people from neighboring Manchuria who seized power in China in 1644 and founded the Qing Dynasty.

Qing Dynasty

The imperial dynasty established in 1644 by the Manchu that ruled China until 1911.

Kangxi

One of China's longest-reigning Qing emperors (ruled 1661–1722), who brought stability, annexed Taiwan, Mongolia, and Central Asia, and imposed a protectorate over Tibet.

Emperor Qianlong

A Qing ruler, poet, and artist (ruled 1736–1796) who annexed Xinjiang, oversaw peak tax revenues, and rejected British requests for expanded trading rights in 1793.

Uighurs

The local Muslim population in Xinjiang who suffered mass killings during Qing annexation and were never fully incorporated into Chinese culture.

White Lotus Rebellion

A peasant uprising (1796–1804) ignited by high taxation and a desire to restore the Ming Dynasty, brutally suppressed by the Qing government with roughly 100,000 deaths.

Tamerlane

Timur the Lame, a late 14th-century Mongol-Turkic ruler based in Samarkand whose ruthless military conquests using gunpowder artillery laid the foundation for the rise of Turkic empires.

Ghazi Ideal

A model for warrior life that combined the cooperative values of nomadic culture with a devotion to serve as a holy fighter for Islam.

Ottoman Empire

The largest and longest-lived Islamic empire of the early modern era, founded by the Osman Dynasty in the 1300s and lasting until 1918.

Mehmed II

Known as the Conqueror, the Ottoman sultan (ruled 1451–1481) who used massive bronze cannons to besiege and take Constantinople in 1453, renaming it Istanbul.

Bosporus Strait

The strategic waterway controlled by Istanbul that serves as the only water passage connecting the Aegean Sea to the Black Sea.

Suleiman I

Known as Suleiman the Magnificent, the Ottoman ruler (ruled 1520–1566) under whom the empire peaked, capturing Rhodes, overrunning Hungary, and besieging Vienna.

Safavid Empire

A land-based Gunpowder Empire originating in a Sufism order in northern Azerbaijan that championed Shi'a Islam and lacked both a strong navy and natural barriers.

Ismail

A military hero who conquered Persia and Iraq, proclaimed himself shah of the Safavid Empire in 1501, and strictly enforced Shi'a Islam.

Shah

The royal title equivalent to king or emperor that was used by rulers of the Safavid Empire.

Shah Abbas I

Known as Abbas the Great, the Safavid ruler (ruled 1588–1629) who presided over the empire's height, using European weapons and conscripted Christian troops from Georgia.

Trade Embargoes

Official prohibitions on commerce, employed repeatedly by the Ottoman Empire against Safavid silk merchants to assert economic superiority.

Mughal Empire

A wealthy and centrally governed state in India established in the 1520s by Babur, a descendant of Tamerlane, which lasted roughly 300 years.

Akbar

The grandson of Babur who presided over the Mughal Empire during its height, establishing a prosperous, well-administered realm with thriving overseas trade.

Castes

Strict, hereditary social groupings in India (also known as jatis) that divided Hindu society into Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas, and Shudras, with Dalits outside the hierarchy.

Battle of Lepanto

A 1571 naval battle in which a coalition composed predominantly of Spaniards and Venetians defeated the Ottoman fleet in the Mediterranean.

Harem Politics

The political intrigue and maneuvering conducted by sultans' wives and concubines to position their own children as heirs to the Ottoman throne.

Aurangzeb

The Mughal emperor (ruled 1658–1707) whose southern expansions drained the treasury, and whose strict Islamic lifestyle and intolerance toward Hindus and Sikhs sparked internal rebellions.