France

France was located in Western Europe

Expansion

• Capetian Kings

  • Absorbed lands by relying on relationships with lords and other landowners that died without inheritance

  • Established the right to administer justice throughout the realm

• Lords of France elected a king to rule over them

• France established a permanent army and began their spread of influence past the Alps

Legitimizing Rule

• Palace of Versailles

  • Magnificent architecture to showcase wealth and power

  • King Louis XIV used to entertain nobles and keep them under his radar so they could not conduct business elsewhere

  • All power came from one source

  • Linked Louis to the Sun God Apollo

• "Divine Right to Rule”

  • Monarchs claimed their right to rule was from God

Consolidating Power

• French kings issued taxes onto the peasants in order to establish rule over them

• Recruited armies and surrounded themselves with nobles in order to protect from uprisings

• Direct taxation on property, sales, goods, services.

  • Tax farmers implemented these tax laws

  • Taxes contributed to the wealth of the empire and to build a permanent army

Religion

• Catholic was the dominant religion

  • The Pope of the Roman Catholic Church had just as much authority as the king of France because of his influence on the people

• Protestant Reformation

  • Challenged/weakened the power of the Catholic Church in Western Europe

    • Lost millions of religious followers

  • Multiple branches of Christianity were created

    • Lutherans, Anglicans

  • Rejected traditions of the Roman Catholic Church

    • Martin Luther’s 95 Thesis

      • Rejected the selling of indulgences (forgiveness of sins)

      • Against practice of simony (buying or selling of church positions)

    • John Wycliff

      • Individuals do not need priests to obtain salvation

      • Bible should be available in language other than Latin

  • Religious Wars

    • 30 Years War

    • Between Protestants and Catholics

  • Catholic Church Reform

    • Reformed or reaffirmed various church teachings and practices

    • Priests were better educated and seminaries were established

    • Focus on spread of Catholicism worldwide

      • Jesuit missionaries

        • Highly educated and devoted catholic missionaries

        • Effective in global spread of Christianity to the Americas, Africa, and Asia

Inca

The Inca controlled a large portion of western South America including parts of modern-day Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, and Argentina. The empire stretched from the Andes Mountains to the Pacific Ocean

Expansion

• Pachacuti, a ruler of Inca, launched multiple military campaigns which expanded Inca territories

• Gained control of Chimu, a coastal kingdom, that gave water access for irrigation

Legitimizing Rule

• The Inca people considered their rulers as deities descended form the Sun.

• Rulers ruled as absolute rulers

• Incan Sun Temple at Cuzco

  • The capital of the Inca Empire, Cuzco was an extravagant city that showed off their wealth by demonstrating the immense amount of resources and money it took to build it

Consolidating Power

• Bureaucrats kept track of labor services owned by locals

• Taxes supported Inca administrators who provided more stock of agricultural supplies

Aztec

Primarily controlled the central region of modern-day Mexico, spanning from the pacific to the Atlantic oceans, and reaching as far south as present-day Guatemala, encompassing most of Mesoamerica

Expansion

• Itzcóatl and Montezuma launched ambitions military campaigns and conquered Oaxaca

• Pre-existing power and reputation intimidated neighboring states and later military conquests and alliances were able to be made

• Founded Tenochitlan

• Decline of the Toltec Empire that promoted the development and migration of the Mexica (Aztecs)

Legitimizing Rule

• Aztec rulers were seen as chosen by the gods.

• The Aztecs often sacrificed animals and people to make the gods happy.

• Skilled artisans and merchants provided luxury goods for elites who were believed to have connections to deities because of their high level of knowledge

Consolidating Power

• Used complex tributary system to generate wealth

  • Territories would give goods such as crops, food, and animals

  • At certain periods of conflict, would also supply soldiers as tribute

• Triple Alliance with Texcoco and Tlacopan led to more power over other populations

  • The acting military presence, but overall there was no permanent military

  • Main objective was to extract tributes from their subjects

Songhai (Songhay) Empire

A West African empire that ruled over a large territory that included parts of modern-day Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Nigeria

Expansion

• Sunni Ali conquered neighbors and military campaigns increased the expansion of the Songhai Empire

• The weakening of the Mali Empire allowed for the Songhai people to replace the preexisting empire

• War and battle had occurred in occupy regions of immense commerce to increase the prosperity of the empire

  • Took control of multiple trading cities such as Timbuktu

Legitimizing Rule

• Askia the great promoted and advocated greatly for Islam

  • Rulers used Islam to legitimize their authority, and also contributed to the expansion of the Songhai economy

  • Major development in mosques to further promote Islam and exemplify the immense power of the empire itself

