Unit 3: Land-Based Empires

Ways of the World Chapter 4: Political Transformations 

(Empires and Encounters 1450–1750)

We have entered period 2!!!

• The Americas became part of the global trade network, spurred by the Columbian Exchange. New diseases, crops, people, & cultures were distributed throughout the world. 

• Technological improvements in shipbuilding and gunpowder weapons allowed European empires to form and exercise a more prominent role in world affairs, eventually leading to colonialism. 

• Indigenous populations in the Americas died by the millions due to their exposure to previously unknown European diseases. This led to the forced migration of African people to work the sugar plantations in the New World, changing social structures & creating the Triangular Trade route. 

• New social structures emerged in the Americas based on racial hierarchies, such as those of the peninsular, Creoles, mestizos, and mulattos of the Spanish colonies. 

• Land-based empires in Asia grew to their greatest extent in the Qing Empire of China, the Mughal Empire, and the Ottoman Empire. Meanwhile, maritime powers like the Portuguese and the Dutch spread throughout the world following the voyages of Magellan, de Gama, and Columbus. 

• Social changes occurred in Europe as the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, and the Scientific Revolution challenged the power of the Catholic Church and weakened traditional bases of authority, while also creating the conditions for rapid growth in European economies and populations in later centuries.

  •  (bye bye feudalism) 

• “The Modern Age is the post-Medieval era, beginning roughly after the 14th century, a wide span of time marked in part by technological innovations, urbanization, scientific discoveries, and globalization. The Modern Age is generally split into two parts: the early and the late modern periods. Scholars often talk of the Modern Age as modernity.” 

• MODERN: Away from the medieval era

• MEMORIZE THESE

European Empires in the Americas

In what ways did European colonial empires in the Americas set in motion vast historical changes?

The European Advantage

• Geography

• Atlantic Rim countries closer to the Americas

• Economic motives

  • Marginality: motivated to look for rich markets to change their marginal status in global trade

  • needs: Americas had natural resources and productive agricultural lands for expansion

  • Rivalry: Competing European states

  • Merchants: wanted direct access to Asian wealth

  • wealth/status for impoverished nobles/commoners (no land or property to control) 

• Religion

  • missionary work with continued crusading zeal

  • freedom for persecuted minorities of Europe

  • “Gold, God, Glory”

European Colonial Empires in the Americas

Reading the Map: Which European power controlled the most territory in the Americas? Which controlled the least?

• Arround 1650 map

The European Advantage

• Mobilizing resources & technological borrowing

  • China → gunpowder, magnetic compass, sternpost rudder

  • Arabs → lateen sail

• Native American collaborators aided Europeans

  • local divisions → Native Americans were
    The bulk of forces for conquistadors

• Native Americans lacked immunity to Old World diseases → Native Americans were outnumbered within a few decades

  • Spanish reliance on the native people

The great dying & the little ice age

• Demographic collapse of Native American societies

  • pre-Columbian numbers, est. 60-80 million

  • lack of domesticated animals → no immunities to European & African diseases i.e. smallpox, measles, influenza, malaria, yellow fever

  • The Great Dying: Up to 90% of the American population died, accompanied by social breakdown

• Little Ice Age from the 13th-19th centuries

  • much cooler temps, esp. in the Northern Hemisphere as a result of natural processes & human actions

  • affected food production across the globe

• The General Crisis resulted from extreme temperatures

  • reduced harvests & severe droughts → stress on societies from famines, epidemics, wars

  • In the Americas, crop prices ↑↑, El Niño weather patterns

    • El Niño causes the Pacific jet stream to move south and spread further east. During winter, this leads to wetter conditions than usual in the Southern U.S. and warmer and drier conditions in the North. El Niño also has a strong effect on marine life off the Pacific coast.

