Topic 4.7: Changing Social Hierarchies

Dynamics of Imperial Rule: Rapid imperial expansion between $1450$ and $1750$ sparked both internal revolts against absolutist centralization and external resistance against colonial encroachment.
Summary of Regional Resistance:
- Portugal: Ousted from South Asian trade networks by Dutch and English competitors; confronted military resistance in south-central Africa.
- France: The Fronde civil disturbances ( $1648$ - $1653$ ) checked royal central authority.
- Russia: Faced autonomous Cossack rebellions and the Pugachev Rebellion ( $1774$ ).
- Mughal Empire: Hindu Maratha confederacy campaigns ( $1680$ - $1707$ ) broke Mughal authority, establishing the Maratha Empire.
- Spanish Empire: The Pueblo Revolt ( $1680$ ) temporarily expelled Spanish authorities and resisted forced Christianization.
- British Empire: Colonial conflicts included Metacom's War ( $1675$ - $1678$ ), the Gloucester County Rebellion ( $1663$ ), and the Jamaican Maroon Wars ( $1728$ - $1740$ ; $1795$ - $1796$ ); domestic limits were codified in the Glorious Revolution ( $1688$ - $1689$ ).

Queen Ana Nzinga: Ascended Ndongo's throne in $1624$ , initially allying with Portugal and converting to Christianity to stop Portuguese slave raids and fend off local rivals.
Resistance Strategy: When the alliance fractured, Nzinga conquered neighboring Matamba, established an autonomous base, allied with the Dutch, offered sanctuary to runaway slaves, and waged sustained resistance against Portuguese forces.

French Royal Consolidation: The chaos of the Fronde prompted King Louis XIV to permanently undercut noble autonomy, asserting absolute supremacy ("L'état, c'est moi").
Enlightened Absolutism: Frederick II of Prussia contrasted divine absolutism by characterizing himself as "the first servant of the state."
English Parliamentary Supremacy: James II's pro-Catholic policies prompted Parliament to invite William of Orange and Mary II to rule in the Glorious Revolution ( $1688$ - $1689$ ), cementing parliamentary authority and barring Catholics from the crown.

Entrenchment of Serfdom: Unlike Western Europe, peasant debt and tribute demands deepened Russian serfdom; the legal code of $1649$ tied serfs to the land under the control of boyars and village mirs.
The Cossacks: Independent bands of runaway serfs on the steppes functioned as frontier mercenaries and imperial shock troops during expansion into Siberia.
Pugachev Rebellion ( $1774$ ): Yemelyan Pugachev organized serfs and ethnic minorities in rebellion against Catherine the Great; imperial suppression resulted in tightened aristocratic control over the serfs.
Boyar Subjugation: Tsars systematically curtailed noble autonomy, epitomized by Ivan IV relocating Novgorod's boyars to Moscow under crown surveillance.

Ottoman Empire:
- Power balanced between the sultan, administrative viziers, the ulama, and Janissaries; the crown secured military loyalty via the timar system.
- Practiced relative toleration toward religious minorities, welcoming exiled Sephardic Jews after $1492$ , though non-Muslims paid the jizya and faced officeholding limits.
- Royal women exercised political leverage through "harem politics," exemplified by Roxelana during the "sultanate of the women."
- Social stratification relied on peasants and enslaved laborers, including Christian European captives and galley slaves captured by Barbary pirates.
Mughal Empire:
- Akbar the Great ( $1556$ - $1605$ ) consolidated power through institutional toleration, repealing the jizya, financing Hindu and Muslim institutions, and supporting Sikhs and Catholics.

Ethnic Rule: The Manchu retained traditional Confucian examinations and bureaucracy but preserved strict ethnic privileges and held supreme government commands.
Cultural Imposition: Mandated the Manchu braided queue for all Han men on pain of execution to enforce political submission.
Suppression of Defiance: Deployed Han defectors like General Li Chengdong and Liu Liangzuo to execute massacres against unassimilated populations.

Jewish Populations: Sephardic Jews expelled from Iberia settled throughout the Mediterranean; Ashkenazi Jews resided in Central and Eastern Europe. Toleration expanded in the Dutch Republic and during the Enlightenment, facilitating integration into banking and commerce.
French Huguenots: Calvinist Protestants faced systematic persecution by the Catholic monarchy, driving large-scale emigration.

Atlantic Network: European nautical advancements (caravel, fluyt, astrolabe) created the Atlantic System, shifting commercial primacy away from older Indian Ocean merchant networks.
Silver and Capital: Influx of American silver integrated global trade with Asia, tripling circulating bullion and inducing inflation; mercantilism expanded joint-stock companies.
Demographic Disruption: The transatlantic slave trade stripped West Africa of working-age men, creating regional gender imbalances that were later stabilized by American food crops like manioc.
Coerced Labor Systems: Included plantation chattel slavery, indentured servitude, Spanish encomienda and hacienda debt peonage, and the adapted Incan silver-mining mit'a.

Racial Stratification: Colonial Latin American hierarchy was formally organized around race and proximity to European ancestry, assigned at infant baptism and depicted in casta paintings.
Hierarchy Structure:
- Peninsulares: Iberian-born European elites holding high colonial offices.
- Criollos: American-born individuals of pure European descent owning land and mines.
- Castas: Mixed-ancestry groups ranked in descending status (mestizos, mulattoes, and zambos).
- Subjugated Base: Indigenous peoples and enslaved Africans subjected to chattel labor and the heaviest tribute burdens.