Consolidating Rule

• Naval military patrolled the Niger river

• Instilled a bureaucracy that was efficient and promoted the power and dominance of Askia the Great

• Generated wealth by taxing the trade that occurred in their territory

  • Due to large amount of Trans-saharan trade, this proved to be an effective way of generating wealth

Religion

• Islam was significantly dispersed into African regions, influencing rulers and societies to convert and unify these regions

Political Rivalries/Conflicts

• Conflict with the Moroccans

  • Moroccans turned their attention to the goldfields in the south and trade in the Songhai empire

  • Moroccans seized/conquered Songhai

  • Battle of Tondibi

    • Moroccans had gunpowder weapons while Songhai did not

    • Moroccans were victorious and Songhai’s army was destroyed

• Internal conflicts within the Songhai Empire developed within the decline of the empire

Qing/Manchu

The Ming Dynasty restored Han Chinese rule in China after the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty collapsed. The Qing Dynasy replaced the Ming Dynasty and ruled over a vast territory encompassing modern-day China, Manchuria, Mongolia, Tibet, and Taiwan

Expansion

• Ming Dynasty

  • Forced the Mongols out of China

  • Expanded the asian trade network

• The Qing Dynasty

  • Came to power after they overthrew the Ming Dynasty

  • Combined Manchu tribes into a centralized state/government

  • Military conquest in East Asia (Taiwan, Korea, and Mongolia)

Legitimizing Rule

• Forbidden City

  • Limited to government officials and the royal family to exemplify wealth and power

  • Political and ritual center of China

  • The inner court was solely dedicated to the royal family

    • The Emperor had a life of luxury conveying a snese of authority and power

• Imperial Portraits

  • Artisans composed portraits of the Qing emperors to convey their relation to Confucianism and the basis of Chinese society

    • Depicted Qing emperors with Confucian practices or as Confucian scholars, contributing to public approval

    • This was largely due to the fact that they were foreign rulers from the north

  • Rulers showed themselves as a symbol of power

• “Son of Heaven”

  • Ruler claimed he was related to or ordained by divine powers and similar religious belief figures

Consolidating Power

• Paid government bureaucracy members heftily to encourage loyalty

• Hired Confucian bureaucrats through civil service exam to make sure that they were 100% loyal to the emperor

  • Passing the civil service exam healed earn degrees, social status, and strengthen the power of the bureaucrats

• Certain times, political officials were chosen by the emperor to reassure their loyalty towards him

• In the Ming empire, the people paid taxes to the government in silver.

  • Increased taxes provided funding for the military against rebellions

Religion:

• Confucianism was still used as a method of governing in the Qing dynasty. It was used for the civil service exams and applied to the empire’s values and political systems

Safavid Empire

Ruled over Persia (modern-day Iran) and parts of the Caucasus (Western Asia) and Mesopotamia

Expansion

• Gunpowder allowed them to conquer land and expand their borders

• Force was used by Ismail

  • Ismail used troops with gunpowder and weapons to conquer lands such as Mesopotamia, Caracas, and central asia.

Legitimizing Rule

• Used Twelver Shiism to prove religious authority

  • Twelver Shiism: Belief that there were 12 imams after Muhammad

    • Was used to prove and boost religious authoirty

• Sufism promoted connection and intimacy with god

• Regulated markets, mosques, and palaces

Consolidating Power

• Shah Abbas the Great instituted the “slaves of the royal household” which helped them recover their empire by increasing the use of gunpowder and strengthening the military

• Emperors used land that they gave to peasants on a hereditary basis in return for taxes

Religion

• Shia Islam was the dominant religion in Safavid

• Safavid state forcibly imposed Shia Islam on non-Shia

Political Rivalries/Conflicts

• Safavid forced the Ottomans to change their religion

  • Very forceful towards the people and strict when governing

• Territorial rivalries for control over land and trade routes in the region also led to conflict

• Disputed land in Eastern Anatolia and Mesopotamia which both empires claimed

• Tension between Sunni and Shia Muslims in the Safavid and Ottoman empires

Ottoman Empire

Controlled vast territories spanning Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), the Balkans (Southeastern Europe), the Middle East, and North Africa (Egypt)

Expansion

• Gunpowder technology

  • Used gunpowder technology to power their conquest over territories.

  • They also used cannons to break through walls and capture Constantinople.

• Conquest of Constantinople

  • Provided trading opportunities

• Military conquest expanded the empire

Legitimizing Rule

• Art and architecture was used to demonstrate their religious and political influence

  • Suleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul was the center of art and learning.