The Columbian Exchange

• Acute labor shortage → jobs for newcomers (enslaved and free)

  • European plants & animals helped recreate the European diet in the Americas, e.g. wheat, grapes

  • African plants & fruits, e.g. rice, okra, watermelon

  • resulted in widespread deforestation (90% of old-growth forests)

• Enslaved migrants and new societies

  • Horses, pigs, cattle, goats, and sheep multiplied without natural predators → Ranching economies

  • Horses adapted into Native American tribes → Women’s important role as a food producer ↓

The Columbian Exchange

• For the first time, worldwide biological exchange resulted from the conquest of the Americas → reshaped the biological environment of the planet

  • tobacco and chocolate from America

  • Chinese tea and coffee from the Islamic world

• enormous network of communication, migration (forced & voluntary), trade, disease

• The Atlantic world finally pulled into a larger global network 

• Africa and Americas: social disruption, slavery, diseases & death in unimaginable scale

• Western Europeans: new information → Scientific Revolution; colonial wealth → Industrial Revolution

• Global shift in the balance of power

Create your American challenger poster

With your group, you are going to create a modernized representation of your “challenger” in the age of colonialism (focus on the 16th century). This can be in the format of your choosing – a baseball card, a dating show bio, an Amazon description/review, yearbook superlative, etc. Whatever you choose, your poster/card should include the following:

• Brief biography/description – where are they from? What’s their personal history?  

• Strengths/assets - what is your “challenger” bringing to the table? What weapons do they have? What are there numbers like?

• Weaknesses/flaws: what are there drawbacks? What could potentially sabotage them in their pursuits?

• PERFORMANCE – beneath this information, include a small narrative about how things will turn out for your “challenger”

The challengers will include the following:

1. The French Empire

2. The Dutch Empire

3. The British Empire

4. The Spanish Empire

5. The Portuguese Empire

6. The Aztec Empire

7. The Incan Empire

8. The Iroquois League 

Comparing Colonial Societies in the Americas

In what different ways did European colonialism take shape in the Americas?

ONTEXTUALIZATION: What historical developments enabled Europeans to carve out huge empires an ocean away from their homelands?

CONTINUITY AND CHANGE: What large-scale transformations did European empires generate in the  Americas, in Europe, and globally?

CAUSATION: How did climate fluctuations disrupt social and political stability in seventeenth-century world history?

CAUSATION: How did the Columbian exchange transform societies in the Americas?

DEVELOPMENTS AND PROCESSES: In what ways was the Columbian exchange a global phenomenon?

Comparing Colonial Societies in the Americas

In what different ways did European colonialism take shape in the Americas?

Comparing Colonial Societies in the Americas

• Colonial societies were new - composed of Native American, European, and African peoples, cultures, plants and animals

• Colonies provided precious metals (gold, silver) & closed markets - mercantilism

• Colonial societies differed based on who colonized the area, types of economy, and characters of Native American cultures that were conquered

• Native American & African women experienced colonial intrusion differently

  • transference of women to conquerors; violence and humiliation

The New World Economy

• Many European governments & monarchs adhered to a policy of mercantilism which stressed exports over imports or a favorable balance   of trade

  • Exports—--out= more money

  • imports—--in= dependent on the outside world (taxes on goods=tariffs)

  • Government controlled the market and constantly intervened to protect investments and commerce → Subsidies of export industries to give a competitive advantage in global markets

    • Subsidies: payments made to support an enterprise that a government thinks is beneficial (opposites of tariffs) 

  • Only goods and services originated in the home country could be exported and colonies’ exports must go to home country—thus colonies served as producers of raw materials for the mother country

    • Exports: a commodity, article, or service sold abroad

• Outside of western Europe, most other countries were simply dependents to the core nations through supplying metals, spices, cash crops, and slaves

• 

The benefit of mercantilism for the mother (European) country. 

