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These multi-ethnic empires measured their power by land, peaking through expansion with military conquests, centralized power by paying bureaucracies with taxes and tribute, and established religious political systems.
How did the era’s new empires rise to power?
These multi-ethnic empires measured their power by land, peaking through expansion with military conquests, centralized power by paying bureaucracies with taxes and tribute, and established religious political systems.
Europe
-Early Modern Period: New monarchies end feudalism by centralizing religion, taxes, & army after end of plagues, Hundred Years’ War, & increased literacy from Gutenburg press
Russia
-Battle of Kulikovo defeats Golden Horde + Center of Eastern & Western trade = Centralized politically & culturally, but ethnically diverse
Tsar Ivan IV / Ivan the Terrible: 1547-1584 annexed Kazan, Astrakhan, & Siberia khanates w/ increasing reliance on gunpowder
Volga River: Stroganovs (landowners) directed Cossacks (peasant warriors) to fight local tribes & Siberian khan, controlling trade w/ Persia & Ottoman Empire in Caspian Sea w/o interaction of Crimean Tartars
1639: reached Pacific Ocean, converting many to Eastern Orthodox w/ continued influence of shamans
Peter I / Peter the Great: Demonstrated legitimacy over power-hungry Eastern Orthodox Church & Boyars by confining boyar sister Sophia in convent & integrating her army into gov.
Reforms: Paid provincial leaders & Senate; Banned patriarch w/ Holy Synod (Clergymen above 49 overseen by secular leader) made “Defender of Orthodoxy” less trusted
St. Petersburg: New capital w/ grid layout & Winter Palace built by peasants/Swedish prisoners of war
Tax: State/Private ship/mining industries failed to fund military = Tax on heads & encouraged shipyard employment
East Asia
-Ming Dynasty defeats Yuan Dynasty in 1368 & reest. Han control, expanding into Mongolia & Central Asia & restoring & expanding Great Wall of China
-Qing Dynasty: 1644-1911 Nurhaci centralized Manchurian state & military as corrupt Ming weakens from rebellions & piracy, their alliance = Manchu capture of Beijing
Emperor Kangxi: 1661-1722 Stability & expansion into Taiwan, Mongolia, & Central Asia & protectorate in Tibet; Imperial portraits
Emperor Qianlong: 1736-1796 Poet who began rule w/ peak tax collections, local massacres in westward campaigns, adding Dalai Lama on Tibetan throne, & annexation of Xinjiang (Muslim Uighurs never assimilated)
West Conflicts: Successfully defeated Nepal, but unsuccessful & costly Vietnam/Burma campaigns = selling limited trading privileges to Europe in Guangzhou (Little demand for Euro goods)
White Lotus Rebellion: 1796-1804 Corruption & high taxes = Killing of 100,000 peasant rebels
Rise of the Islamic Gunpowder Empires
-Muslim Turkic nomads took advantage of often corrupted power vacuums left by the fractured Mongol khanates and warring European states with gunpowder weapons
Tamerlane / Timur the Lame: Mongol-Turkic ruler of late 1300s Eurasian steppes, Persia, & India w/ Ghazi Ideal, warrior life of nomadic & Islamic values
Samarkand: supported learning & architectural achievements
Military-run Gov: Protected Silk Roads, but inefficient gov. & economy from clashing b/w Mongol & Arab forces
The Ottoman Empire
-1300s-1918 Founded by Osman Dynasty & ruled over Turkey, Balkans, & some of North Africa & Southwest Asia
Conqueror, Mehmed II: 1451-1481 conquered Syria, Israel, Egypt, Algeria, & Bosporus strait, only link b/w Aegean & Black Sea
Istanbul: Capital after sacking Constantinople’s triple fortifications w/ large cannons; Center of Islam after fall of Mamluk Dynasty
Dardanelles: Water chokepoint for launching Euro campaigns
Venice: Not conquered, but forced yearly tax
Suleiman I: 1520-1566 Peak, caused fear in Europe when bombarding Hungary in 1526 & Vienna in 1529
Captured: Mediterranean crusader stronghold Island of Rhodes in 1522 & North African Tripoli in 1550s
1700s: Reform era
Decline: Weak sultans & strong European neighbors = Defeated by ~Spaniards & Venetians in Battle of Lepanto
Harem Politics: Wives/Concubines became powerful behind the scenes
The Safavids
-1501-1760 est. by Ismail of Safavid order of Sufism in northern Azerbaijan region; lacked navy & natural defenses
Shah Ismail: Conquers ~Persia into Iraq at 14-15 y/o & strict Shi’a political base denied Sunni legitimacy
Conflict w/ Ottomans: Sunni empire used trade embargoes & bans against Safavid Silk traders
Battle of Chaldiran: 1514 Ottomans end Safavid expansion into Persia at the city of Tabriz
Shah Abbas I: 1588-1629 Europeans imported & taught weaponry to captured Christian boys in army
1722: Leaders’ lavish lifestyles + military spending = weak economy + oppressed Sunni Pashtuns sack Isfahan & declare leader Mahmud Shah of Persia
1760: Replaced by Zand Dynasty
Battle of Chaldiran
-1514 Ottomans end Safavid’s expansion into Persia at the city of Tabriz, marking the border b/w present-day Iran & Iraq
Mughal India
-1520s-1800s Tamerlane’s grandson Babur conquers disordered India, est. religious tolerance
Akbar: Made ~richest & best-governed states w/ flourishing overseas trade of textiles, foods, spices, & jewels for gold & silver carried by merchant/artisan class that controlled banking
Aurangzeb: 1658-1707 hoped to expand size & rid Hinduism in India despite already corrupt & disorganized gov.
Decline: Drained treasury + Religious intolerance = Hindu uprisings increased instability = British control from Mughals
Moroccan Empire
-Took advantage of internal conflict of Songhai Empire using gunpowder weapons