    • Represents the power and wealth of the Ottoman Empire

    • Built a Mosque that was better than any other, specifically the Hagia Sophia

  • Topkapi Palace

  • Restoration of Constantinople buildings such as Saint Sophia

• Used Islam, specifically Sunni Islam

Consolidating Power

• Devshirme system: How Ottomans recruited the army and bureaucrats

  • Recruit young Christians and groom them into converting to Islam and becoming administrators.

  • Became part of their military force, the Janissaries

• Janissaries

  • Devshimre army that was very powerful

  • Provided a path of upward mobility and had loyalty to the sultan

  • Gunpowder technology

• Tax Farming

  • Auctioning taxation rights to the highest bidder who then collected state taxes and made payments in fixed installations

Religion

• Following Muhammad’s death, the conflict for the next leader of the empire led to the Sunni-Shia split.

  • Sunni: Believe people of the Islamic elite should choose the next successor.

  • Shia: Believed successor should be of Muhammed’s blood

• The Ottoman Empire was a Sunni dominant empire

• Millet System

  • Ottoman administration of separate religious communities that were allowed to self-govern themselves, under the overall supremacy of the Ottoman administration

Political Rivalries/Conflicts

• Ottomans were Sunni Muslims, and persecuted the Shia Muslims from the Safavid empire

  • The conflict between Sunni and Shia Muslim continued even after 1250-1400.

Mughal

Dominated the Indian subcontinent, encompassing modern-day India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh

Expansion

• Expanded by building religiously pluralistic state and also establishing a new administrative system

• Babur

  • Invaded Sultanate of Delhi and later his grandsons finished his job by making the Mughal empire stronger, bigger, and more powerful

  • Akbar issued military campaigns that helped take over Gujarat, Genal, and the defeated kingdom of Vijayanagar

• Invaded from central Asia to Northern India and regions around them

Legitimizing Rule

• Taj Mahal

  • Buit by Shah Jahan as a burial site for his late wife

  • Built to legitimize their rule through its use of extravagant and luxurious materials and architecture

  • Used as a burial site

  • Shows the inclusion of different religions (syncretism) such as Islam and Hinduism

  • Made of white marble that shows their wealth

• Mausoleums

• Jahangir Painting

  • Used as a symbol to present connection between religions even though they are different

  • Represent emperor’s power and divine truth

Consolidating Power

• Zamindar Tax Collection

  • Zamindars: Paid government officials who were in charge of taxation, construction, and water supply

  • Nobles collected taxes from large chunks of land assigned to them

  • The land was still technically owned by the Mughals and could take this land back whenever they wished

• Rulers that commanded armies had the power to appoint or dismiss at will and adopted whatever policy they wanted

Religion

• Rulers of the Mughal empire were Muslims, but the subjects were majority Hindu

  • This led to a divide between the government and the people

• Akbar

  • Religiously tolerant and welcomed a variety of religions

  • Created a “Divine Faith” which reminded the people to focus on him as the common religion

    • Obey Akbar, but can practice own religion

  • Hoped to reduce tensions between Hindus and Muslims

• Aurangzeb

  • Not religiously tolerant

  • Promoted and enforced only Islam

  • Treated the Hindus harshly and made a heavy tax, jizyah tax, on non-Muslims

    • Dhimmi: Non-muslims who were afforded protection by the state in return for specific taxes

  • Destroyed Hindu temples and replaced them with Mosques

  • Created conflict between Muslims and Hindus

• Sikhism

  • A syncretic religion that developed as a mixture between Islam and Hindu

  • Developed to ease tension between Muslims and Hindus by combining beliefs from both religions

  • Founded by Guru Nanak

  • Emphasized gender and caste equality

  • Appeal to both Hindu and Muslim communities

Political Rivalries/Conflicts

• Mughal - Safavid Conflict

  • Safavid wanted to recapture the Afghan cities of Kabul and Kandahar, significant trading cities

    • Eventually successful in capturing Kabul and Kandahar from the Mughal forces

  • Mughals sought to expand westward and reconquer areas from their homeland that the uzbeks forced them out of

  • Both sides had gunpowder weapons

Russia

Expanded its territory across Eurasia. Conquered Siberia, the Caucasus, and parts of Central Asia

Expansion

• Czar Peter I, founded the new city called St. Petersburg which was the new capital of Russia

• Expanded the border eastward to gain control of the fur trade and trade with central Asia

• Gunpowder allowed for Russia to use complex weaponry and reinforced military behavior

Legitimizing Rule

• St. Petersburg was filled with elaborate architecture that showed their wealth and modernization.