In the Lands of the Aztecs and the Incas

• Spanish conquest of wealthiest, most urbanized & populated regions of the Americas → dozen major cities, universities, cathedrals, missions, political bureaucracy, int’l commerce

• Economic basis of colony

  • commercial agriculture and mining ran on mostly coerced labor from Native Americans (encomienda) –economic system 

  • hacienda system emerged in 17th century (a farming community)

    • owned by private owners who employed native workers without giving them much control over their own lives or work (due to low wages, high taxes, and large debts)

• Indigenous culture persisted with some autonomy 

  • folk magic & medicine combined w/ Christianity → syncretic religions

  • Tupac Amaru revolt (Peru, 1780-1781) - leader’s wife known as “the female Inca” - reminiscent of gender parallelism of Inca civilization

Encomienda System: a system of labor the Spanish used in the Americas; Spanish landowners had the right, as granted by Queen Isabella, to use Native Americans as laborers

In the Lands of the Aztecs and the Incas

• Distinctive social order combining Spanish class/gender hierarchies w/ multicultural peoples

  • male Spanish settlers were at the top politically and economically but were also reluctant subjects to the Spanish Crown longing for self-government

  • conflicts between land-owning Spaniards and commercial/mercantile Spanish - both criticized by missionaries for treatment of Native Americans

  • with the growth of colonial societies, peninsulares (Spaniards born in Iberia) were on top, followed by creoles (Spanish born in the Americas)

  • strict control of women as “bearers of civilization” - continuity of Iberian notion of “purity of blood” 

In the land of the aztecs and the incas

• emergence of the mestizo class of population in Mexico & Peru due to shortage of Spanish women (7 Spanish men to one Spanish woman)

  • ranked below the creole class in colonies

  • Mestizos became majority in Mexico by 19th c. but also subgrouped further into castas (caste) - source of national identity in modern Mexico

  • Mestizos were looked down upon by Spaniards during the colonial era but were economically necessary

  • Some mestizas became wealthy through marriages to rich Spaniards - ceased to be called mestizas

  • some racial fluidity- “pass” for mestizo/Spanish over time

• below mestizos were “Indians” - the Indigenous peoples of Mexico and Peru

  • grossly abused & exploited in mines/agricultural estates

  • made tribute payments to Spanish overlords

  • native religions challenged by Christian missionaries → conversions and learned to speak Spanish

  • forced resettlement and took on most aspects of Spanish culture → less rights for Indigenous women

The fifa women’s world cup & machismo

The fifa women’s world cup & machismo

It's believed that these strict gender roles, like marianismo (the opposite of machismo and directs how women should behave) are a result of Christian influence during the colonization of Latin America

Colonies of sugar

• 

• Lowland Brazil (ruled by Portugal) and the Caribbean (ruled by Spanish, British, French, and the Dutch)

• Sugar grown almost solely for export 

  • large scale sugar production pioneered by Arabs→ transferred to Mediterranean → Europeans transferred to Atlantic & Americas

• sugar production as first modern industry

  • production for international and mass market, with

  • capital and experts provided from Europe, with

  • production facilities in the Americas, with

  • massive use of enslaved labor from Africa as Native Americans wiped out or fled

• sugar transformed Brazil and the Caribbean

• 80% of enslaved peoples from Atlantic slave trade 

• horrendous working conditions with heat and fire as well as disease → 5-10% dead annually → more enslaved people imported 

• enslaved females, although less in number, factored heavily in the planting/harvesting and domestic work

Colonies of sugar

• Lowland Brazil (ruled by Portugal) and the Caribbean (ruled by Spanish, British, French, and the Dutch)

• Sugar grown almost solely for export 

  • large scale sugar production pioneered by Arabs→ transferred to Mediterranean → Europeans transferred to Atlantic & Americas

• sugar production as first modern industry

  • production for international and mass market, with

  • capital and experts provided from Europe, with

  • production facilities in the Americas, with

  • massive use of enslaved labor from Africa as Native Americans wiped out or fled

• sugar transformed Brazil and the Caribbean

• 80% of enslaved peoples from Atlantic slave trade 

• horrendous working conditions with heat and fire as well as disease → 5-10% dead annually → more enslaved people imported 

• enslaved females, although less in number, factored heavily in the planting/harvesting and domestic work

Colonies of sugar

• Racial systems

  • mixed unions made up 10% of all marriages → children (called mulattoes - derogatory term used in 1700s) worked in urban workforce or supervisors in sugar industry

  • after 300 years, descendants of enslaved peoples made up large percentages populations

• Plantation complexes emerged in the Caribbean and Brazil but extended to southern British North America

• Social outcomes differ based on location

  • less mixed unions in North America due to more white women migrating from Europe → less recognition of multicultural offspring

    • Sharp divisions between “white” Europeans, “red” Native Americans, & “black” Africans

  • enslaved Africans reproduced at greater rates in North America → less importing than Brazil/the Caribbean

  • more enslaved people voluntarily manumitted (set free) in Brazil than North America→ more job opportunities & positions in society (politics, arts, slave catchers)

  • racism existed in Brazil and North America but was more nuanced in the former than the latter

GOVERNMENT, ECONOMY AND SOCIAL AFFECTS 

The Atlantic Slave Trade

• As demand for sugar grew throughout Europe, there was an increased need of slave labor in Latin America by the mid-1500’s→ Supply & demand

  • Prior to 1450, Portugal only received about 50 slaves per year→ after 1450 that number rose to about 500 slaves per year as trade increased 

  • Between 1450-1850, it is estimated that about 12 million Africans were shipped across the Atlantic (the Middle Passage) with about 15% of them dying in transit

    • Journy to the Americas is called (1 in every 5, would have not surrived) 

• High volume of the slave trade was necessary for slave owners due to high slave mortality, low fertility, and dangerous conditions on sugar plantations and mining (mostly in Latin America) →

  •  most Atlantic slaves were men (Slaves made up 80-90% of the population in the British & French Caribbean and 25% of the population in the Southern US colonies; Brazil received about 42% of all slaves that reached the New World)

• In Africa, slaves were brought to the coast by military campaigns or purchased them at trade centers from local rulers→ both Africa & Europe collaborated on selling of Africans into bondage to foreign lands

  • Hati is the only place to have a successful slave rebellion 

• Over time, the triangular trade dominated the Atlantic system slave to the Americas, sugar/tobacco to Europe, and European manufactured products (FIREARMS) to the African coast (first image below example)

• The slave trade largely contributed to the emerging capitalism in the Atlantic world and led African economies to become dependent on European trade

The slave trade had devastating effects in Africa

• Economic incentives for warlords & tribes to engage in the slave trade promoted an atmosphere of lawlessness & violence

  • If violence is awarded, people will continue to do it 

• Depopulation & a continuing fear of captivity made economic & agricultural development almost impossible throughout much of Western Africa

• A large percentage of the people taken captive in Africa were women in their childbearing years & young men who normally would have been starting families 

  • →European slavers usually left behind persons who were elderly, disabled, or otherwise dependent (groups who were least able to contribute to the economic health of their societies)

FSettler Colonies in North America

• lands acquired by the British were considered “dregs” of the colonial world

  • North america is considered very dirty and gross but other people

• British settlers, often outsiders in their own society, came from a fast-changing, more commercial society with more rights for commoners than semi-feudal Spain → left to escape old-world society, not to recreate it

  • Puritans traveled in family units - created religious communities in New England with unlimited male authority

  • More British settlers arrived than Spanish (5:1) - diseases & military conflicts killed Indigenous people

  • Small independent farms did not require enslaved labor

  • European settler colonies lacked a large multicultural presence

King John (Greedy king, like the lion from robin hood)

• WHAT IT MEANS WHEN HISTORY SAYS “WHITE PEOPLE”

• W White

• A Anglo

• S Saxon

• P Protestant (gone after the wars of religion) 

  • Import England as well 

Settler colonies in North America

• Missionary efforts in North America

  • English settlers, mostly Protestant, were less interested in converting Native Americans than Catholic Spain

  • Church and state not tied like in Latin America

  • Greater mass literacy to read the Protestant Bible

• Local self-government traditions developed in N.A.

  • colonial activities directed by joint stock companies & wealthy individuals, not the English Crown

  • English Civil War: English monarchs vs. Parliament → colonial assemblies challenged royal governors

• Dominance of North America

  • Spanish and Portuguese domination during the colonial period was replaced with global domination of the United States in the 19th-20th centuries

Section summary: questions to consider

CONTINUITY AND CHANGE: What was the economic foundation of colonial rule in Mexico and Peru? How did it shape the kinds of societies that developed there?

CAUSATION: How did sugar transform Brazil and the Caribbean?

COMPARISON: How did the plantation societies of Brazil and the Caribbean differ from those of southern, colonies in British North America?

COMPARISON: What distinguished the British settler colonies of North America from their Spanish or Portuguese counterparts in Latin America?

COMPARISON: How was the role of religion different in the colonization of Latin America than in the colonization of North America?

Empire Building in russia & China

What were the unique strategies and the larger impact of the expanding Russian and Chinese empires during this period?

The Steppes and Siberia: 

The Making of a Russian Empire

• Factors of conquest between 1500 to 1800 (after the massacre of the Mongols)

  • Security concerns from south and east - pastoral peoples like Mongols raided Russian farming societies and took people into enslavement

  • Search for “soft gold” (fur pelts) in the east - Siberia - mostly occupied by hunger/gather/herder communities without gunpowder weapons

  • Imperial=empire 

  • Moscow=The Kremlin (present day)

• Effects of conquest

  • the promise of better social and economic life free of lords and officials while defending the Russian frontiers, bringing Christianity and civilization to “savages”

  • demands for oath of allegiance to the Russian state and for yasak (tribute) of cash or fur pelts from Siberians

  • pandemic of diseases due to lack of immunity

The Steppes and Siberia: The Making of a Russian Empire

• Pressure to convert to Christianity & Russification

  • Russification definition

    •  a form of cultural assimilation in which non-Russians, whether involuntarily or voluntarily, give up their culture and language in favor of the Russian culture and the Russian language.

  • Reasons to convert

    • tax breaks, yasak exemptions, land/cash incentives

    • destruction of mosques and Muslim resettlement

    • missionary activity pursued only if political and social stability not threatened - religious tolerance under Catherine the Great

• Westward movement due to military rivalries with major powers - Ottomans, Poland, Sweden, Prussia (modern day Germany)

  • acquired lands in the Baltic, Poland, Ukraine

  • awareness of Russian backwardness vs Europe - Peter the Great begins the Westernization program

  • creation of new capital, St. Petersburg, window to the west

  • Catherine the Great embraces Enlightenment ideals

Russia’s long term identity problem

• became a European and Asian power

• product of Mongol legacy & Slavic legacy

• borders with all the major Eurasian powers (China, India, Persia, Ottomans) → Russia becomes a highly militarized state focused on continuous war

• autocratic character with powerful monarch to hold large state & diverse peoples together 

• Russian Empire different than other European empires

  • conquered neighboring territories while building a modern Russian state

  • Russian Empire lasted until 1991

  • conquered lands have been thoroughly Russified

Into Central Asia: The Making of a Chinese Empire

• recovery after Mongol rule and the Plague during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) to become the best governed and prosperous of major civilizations

  • signs of foreign rule replaced with Confucian learning & traditional gender roles

  • creation of Encyclopedia - 11,000 volumes

  • new capital Beijing - Forbidden City - Temple of Heaven

  • civil service exam reinstated - centralized government with concentrated power with the emperor

    • Centralization of power

    • Mobgols are pastoreuls 

  • rebuild agriculture & infrastructure - reforesting

  • growth of international & domestic trade

    • Zheng He Navy is holted

  • tax payments with silver/hard currency → growing importance of transatlantic trade

    • Mines of SA colonies

  • possibility of the Chinese Indian Ocean empire later rejected

Who were the Manchus? (made up Qing Dynsasty) 

The Manchu are a Tungistic people — meaning "from Tunguska" — of Northeastern China. Originally called "Jurchens," they are the ethnic minority for whom the region of Manchuria is named. Today, they are the fifth-largest ethnic group in China, following the Han Chinese, Zhuang, Uighurs, and Hui. 

QING IS YELLOW, speearte because of ethnic groups

CONTINUITY AND CHANGE:  What does this image suggest about the process of China’s

imperial expansion?

Qing Conquests in Central Asia

Qing Dynasty (“Manchu dynasty”) last chinas dynasty before the republic 

• established mid-17th century - early 20th century

  • General Crisis and Little Ice Age impacts: violent takeover after Ming faced widespread famine & peasant rebellions

  • forbade Manchu-Chinese unions, forced Chinese men to adopt Manchu traditions (ex. queue)

  • Adopted Chinese language, Confucian teachings, & gov’t bureaucracy - gain legitimacy as a “Chinese” empire with Mandate of Heaven

• Conquest of nomads in Mongolia, Xinjiang & Tibet as a result of 80 year military expansion westward - driven by security concerns

  • The Russians did simialr things for certain reasons 

  • Treaty of Nerchinsk (1689) with Russia marked boundary between 2 empires

  • Mongolian Zunghar state incorporated into Qing Central Asian empire

• Qing expansion - “unification” of Central Asians under a Chinese state but without Sinification

  • separate oversight under Court of Colonial Affairs

  • Chinese settlers restricted from moving to conquered territories to keep central Asians from becoming “soft” - needed to recruit for Qing army

• Unfication of chiense under a state 

• Wanted to remain strong warriors on horseback 

Significance of Qing Imperial State

• minority non-Chinese became part of modern Chinese state → Sinicized (the process by which non-Chinese societies or groups are acculturated or assimilated into Chinese culture, particularly the language, societal norms, culture, and ethnic identity of the Han Chinese—the largest ethnic group of China)

  • ARE SISANCED–become chiense 

• Qing borders remained for centuries → territory expanded greatly, & population grew from some 150 million to 450 million

  • recent nationalism among Tibetans & Xinjiang based on their older identities

• integrated national economy established

• cultural accomplishments included work with jade carving, painting, & porcelain; development of jingxi (Peking opera)

• once prosperous Silk Roads-based Central Asian states became backwards & impoverished → isolationist policies of Ming & Qing

  • No international trade

  • They are stricter 

• poverty among nomads

Section summary: questions to consider

CAUSATION: What motivated Russian expansion?

CONTINUITY AND CHANGE: How did Russia’s westward expansion change Russia? What continuities remained despite these changes?

ARGUMENTATION: What evidence from the text might you use to support the claim that Russia was a “society organized for continuous war”?

COMPARISON: Compare the processes by which the Russians and Western Europeans built their empires.

CONTINUITY AND CHANGE: What changes took place in the relations between China and other states between 1450 and 1750?

COMPARISON: What were the distinctive features of Chinese empire building in the early modern era?

CAUSATION: How did the expansion of Russia and China

transform Central Asia?

Empires of the islamic world

How did Islamic empires manage their expansion and interactions with diverse cultures in this period?

The Ottoman Empire

• Ottoman Empire grew into the early modern era’s most important state through jihad -  encompassing SE Europe, the Mideast, North Africa

  • emperor as “strong sword of Islam,” caliph & ruler over Arabs & protector of Islamic Holy Lands (Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem)

  • prosperous, powerful, cosmopolitan state

  • women’s role & autonomy were limited with the adoption of Islam with the exception of the “sultanate of women” (wife/mother of the sultan) 

• Significant cross-cultural encounter

  • Anatolia’s Christians converted to Islam & spoke Turkic - 90% by 1500

  • fall of Constantinople in 1453, renamed Istanbul

• jihad= holy war

• Crusades (wars of religion)

• Arabs vs. Persians

  • PAN=ALL

  • PAN= ARAB

The Ottoman Empire

• Ottoman conquest was welcomed by Christians due to less taxes and oppression, and greater autonomy (ex. Armenian and Eastern Orthodox communities self-regulation)

  • women could appeal to Islamic courts

  • Christian men were incorporated into the Ottoman elite, without conversion to Islam

  • Jewish refugees escaping the Spanish Inquisition welcome in the Ottoman Empire

• Christians in the Balkans ruled differently than the rest of the empire because of limited Turkic settlement and religious tolerance

• Usury = banking/lending 

  • Given to the Jews (Christians were not allowed because of the New Testament)

The Ottoman Empire

• Ottoman rule became burdensome for Christians in borderlands who did not convert

  • devshirme (collecting/gathering) of young Christian boys to convert, learn Turkish, serve the state as ministers or Janissaries

• funding and administration of the empire through:

  • Timar - land & tax revenues ↔ military service 

  • tax farming system - highest bidders could collect taxes & keep a portion as income

• “terror of the Turk” inspired a defensive posture by Christian Europe but Europeans also sought alliance/trade with Ottomans

• Italian Renaissance-inspired by Islamic splendor

The Persian Safavid Empire

• Safavid Empire (1501-1736) - east of Ottomans, founded by Sufi (mystical religion) religious order

  • continuation of the 2000-year Persian tradition

  • absolute ruler is known as the “shah” 

  • trade of Persian silk and Persian carpets flourished

  • Persian culture is considered prestigious by elites throughout the Islamic world

• The Safavid empire enforced Shia Islam as the official state religion - which became associated with Persian/Iranian identity to modern-day

  • long-term political/religious divide in the Middle East over Sunni Islam vs. Shia Islam; Safavid wars with Ottomans and Mughals waged in terms of religious divide

India’s Mughal Empire

• founded by Central Asian Turks descended from Chinggis Khan and Timur

• violent conquests led to political unity (1526-1707) to an otherwise diverse land with a variety of states of different sizes, tribes, castes, sects, ethnolinguistic groups

• zamindars: extended Mughal rule through tax collection

• ruling dynasty and 20% of the population were Muslims

• Emperor Akbar - the most famous Mughal emperor

  • accommodation of the Hindu majority through tolerance and marriage with Indian princesses without converting

  • Hindus incorporated into political-military elite

  • supported the building of Hindu temples

  • eased Hindu restrictions on women (ex. sati)

  • some Muslim elite women held discreet political power 

Mughal empire

• Mughal toleration based on a blended elite culture

  • curbed power of ulama (conservitive islamic judges) and removed jizya (tax on nonmuslims) 

  • House of Worship: hosted discussions for religions

  • Akbar created short-lived, tolerant state cult→ Akbar and his successors encouraged a hybrid Indian-Persian-Turkic culture (ex. Taj Mahal)

• Mughal toleration provoked reaction among some Muslims opposing cultural synthesis→ Sufi & Hindu practices considered impure & intrusive for orthodox Islam - women blamed for this

• Emperor Aurangzeb championed curbing Hindu power & religious toleration through enforcement of sharia law, removal of non-Muslims from government

  • forbade Hindu practices (ex. sati)

  • music, dance, erstwhile tolerated vices banned 

  • some Hindu temples were destroyed - jizya reimposed

• Reaction: Hindu Maratha Confederacy challenged the Mughals from 1680 to 1707 when Aurangzeb died

  • fractured Mughal empire opened way for British

Songhay (songhai) empire

• West Africa (1460-1590)

• politically united diverse area - Sahara to Atlantic Ocean

• relied on trade of gold, salt, horses, enslaved persons

• Timbuktu and Gao largest cities

• founder/ruler Sonni Ali (1464-1492) had to balance his rural subjects’ view of him as a magician/warrior king with Islamic views of him as a Muslim leader

  • Ali & descendants faced tensions with Muslim scholars opposed to pre-Islamic traditions still being practiced in court & empire

• Timbuktu became the center of Islamic learning by 1550

• political instability, rebellions, and Islam/traditionalist conflicts weakened the empire by the 1590s

• Moroccan sultanate with gunpowder weapons overthrow

Section Summary: Questions to consider

CONTEXTUALIZATION: How might you describe the significance of the Ottoman Empire during the early modern era?

COMPARISON: Compare the Ottoman Empire’s relations with conquered people with the Spanish Empire’s relations with conquered people.

COMPARISON: How did the origins of the Safavid Empire differ from those of the Ottoman Empire?

CONTINUITY AND CHANGE: How did Mughal attitudes and policies toward Hindus change from the time of Akbar to that of Aurangzeb?

COMPARISON: Compare the political, social, and economic aspects of the Mughal and Ottoman empires.

CONTINUITY AND CHANGE: What are the continuities and changes in the way women were treated in India over the course of Mughal rule?

COMPARISON: Compare the effects of Islam on Songhay with its effects on Mughal India.